Caption: Stopped in at Jasper at suppertime coming home from vacation. I found the 5296 making a move, setting out a BO?, on an eastbound freight. The NAR 13024 was the interesting tag-along at the rear. Finding some info on this caboose required some extra work. I finally found a photo of it on page 17 of volume 2 in the soft cover fold over The Northern Alberta Railways by Colin Hatcher. In the caption, it is mentioned that the 13024 to 13026 were the first NAR caboose to have bay windows applied. Also, that these 3 were built at their own Dunvegan shops in August 1953. In the booklet photo, the 13024 has end ladders going up and then curling down onto the roof, with a nice running board. All have been removed here. Glass in the bay windows has disappeared and the trees behind can be seen. Not a wreck though, plenty re-store-able. Could find no net info on it, thought it may have turned up as a historical item somewhere. Nifty that the NAR paint had not been modified.
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Ever nice!!!! Wish I had a spot for it.
13024 is not on any of the Trackside Guide’s preserved Canadian equipment lists. I’m guessing it had been retired from use as a caboose when you took this photo, aside from the boarded up or open windows it looks like the chimney is gone. Former NAR equipment retained by CN also received patched CN numbers and lettering almost very soon after the takeover, which 13024 lacks even three years later. Perhaps it saw use on worktrains or became a storage car in the Jasper auxiliary before eventually being scrapped?
Both other cabooses in this class have survived. 13026 is in a Westlock, AB park, and 13025 is at the Alberta Railway Museum in excellent condition, it was sandblasted, painted and re-roofed just a few years ago.
Note the toilet drain above/in front of the right wheel.