Fort Worth & Denver Caboose No. 93

Fort Worth and Denver Caboose No. 93. . This caboose rail car began its railroad service as a steel framed, single-sheathed box car for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railraod (CB&Q) around 1914. During the Second World War, the retired wooden box car was converted by the CB&Q Railroad into the Fort Worth and Denver City (FW&DC) No. 93 caboose rail car as it is today. The FW&DC railroad was a subsidiary to the CB&Q railroad. After a 1950's reorganization, the word "City" was dropped from the name and it became the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad (FW&D). , Commonly referred to as "Woodys" by employees, this wooden caboose rail car began its second tour of service around 1943. Conversion of wooden box cars into serviceable caboose cars was common practice for the railroads. Steel was costly and scarce as the Unite States involvement in the war escalated. Railroads kept their focus on new locomotive production and track right-of-way maintenance to support the war effort. , By the 1970s caboose rail cars were disappearing as railroads modernized and streamlined to save money. The nostalgic era of the caboose was replaced by the more efficient "end-of-train device", which is a small steel box with lights that can be seen on the last car of a freight train as it passes. , Bill Bragg, a local north Texas radio personality and the former voice of the State Fair of Texas' Big Tex, purchased this caboose at auction. It was to be used as a studio to broadcast a radio station for the National Museum of Communications, of which he was the founder. The radio station plans did not materialize and the caboose car was offered for sale to Irving. FW&D Caboose No. 93 has been on static display in the park since the early 1990s.