AUTHORIZED HP REPAIR CENTER

Taken for the Photo Challenge group. Today's challenge was Door Knob.


The Tale of the Cowboy Caboose

Whenever someone comes into the Mojave River Valley Museum and asks what is there to see in our area, the docents are able to list a number of unique and interesting sights. But one "one of a kind site" doesn't tend to get mentioned. This sight which the docents are so used to seeing every day that they forget what is in their front yard is the drover car.
Drover is another word for cowboy. The drovers used to drive the herds from Texas to rail stops in the Midwest, especially Kansas but their work wasn't done when they got the cattle on the train cars. Drovers would ride along with the cattle and tend to the herd. They also drove the herd off the train periodically for feed and water stops. Of course they also had to drive the cattle to stockyards when they reached their destination.
At first the drovers slept in empty box cars during their ride but that was bumpy, cold and uncomfortable. Thus the drover car was born. The first drover cars were converted wooden box cars built at the Topeka Shops. The number of these first wooden drover cars were added to by specifically built wooden cars in 1908. In 1931 two batches of steel drover cars were built. The second batch of ten steel cars built that year included D932, the Mojave River Valley Museum's drover car. Sometime afterwards the number of the car was changed 932 D.
Many of these first drover cars were later configured for mixed use: passengers, freight, and mail. Some had big sliding doors installed and the windows changed. Somehow in all the changes that the drover cars went through, the 932 D remained in it's original configuration.
After World War II, the practice of hauling livestock dwindled and the drover cars were put to a new use in the Cold War. Five of the original steel drover's cars, including 932 D, were pressed into use by the Atomic Energy Commission. They housed guards on train shipments of nuclear materials. Another use of the cars was in mines. Drovers cars don't have a cupola, the second story on most cabooses used to house people watching over the train, so they could fit under ore loaders and other mining machinery.
Another unique aspect of the Santa Fe drover cars was the color that they were painted. Most Santa Fe cars were painted brown with cabooses painted red. The drover cars were painted in a kind of mix of the two colors. A color that the Mojave River Valley Museum has done a good job matching.
Inside the drover car is like a good sized RV. There are four bunk beds (one is missing in the museum's car), leather upholstered seats and two wood stoves. I, at first, thought that the stoves were sufficient to heat the car but I have read reports that on a cold night if you didn't sleep near the stoves you were better off sleeping outside. There are also facilities for hot and cold water. Hot water was probably provided by a water line that got heat off the brakes under the car, cold water was provided by an ice box that was hand filled with ice. One aspect of the drover car that was common in all passenger cars of those days but are a bit shocking to modern sensibilities is the bathroom. The toilet is, what we call in the Midwest, a "one holer." In other words it was a hole in the floor of the car with a seat on it.
In October of 1970, Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act. This act created Amtrak. May 1, 1971 was the day that Amtrak started running thus ending other railroad's passenger business. The Santa Fe had little use for drover cars after that. In 1972 Santa Fe donated the drover car, 932 D, to the Mojave River Valley Museum.
A little over a year ago a photographer came to town to take pictures of the museum's car. He said at the time that there was only one other drover car like this in the country. I went to his website and found some pictures of the other car and it was in really bad shape, stuck out in the middle of a forest and badly overgrown. So the Mojave River Valley Museum's drover car may not be the only one around but it is in the best condition and also the only one that is on public display.
The Mojave River Valley Museum in its partnership through the Desert Discovery Center and the Bureau of Land Management are looking for funds to restore our drover car. Plans are to build a shelter over the car to protect it from weather damage and then refurbish the car itself. If you have any ideas about funding, helping or just more information about the drover car call Rose Foster at the BLM at 252-6011 or Ted Weasma or me at the Mojave River Valley Museum at 256-5452.

Waiting for the work to begin, this is the car as it was before the repairs. The tow truck driver told us that he had never seen a door skin torn off by an impact. Bent and ripped, yes but this one was torn off. This accident happened less than a mile from or house. Hit by a drunk driver after running off the roadway to the edge of the shoulder to miss a head on. The drunk ran into this car just where the driver's door is hinged and the driver's left rear wheel took the major impact. This car ended up cross lanes after a spin.