"Show Us Your Caboose!"
If you ask any kid what sound a train makes odds are extremely good that he or she will give you "that" look and tell you "Choo Choo". Even though trains that went "Choo Choo" have long since gone the way of the Dodo and there are comparatively few kids who have ever seen an actual "Choo Choo" much less heard one. And yet the archetype persists. Similarly, if you ask a kid what's supposed to be on the end of the train, they'll tell you that *everybody knows* its a Caboose! Even though they too have likewise gone the way of the Dodo on most railroads.
There was a time that the lowly caboose wasn't so lowly. A classic story of the tail wagging the dog, the caboose is where the conductor sat, the real boss of the train. Along with the rear brakeman and the occasional tag-a-long rail employee or even a passenger on some roads. The caboose was the "business office" for the train. The classic color for the caboose was red, though that was far from universal and, depending on the railroad, may have ranged from boxcar red to canary yellow or any other color in between.
So My Questions For Today:
-- Does your railroad use cabooses?
-- If so, what do they look like? Are they just one type, or does your railroad have an assortment, or perhaps different types for different jobs?
-- Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it?
-- Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses?
-- Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell... :-)
As always, I'm looking forward to your comments and opinions!
John
My layout is not yet operating. I plan to have cabooses on all Santa Fe road freight trains and on the district "local"-- but not on switching within the terminal or on the Port switching railroad.
Now as far as (QUOTE) " a classic story of the tail wagging the dog"...My previous layout had a common-carrier lumber-company-owned short line that connected with the Santa Fe. The Johnston and East Texas ("JET!") had one caboose and the conductor had a canine assistant that usually accompanied the short hope from the mill to the Santa Fe interchange.
I have a caboose passenger story, but I'll let somebody else add a contribution or two first.
Plenty of cabooses can still be seen on the Hudson Highlands RR. After all, it is only 1941. An example of the company's standard version looks like this:
Also to be found on the property are a couple of newly constructed transfer cabooses, intended mainly for use around the car float/dock section of the line at Fishkill Landing.
Then too, there are the hacks used by the Hudson River & Western, the Hudson Highland's parent company. These are older and of a slightly different configuration:
CNJ831
The NWR uses cabeece, there's a resistor under them to work the signalling. Local trains also have resistors under the boxcars and hoppers, in case the hop is long enough to affect the signal and short enough the cab is more of a nuisance. They also make it easy to find the end of the train.
For my personal railroad, the City of Madison Port Authority owns one caboose, or "Office Car" because when the line first opened, the Cab was parked on a siding and that's where the main office was. That caboose is a Pointe St. Charles former CN cab, and is now used in excursions for Christmas and other special events. I'll be painting one of the Rapido/CMT excluasive models when they come out to look like this:
I'm debating whther it'll get used when shoving High-Wide cars up and down the Incline, but most of those get theirt own caboose anyway depending on where the load came from. That stuff will likely all be from the PowerPlant or the Water Treatment Plant. other cabeece might get hauled in to be worked on at the railcar rebuild and restoration, but that's not an in service caboose.
Sadly, like the real world, most of my trains will be brought up by FRED. I'm looking to build something with a two-pin plug like the ones used for steam loco-tender connections to build a removable FRED, and at a cheaper cost than the truck mounts.
-Morgan
My goal is to have at least one example of every flavor they had. Here are three:
I can't stand the idea of a train that isn't properly punctuated. Here's a G Scale bobber I pulled off with some hand painted lettering.
And a similar beastie in N scale, relegated to tourist train duty.
Looks like we're not the only ones interested in cabooses...
I also like to seek out cabooses that are now in captivity...
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Cabin cars, wood and steel, on the service track. DJ.
The New York Central (NYC) had quite a number of cabooses in their roster. The most common being the 17000-series (30-32') and the 19000-series (34') wood cabooses; their origins going back as early as the 1880s. (Some early ones were as short as 24'.) All were painted boxcar red.
With there being a height restriction along the Waterlevel Route because of tunnels (15'-3"?), the majority of NYC cabooses were "low brow" types, with the cupola offset to one end:
OTOH, routes along the Big Four (primarily OH & IN) were not subjected to tunnels and had taller cupolas (and stove pipes) center on the caboose:
As far as caboose shortages and unusual cabooses, I will lump those into one. As RRs were affected by the metal shortages due to America's involvement in WWII, the NYC was no exception. They did what all other RRs were doing and built and rebuilt cabooses out of what they had on hand.
One of my favorite NYC cabooses is this '44 "temporary" or emergency war caboose fabricated from a 40' wood boxcar:
This is the only picture (and angle) of one that I've been able to find so far. My understanding is that the NKP fabricated several of these in their own shops.
Given the fact that I like unique things, I decided to kitbash a prototype version of the above out of a MDC 40' boxcar kit:
Granted, it's just a prototype but it does give you the flavor of an emergency war caboose. All I have left to do to detail it is to add the handrails, brake detailing, and decals. Eventually I want to kitbash/scratchbuild another one with better detailing.
Surprisingly, NYC cabooses are a scarce as hen's teeth. And accurate ones even more so.
Besides the above version that I kitbashed, I have a Marklin/Trix NYC 19000-series "low brow" cupola caboose that I'm correcting the minor flaws on, according to a Feb '05 MR article written by Terry Thompson. (Sorry, no picture yet.) I also have four (4) Waterlevel Models kits and a Gloorcraft kit of the same type caboose that need to be assembled, painted, and detailed. Once I get all those corrected and/or assembled, I should have quite a nice roster of accurate early 40s NYC cabooses.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
WOW!!! Awesome work guys!!!!
I'm suprized you have not been "Mooned" yet... Ha hah ha...
Check the two weeks ago WPF for my IC&E unit, under construction. It is a a MILW bay, by Walthers, & I detailed the interior & added a few things like comm antenna & what not. It is not finished yet, more detail painting & decals to do, but it will show up here when I have it completed.
That caboose started as LaBelle kit.
And here's the HowTo I built it.
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
tstage Given the fact that I like unique things, I decided to kitbash a prototype version of the above out of a MDC 40' boxcar kit: Granted, it's just a prototype but it does give you the flavor of an emergency war caboose. All I have left to do to detail it is to add the handrails, brake detailing, and decals. Eventually I want to kitbash/scratchbuild another one with better detailing. Tom
Wow, that's pretty nice Tom, I'm impressed! It looks really good. How many more total do you plan to make, just the one more?
On the Whiskey River Railway we have a pair of cabeese that the shops modified from your typical trainset caboose. I started off with three Athearn and one Lionel cabeese, hacked the side with the least amount of windows, hacked out the side with more windows and transplanted them.
Here's the stock side, which has too many windows for my liking.
The donor side with only one window.
Sanding and trimming were needed to get the side to fit in correctly and snug.
Finished side. Paint was stripped prior to being assembled. Looks nicer without so many windows in my opinion. Braces were glued inside the body.
I chopped off the toolbox door from one of the cabooses and glued it directly onto the stock Athearn underframe's toolbox molding. This is also when I added weights to the caboose.
Another caboose with the same treatment. After further looking closely at my work I noticed this caboose has the window centered while the above caboose has the center-most window off by one panel.
Stock side of caboose. This was an old Lionel caboose. All the rivets and bodylines matched the Athearn model, so the kitbash was a success. All that remains is a red paintjob and some lettering and they're ready for service.
Tyler
Impressive stuff so far!
Well, Wolfgang's shown us his very nicely-done D&RGW long caboose, so I'll chip in with their other variety of narrow-gauge caboose - the 'shorty'
This was also from a LaBelle kit, but in resin and is running on Blackstone caboose trucks.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
jwhitten tstage: Given the fact that I like unique things, I decided to kitbash a prototype version of the above out of a MDC 40' boxcar kit: Granted, it's just a prototype but it does give you the flavor of an emergency war caboose. All I have left to do to detail it is to add the handrails, brake detailing, and decals. Eventually I want to kitbash/scratchbuild another one with better detailing. Tom Wow, that's pretty nice Tom, I'm impressed! It looks really good. How many more total do you plan to make, just the one more? John
tstage: Given the fact that I like unique things, I decided to kitbash a prototype version of the above out of a MDC 40' boxcar kit: Granted, it's just a prototype but it does give you the flavor of an emergency war caboose. All I have left to do to detail it is to add the handrails, brake detailing, and decals. Eventually I want to kitbash/scratchbuild another one with better detailing. Tom
Thanks for the kind words, John. My plans were to learn from this project and kitbash/scratchbuild a nicer and more detailed version at a later point.
I picked the MDC 40' boxcar only because it was a convenient and less expensive starting point for the project, as I was still trying to figure things out. The windows, front and rear doors, and side stairs were all absconded from a sacrificial Walthers wood caboose.
For the next version of the caboose I'll just use all styrene sheeting for the siding rather than "filling in the void" left by the removed door. (It's pretty obvious in the picture above.) I've been told that obtaining the correct prototype boxcar front and rear panels will also be a challenge.
But - Hey! What fun is a project if it isn't challenging in one way, shape, or form? The more challenging the project; the more that project holds a significant place on one's layout.
I model modern-era. Can I show you my FRED? :)
Actually I have bought one caboose. I model N scale and I bought an Athearn bay window caboose in SP. Even though I model modern-day UP. It's such a well-made model and it looks so cool, I just had to buy it. I run it on a few trains, especially on my locals. I don't care. But it's more of a testament to a well-made N scale model than specifically bowing to nostalgia.
Well, I model 1954, so I have a bunch of them, but no photos handy. But they include:
Athearn bay window, Atlas C&O style, Athearn (ex MDC) NorthEast style, Silver Streak wood/metal kits and some Boswer kits. Roadnames include my ATLANTIC CENTRAL, B&O, C&O, WM, PRR.
None are "unusual" in my mind, no special purpose or unusual designs.
Sheldon
jwhitten "Show Us Your Caboose!" So My Questions For Today: -- Does your railroad use cabooses? -- If so, what do they look like? Are they just one type, or does your railroad have an assortment, or perhaps different types for different jobs? -- Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it? -- Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses? -- Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell... :-)
_since I model with steam through diesels to teh about oh the 70's eras at different tiems, I kinda need cabooses for all my trains.They had cabooses then, so why not model the real thing?
-I prefer regular cupola cabooses. They are what is most familiar and I don't care for wide vision cupolas or side window cabooses. Never much saw them in practice onteh railroads I was familiaar with.
-Caboose shortages, of course! They can be hard to find and I'm not so good at kitbashing or re-lettering a caboose. I think I now have enough B&O and enough Chessie cabooses to go behind my engines, even if I have duplicates. D&H are Mine and my other half's initials, so we started collecting D&H. I have one loco and was lucky to quickly find one D&H caboose quicly enough to complete any set we wish to build there.
-Nope, nothing unusual. I have seen teh C&O "work in progress" or whatever they call them, but they don't appeal to me so nothing unusual.
-The only cabbose "tail" to tell is that I ran trains for while without cabooses at all as I didn;t hae any. Odd for a steamer to run without a caboose.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
The road I model had a delightful assortment of caboose styles and paint schemes over the years. Always trying to put a good face on threadbare financial resources, it wasn't at all unusual to see new paint jobs on old equipment. Here's a representative sample of the caboose fleet I've made. This would cover about a century's worth of railroading:
Some of my caboose paint/decal jobs are, uh, sometimes a bit more prototypical than others...
The Monon also had an assortment of rider cars that ran behind the engines. Some day I intend to try my hand at scratchbuilding one of these fellows
Jim
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
Here are some pictures of some that I have in my collection. Most of these are resin kits I have assembled and painted.
First up, PRR 8 wheel bobber
PRR 4 wheel bobber
Erie dunmore as owned by the Wellsville Addison & Galeton.
Nickel Plate Road
Erie Lackaanna Dunmore
Central Vermont
Shawmut railroad Bicentennial
Monongahela Bicentennial
Erie Lackawanna Bicentennial
Lehigh Valley Bicentenial
Erie Dunmore
Nice to have a thread to highlight cabooses; they have long been a favorite facet of railroading for me.
I have a couple that see a lot of track time:
This one (above) is the only piece of plastic rolling stock I own (OK, the railbus is plastic too). The caboose was made from a Kadee kit. I can only imagine the hair-raising ride that a prototype would have offered.
This one (below), I assembled from an etched brass kit. I love those kits and I can imagine a whole herd of cabooses if I had access to more of them:
Then, this one (below), is assembled from a wood kit - I think it was a Keystone kit:
My only unusual caboose story is the time I was at a 1:1 railroad museum and found some dusty old "torpedos" in the cabinet of a caboose. I told a museum employee and he went and gathered them up. Those little explosives could have made for a really bad accident if they had discharged.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
I currently use two classes of cabooses, the P&R NMa and NMb. The NMb has a cupola.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
A couple of brass models I painted a number of years ago.
jeep35 A couple of brass models I painted a number of years ago. Jim
Nice cabooses Jim, but I really like the way you did your background / backdrop. That's very nicely done! Do you have a photo page where you have more images?
Does your railroad use cabooses?
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The C&HV uses 4 men crews and therefore owns 6 cabooses.
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If so, what do they look like? Are they just one type, or does your railroad have an assortment, or perhaps different types for different jobs?
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C&HV caboose fleet consist of 4 ex Chessie(C&O) and 2 ex CR(former PC/NYC cabooses)..
Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it?
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No,but,we can lease cabooses from Chessie if the need araises.
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Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses?
No..
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Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell.
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Nothing to tell as far as caboose tales.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
This is the leftover movie prop for Repo Chick. (Yes a real movie) In the movie, this Caboose is some sort of control center filled with military people. The antenna actually done by computer special effects pops out of the of the copula of the caboose and is chased by several missiles that miss their target and explode. The movie is about a bunch of HO Scale people out of control on a model railroad layout, but they don't know they are HO scale. I don't think this movie will win any Academy Awards, not by a long shot.
steamage This is the leftover movie prop for Repo Chick. (Yes a real movie) In the movie, this Caboose is some sort of control center filled with military people. The antenna actually done by computer special effects pops out of the of the copula of the caboose and is chased by several missiles that miss their target and explode. The movie is about a bunch of HO Scale people out of control on a model railroad layout, but they don't know they are HO scale. I don't think this movie will win any Academy Awards, not by a long shot.
Okay, now we're gonna need a YouTube link... :-)
?action=view¤t=DSC0072.jpg&newest=1
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
John: Yes, my railroad does use cabooses as the period I model stops at 1970. I model the East St. Louis area so I use cabooses from TRRA, CB&Q, PRR, NYC, B&O, SRR, L&M, Litchfield & Madison, IT, A&S, MP, SSW, SP, IC, GM&O, NKP, WAB, E. St. L JCT, C&EI and C&NW. As there are so many railroads all types of cabooses are seen, such as cupola types, wide vision types, bay widow types and transfer types. I have had to scratch build and kitbash some cabooses as they are not available commercially or they are available but not prototype for that road. Besides the above roads I have over 100 cabooses on display that are not from the E. St. Louis Rail Group. I am known by our round robin group as "The Caboose Guy". As for unusual cabooses, one I scratch built is for Monongahela Connecting RR, a steel mill railroad in Pennsylvania. It was a home made one by the Moncon and is a strange looking beast, being tall and short with a gable roof! I sure do miss the caboose on the end of a train, thus I have only a passing interest in modern railroads from a modeling stand point.
The Ferroequinologist layoutconcepts@yahoo.com eBay store: Backshop Train & China Store Facebook: Model Trains, Train Sets, Buildings & Layout Concepts
John,
Thank you for the compliment. Actually the backgrounds are presenting me with something of a dilemma. The backdrops are available at just about any hobby shop and they are designed to connect together to form a longer scene. The problem is I bought them a different times and I suppose when the company manufactured them there are differences in the color of the sky. So I need to figure out a way to connect the backdrops together and blend the different sky colors into something a little more uniform. I'm leaning towards airbrushing a "white haze" to try to pull it all together. But, any ideas anyone has would gladly be considered.
jwhitten -- Does your railroad use cabooses? -- If so, what do they look like? Are they just one type, or does your railroad have an assortment, or perhaps different types for different jobs? .... See photos -- Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it? ... No shortage at all. -- Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses? .... Most of mine are common types. -- Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell... :-) ... My Bachmann steel caboose is a close replica of a CB&Q caboose. Oddly, I have never seen this Bachmann painted for Burlington. Instead Bachmann paints it for Sanat Fe and other roads. It is include in some train sets. John
-- If so, what do they look like? Are they just one type, or does your railroad have an assortment, or perhaps different types for different jobs? .... See photos
-- Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it? ... No shortage at all.
-- Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses? .... Most of mine are common types.
-- Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell... :-) ... My Bachmann steel caboose is a close replica of a CB&Q caboose. Oddly, I have never seen this Bachmann painted for Burlington. Instead Bachmann paints it for Sanat Fe and other roads. It is include in some train sets.
John ... You certainly started an interesting thread. What a wide variety of cabooses! There are some really good models here.
My "cabeese" are mostly CB&Q. I have connecting road cabooses as well.
In this photo. Closest track. branchline caboose (modified Roundhouse kit); 4 window wood mineral red (Walthers) Second track: 4 window wood chinese red (Walthers); 3 window wood (modified Roundhouse); Steel silver (modified Bachman). Third track: Wide vision (Atlas), 3 window silver (roaundhouse), GN wood caboose (wooden model); NP steel caboose (modfied Sanat Fe caboose not NP prototye).... Several of these have duplicates on my layout.
Here is the branchline caboose in action.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU