Where are the cabooses?

[Anonymous]

Howdy, folks!

I've just recently re-entered the addiction, er, hobby of model railroading. I'm impressed at the huge variety of locomotives available now as opposed to when I was a kid. I have one major gripe, though. Where are the cabooses? Depending on what railroads you like, it's difficult to impossible to find the right caboose to match that nice loco you just purchased. It gets even harder if you want ready-to-run items.

For example, I model roads local to my region such as the Central of Georgia, Southern, and L&N. There is one new kit for the CofGa by WrightTrak in two versions with no decals or pre-painting, and no ready-to-run items. The only Southern I can find is the bay window kit by Athearn, plus one kit that doesn't have trucks, couplers or detail items. Likewise, for L&N all I can find is the Athearn bay window kit. If you model the Frisco or GM&O, you're in better luck. Maybe I should switch to Sante Fe or UP? [xx(]

When the manufacturers choose the roads that they will offer in their locomotives, do they not give any thought into releasing an appropriate caboose to go with it? I would think that loco/caboose matched sets would be big sellers. Just wondering . . .

Thanks,

John

[Anonymous]

You mean like a BNSF caboose? I though I was just kidding until i did a search, seems model power makes them??? Two differnt kinds??? I think it's they make what sells rather than what existed. FRED

[Anonymous]

Lots of cabooses were replaced by FRED or EOT and I guess those applications would depend the era the loco was manufactured and what era you are doing, I think?

Any other thoughts out there?

Good point Fred.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

You mean like a BNSF caboose? I though I was just kidding until i did a search, seems model power makes them??? Two differnt kinds??? I think it's they make what sells rather than what existed. FRED

[:)] Not exactly what I meant, but that was funny. I've lost track of the number of Sante Fe and UP cabooses I've seen offered.

I understand the point about what sells, but if some of the more obscure "fallen flags" locos sell enough to justify setting up the assembly line, why not the cabooses too? I thought I read in MR that late-steam/early diesel era was the most popular period.

Maybe people just like to buy locos and run them in the switch yard.

John

[tomwatkins]

Wright Trak Models has just released a resin kit of the Southern bay window caboose in both the early ( 4 window- as built) and the later (2 window) versions. They are beautiful kits and will build up nicely.

Blue Ridge Historics,PO. box 246, Apison Tn. 37302, had resin models of the L&N's little woody and big woody cabs . I think they are still available.

Smoky Mountain Modelworks used to offer a resin Southern wood cupola caboose. I don't think it's available any longer, but if it fits your time period it's worth hunting for.

I've not built the Wright Trak bay window cab yet, but I have built the others. Like all resin kits they take some time to build, but the finished models are worth the effort.

Tom Watkins

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ACME
Maybe people just like to buy locos and run them in the switch yard.

Or set them on the shelf, or run them as pool power. I have many more locos with many more roadnames than cabooses. I buy locos sometimes because they are pretty. I even buy old "toy ones just to put on the shelf to look at. That's a U23, that's an FT... FRED

[n2mopac]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

You mean like a BNSF caboose? I though I was just kidding until i did a search, seems model power makes them??? Two differnt kinds??? I think it's they make what sells rather than what existed. FRED

These do exist. I saw my first being used in switchin at Saginaw yard in Saginaw, TX. I have also see one in mountain service in the Rockys. Cabooses, even new or newly painted ones, are extremely rare, but not completely dead yet.
Ron

[Anonymous]

There's a comment above about all the Santa Fe and UP cabooses offered. Where can you get a correct UP caboose for the 1960s era? Athearn's UP cabooses are actually either an ATSF prototype or a standard Wide Vision, neither of which ran on the UP. Centralia Car Shops had a correct UP caboose a few years ago, but that's all I know of. The Trix offering is from an earlier era I believe. If you know of correct 1960-1970 era UP cabooses offered, please, tell me where!

[Anonymous]

I might be wrong, but don't some cabooses survive as MOW cars? Surely these would be repainted in BNSF or whatever modern colours?

[Anonymous]

Outside of MOW trains, cabeese are only used these days when there is train such as a local freight or a coal run in the Appalachian Mtns. that makes lots backup moves thereby saving the conductor lots of walking from the front of the train. Additionally, the caboose protects the end of a reversing train more effectively at grade crossings than does a FRED or EOT.

[rogerhensley]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ACME - Weapons Division

Depending on what railroads you like, it's difficult to impossible to find the right caboose to match that nice loco you just purchased. It gets even harder if you want ready-to-run items.

When the manufacturers choose the roads that they will offer in their locomotives, do they not give any thought into releasing an appropriate caboose to go with it? I would think that loco/caboose matched sets would be big sellers. Just wondering . . .

It's not a matter of giving thought to what they would run with a loco. It is a matter of which of the 7,832 versions of cabin cars, cabooses, crummys or way cars that they would have to design and manufacturer. You see, almost all of the railroads have a large variety of cabooses and they changed with every shopping. As built? Nope. Same thing. They varied so much.

Would you like a NYC caboose? Ah, the B&A version? The low coupola NYC version? How about the high coupola Big four version or the Michigan Central version? Unfortunately for us, manufacturers realize that it isn't feasible to produce appropriate cabooses for every era and every style. You have to scratch-build or kit-ba***o get what you need.

[Anonymous]

can anyone tell me were I can find a ready-to -run Rock Island 1955 aproprite caboose ?

Alex in the sooner state

[Anonymous]

It is true, it can be very hard to find any ready made offerings for a given railroad, but on the good side, there are decal sets available in the correct font, size and lettering colors for practically every fallen flag and current railroad. What I have done is find the closest body style I can get, make a few modifications to make it believable for the prototype with add-on detail parts, airbru***he correct colors and then apply the decals in the right location and there you have it, the right caboose to match era. I use photographs available on the internet railroad sites to help in making alterations for the prototype. For example: I wanted the C-50 style caboose for Southern Pacific in the failed merger kodachrome paint scheme, of which only one caboose was ever painted and only two photographs exist, so it was a real challenge to even figure out what it looked like! What I would love to see from manufacterers is models of a given prototype, like the C-50's, but make things like the battery and storage boxes removable parts and include a couple variations of smokejacks, antennae and blanks to fill in windows, so matching prototype variations would be much easier for us folks that aren't talented enough for scratch-building and kitbashing.

Ken from Oregon, way out west.