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Philosophy Friday -- Show Us Your Caboose!

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Posted by Flashwave on Thursday, January 27, 2011 3:05 PM

Late post, but I found a pic you might enjoy. CMPA's "mdern" caboose...

-Morgan

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Posted by twhite on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 10:14 PM

The Yuba River Sub uses standard 1930's-'40's Rio Grande wooden cabeese.  Mine come from both Walthers and Roundhouse.

I'd like to get some later 1940's steel ones, but finding them in anything other than brass is pretty darned impossible.

Tom

 

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Posted by jwhitten on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 8:37 PM

304live

the Repo Chick movie trailor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK9hzoong64

here is a behind the scenes look at the movie and how it was made...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpLLuTKZsts

 

Very interesting... Not sure about the movie itself, but the idea and the way it's made is very intriguing. Gives one ideas...

 

John

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by BRVRR on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:55 PM

I have several versions of cabeese on my road. Here is one of two Athearn BB Bay Window Cabeese in NYC Jade Green I use frequently. This one and its brother are lighted. I have to find a way to put markers on it (them).

 

Here is the same caboose at night:

I used brass wire wound around the axles for pickups on this one. Its brother has modified Kadee coupler springs for pickups. Details on my website.

Remember its your railroad

Allan

  Track to the BRVRR Website:  http://www.brvrr.com/

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Posted by 304live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 4:28 PM

the Repo Chick movie trailor

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK9hzoong64

 

here is a behind the scenes look at the movie and how it was made...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpLLuTKZsts

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Posted by Southwest Chief on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 3:27 PM

The markers are battery powered (AA) with a miniature on/off switch. 

If they were track powered I'd use a simple one or two function decoder to control the markers.  But to make these track powered I would have to add some form of power pickup (wipers), and I'm not a big fan of friction on the last car of a train.

 

Cutting and modifying an engineer figure is probably what I'm going to do for the cupola rider.

Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, CO
Click Here for my model train photo website

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Posted by jwhitten on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 2:10 PM

Southwest Chief

Got a request to post these here.

Intermountain Santa Fe cabeese with Tomar marker lights (HO scale):

 

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5966/caboose2.jpg

 

I'm currently on the hunt for a figure with a telephone to fit in one of the cupolas.  Would be neat to simulate the early radio system.

 

 

Do your markers turn on with the track power, or can they be independently controlled?

That's very cool, btw.

You could probably modify an engineer or fireman figure to look like someone sitting with a phone. Cut the arm off (with appropriate HO-scale anesthetic of course :-) and re-attach it in a different position and then stick a piece of wire bent like a phone receiver painted black, in its hand.

John

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by Southwest Chief on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 12:02 PM

Got a request to post these here.

Intermountain Santa Fe cabeese with Tomar marker lights (HO scale):

 

I'm currently on the hunt for a figure with a telephone to fit in one of the cupolas.  Would be neat to simulate the early radio system.

 

Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, CO
Click Here for my model train photo website

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Posted by richg1998 on Sunday, January 23, 2011 11:24 AM

Pacemaker HO 41 foot plywood caboose. Only five were made out of old wood freight cars.

I have since painted the wheels black.

The prototype.

The caboose cupola and stack are lower because of height restrictions when the NYC ran the 90 car Pacemaker frieghts.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

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Posted by Grampys Trains on Sunday, January 23, 2011 11:02 AM

LMAO, Flash. That's a good one. DJ.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Sunday, January 23, 2011 10:52 AM

The Milwaukee ran bay-window cabeese.  Here are a few on my caboose track near the roundhouse.  There's a stranger who stopped for the night, too.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by Flashwave on Sunday, January 23, 2011 3:19 AM

mononguy63

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:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/mononguy63/Model%20Railroad/DSC01182.jpg

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

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/mononguy63/10-31POTW-Brookston.jpg

Jim

If you see one, grab one of the old Revell Track cleaining cars. The cleaning head out to be metallic hard by now, so remove them, but thy don't make a bad stand-in for a reider car. Their wooden modeled, but it's easier than cutting into the side of a Troop Carrier from Walthers...

 

Grampys Trains

Cabin cars, wood and steel, on the service track. DJ.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm237/GrampysTrains/Yard%20After%20Switch%20Stands/P1030732.jpg

No no, those are Cabeece. Or if you prefer, cabooses.

That's a cabin car, those are cabooses. Just so you're clear.

-Morgan

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Posted by doctorwayne on Saturday, January 22, 2011 11:56 PM

Here's my offering, a re-worked Athearn bay window caboose:

 

Because the end platforms needed to be permanently attached due to the ladders, I sectioned the floor and secured both the ends and the centre section with screws, some of which are just visible at the corners of the underbody:

 

 

 

Here's a look at the finished end.  The screen door was done with silk screening material, sandwiched between two doors of .010" sheet styrene.

 

My next caboose project will be 9 or 10 scratchbuilt wood-sided ones, built to three different designs on the frame/floor of the Athearn Santa Fe style cupola caboose ('cause I'm too lazy to build 40 sets of steps Smile, Wink & Grin ).

 

Wayne

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Posted by G Paine on Saturday, January 22, 2011 3:59 PM

I have a few cabooses, but have not taken any pictures of most of them; here is what I have so far:

In the early 60s, MEC had a caboose shortage and built a number from old 40' box cars. MEC 646 was one I found in a photo. It is a kitbash of an Athearn 40' boxcar and a wide vision caboose.

MEC had 3 versions of these cabooses. Narrow coupla like the 646, wide vision coupla and a couple for their Portland Terminal RR subsidary that had no coupla.

MEC 556 is an older caboose made from an MDC truss rod caboose kit. The paint scheme was used prior to 1955. Boxcar red sides and red ends.  It was replaced by the yellow and green used on the 646.

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Saturday, January 22, 2011 3:40 PM

jwhitten

-- Does your railroad use cabooses?

Not a one.  However, three out of four of my railroads use brake vans.

-- 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?

The full brake vans look like 4-wheel bobbers, with platforms on both ends but no coupolas.  All black, except one assigned to the (runs occasionally) train of brand new high speed cars, which is pastel green.

There are also a wide variety of somethingorother-brakes.  That is, there's a brakeman's compartment on one end (usually) of an otherwise standard goods carrier.  This list applies to the JNR:

  • Box-brakes, 4-wheel, with and without end platforms.
  • Hopper-brake, 4 wheel, no end platform.
  • Reefer-brake, 8 wheel high speed car.
  • Container-brake, with the brake cabin replacing one of the standard five JNR domestic containers.  Very high speed car with humongous roller bearings.
  • Drop side gondola brake.  4 wheel car with the brakeman's booth in the center and open-top cargo space on both ends.
  • Pig-brake, 4 wheel double-deck stock car (aka, cruel and unusual punishment.)

Old ones and slow ones are black, some newer ones are fanciful.  The container-brake is baby blue!

-- Did your railroad ever have a "Caboose shortage"?? If so, why? And what did they do about it?

The Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo needed brake vans for its unit coal trains.  The results are un-sanctified unions between one end of an Athearn 50 ton BB hopper and one end of an Athearn bay window caboose, painted black and numbered with SeKiFu single digits.  (Of course, the coal units also include articulated hopper cars...) 

-- Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses?

Standard for the railroad, but unusual nonetheless, are the Kashimoto Forest Railway's four wheelers - something like a phone booth centered on a disconnect log truck.  There IS a prototype!  The Kiso Forest Railway was using them in 1964 (and probably for years before.)  The most unusual thing about them is that the 'phone booth' is painted red.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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Posted by rockislandnut on Saturday, January 22, 2011 3:01 PM

[image removed]

My RI caboose.

Another shot:

Yeah I know, RI never had this caboose but I do. Rest of my cabeese ( six ) sit on the side most of the time.

Wadda ya mean I'm old ? Just because I remember gasoline at 9 cents a gallon and those big coal burning steamers.

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Posted by wedudler on Saturday, January 22, 2011 12:16 PM

Here's my scratch build Track Cleaning Transfer Caboose.

Wolfgang

Pueblo & Salt Lake RR

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Posted by UncBob on Saturday, January 22, 2011 11:37 AM

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

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Posted by jwhitten on Saturday, January 22, 2011 11:21 AM

jeep35

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.

Jim

 

Why not cut the sky out of the backdrops (with a sharp hobby knife) and then paint the wall / surface your sky color and then mount the backdrops against that. Then the sky will be a nice uniform color.

 

John

 

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by Heartland Division CB&Q on Saturday, January 22, 2011 11:05 AM

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

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

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Posted by jeep35 on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:56 AM

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.

 

Jim

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Posted by The Ferroequinologist on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:33 AM

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

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Posted by Fergmiester on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:31 AM

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  

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Posted by jwhitten on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:23 AM

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... :-)

 

John

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by steamage on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:19 AM

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.

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Posted by BRAKIE on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:18 AM

Does your railroad use cabooses?

---------------------------

The C&HV uses 4 men crews and therefore owns 6 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?

-----------------------

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?

--------------------

No,but,we can lease cabooses from Chessie if the need araises.

------

Does your railroad have any "unusual" cabooses?

--------------------

No..

-------------------

Do you have any "Caboose Tales" to tell? (If so, by all means, do tell.

------------------

Nothing to tell as far as caboose tales.

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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Posted by jwhitten on Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:09 AM

jeep35

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g65/jimmyj605/DSCF0110.jpg

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?

John

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by jeep35 on Saturday, January 22, 2011 9:39 AM

A couple of brass models I painted a number of years ago.

 

Jim

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Posted by dehusman on Saturday, January 22, 2011 9:36 AM

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

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