Styrene or wood planking

[maxman]

tstage

If the white paper on top the table board is a legal-sized envelope then it's 4" wide.

Actually I was looking at whatever it is under the white paper that is about three boards wide.  At first I thought it was 8-1/2 by 11, but three 3" wide boards would have been only 7-1/2 inch.  Then again three 4" wide boards would have been 10-1/2 inch.  So I came to the conclusion that the "thing" was either a clipboard or maybe a blotter.

Of maybe the boards are a full 3 inches wide.

Estimating the width by using your hand measurement is probably just as accurate.  But you need to be carefull doing that.  Because as the lawyer said, "if the glooves don't fit you must acquit".

[DSchmitt]

tstage

The floor is somewhat darkish so it's difficult to discern the width of the actual planking.  I've seen 1 x 4 and 1 x 6 used in other caboose photos so I think either one of those widths would work just fine for the flooring.

I lightened in the photo in a photo editing program.  Cannot see  planking on floor. It is probably linoleum. 

"Between the time of its invention in 1860 and its being largely superseded by other hard floor coverings in the 1950s, linoleum was considered to be an excellent, inexpensive material for high-use areas. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was favoured in hallways and passages, and as a surround for carpet squares. However, most people associate linoleum with its common twentieth century use on kitchen floors. Its water resistance enabled easy maintenance of sanitary conditions and its resilience made standing easier and reduced breakage of dropped china."

Quote from Wikipedia

[tstage]

Good catch, maxman.  If the white paper on top the table board is a legal-sized envelope then it's 4" wide.  (I just measured one.)  And, since it's slightly wider than the width of the wood, that would make it a 1 x 4 (nominal), which is - in reality - 3/4 x 3-1/2".

I used the width of the gentlemen's right hand on the right side of the photo as the scale.  My hand is 4" wide across the palm so I figure his was probably close to that.

Tom

[maxman]

It would be easy to tell width of the table boards if you happened to know width of that paper sitting next to the lantern.

[tstage]

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas everyone.

Wayne, the AMB kit is for an ACL M-3 wood caboose:

I have yet to track down an interior photo for an actual ACL M-3 caboose but I did find one for the following SCL wood caboose and will base my interior/specs from that:

The floor is somewhat darkish so it's difficult to discern the width of the actual planking.  I've seen 1 x 4 and 1 x 6 used in other caboose photos so I think either one of those widths would work just fine for the flooring.

The wood for the table/storage bin on the right looks like 1 x 4 to me.  The horizontal wall and ceiling boards (and some of the vertical boards) are slightly smaller, which I would guess to be 1 x 3s.  The wood molding at the top of the wall looks like 1 x 6.

The groove/gap between each board on the walls and ceiling is quite pronounced so I'm wondering if something like Evergreen 2040 V-groove siding would mimic that better?  The other option might be to lay the the individual boards onto thin (0.01 thick) styrene backing and use very thin spacers between the boards to achieve that look.  One plus to doing it that way is that it would create interior floor or wall "sections" that are easier to install and/or remove.

Here is a close-up of what the shell of the caboose looks like without the exterior red walls added:

The shell floor is press-fit/keyed to the base of the walls but hasn't been glued in yet.  Once the interior flooring and wall detailing is added I'll glue that in then add the red siding.

I'd like to keep the roof "removeable" so that the interior can be viewed, if desired.  The framing around the curved roof fits snuggly (press-fit) inside the shell.  Do you think that would be enough to keep it from warping over time?

I'm mulling over and digesting your numerous suggestions, Wayne.  A lot to think about but fun, nonetheless.

Tom

[doctorwayne]

I'll preface my reply by noting that I do "get" modelling stuff that nobody will see, as there's satisfaction to be had in knowing that it's there.

However, I doubt that floorboards would be that narrow...probably more like 6".  They'd also be tongue & groove, so using sheet material with grooves cut into it will be more noticeable, but not a good representation of the prototype, as the boards should be tightly fitted together.  Staining stripwood or primed and stained styrene strip could be made to show the individual boards, as I did on this all-styrene loading dock...

...but it's meant to represent creosoted wood of varying ages, whereas the floor inside a caboose would most likely be painted.  I'd guess it would be a medium grey, a long-used and common choice for outdoor steps and porches and made to withstand both wear and moisture - ideal for use where upkeep needs to be simple.
In my opinion, strip styrene, of whatever thickness best suits your construction methods, would be the best choice.  Evergreen offers it in dimensional lumber sizes - 1"x6", 2"x6", etc.  Cement it in place, tightly fitted, then paint it.  The individual planks will likely still be visible, but definitely not so when viewed through the caboose's windows.   My arguement for using styrene rather than wood is mainly because scale wood does not have scale graining, whether it's painted or stained, as much as we try to convince ourselves that wood should look like wood.  Even models done by the pros, shown in past issues of magazines, don't look convincingly like wood, even though the model work is superb.

My views on sheetwood are the same:  the grooves cut to represent individual boards are both too wide and too deep to accurately represent any sheathing that would have been applied to a freight car, caboose, or passenger car in the days of prototype wood construction.  Sheetwood representing clapboard, shiplap, or board and batten siding can be made to look prototypical, but not when stained nor when too-lightly painted, as the wood grain patterns continue throughout the sheet with no regard to the simulation of individual planks.

I'm guessing that your model will have either a removeable roof or a removeable floor, the latter with the interior attached to it, so that your friend can appreciate the interior detail.  I've found that neither wood nor styrene will remain warp-free unless the removeable pieces can be either keyed into the main structure or somehow otherwise restrained.  Removeable roofs in particular suffer from that shortcoming.

I have removeable roofs (and rudimentary interiors necessitated by the many large windows) in my passenger cars, but they're mostly Rivarossi cars.  While I replaced the "glass" that's an integral part of the roof casting with clear styrene cemented to the interior of the cars' sides, I did retain the clip-in feature that keeps the roofs firmly in place.

On this modified Athearn caboose (with no interior), I segmented the floor by cutting the end platforms from it and cementing them to the car's body. 

This allows the scratchbuilt ladders and railings to remain undisturbed should I need interior access to repair or replace window glass.  To make the floor removeable and prevent it from warping or dropping out if the car is picked up, I cemented strips of .125"x.125" styrene inside the carbody, then drilled through the floor and into the strip material, tapping the holes in the strips so that the floor section could be affixed with screws, as seen here near the outboard ends of the trucks...

You could do either a removeable roof or floor/interior using screws, too, although the strips needed to accept the screws would either need to be disguised a bit or accepted as a necessary concession to prototypical appearance. 
For a removeable roof, I'd suggest strips, as described, cemented to the underside of the roof at the eaves, and long screws coming up through the car's floor at all four corners,  You could box-in the corners so the screws wouldn't be visible through the windows, and it's unlikely that the strips would be visible at all if painted.
A removeable floor, with attached interior, could use shorter screws, with perhaps some of the interior details (stove, bunks, or desk) cemented to the interior of the carbody, and tapped to accept the screws.  Those details would remain inside the carbody when the floor and other interior details are removed for viewing.

The difficulty of adding interior details, that will mostly go unnoticed unless a model can be disassembled, is the main reason why I stopped adding such details.  Maintaining the integrity of a car's construction is more important to me than those details, as my cars cycle on- and off- the layout regularly, and need to withstand the constant handling.
As your needs differ, I hope that my suggestions will be of some use.  I do hope that you'll share some photos, too, both during construction and when the project is complete.

Wayne

[zstripe]

Tom,

I would use real wood from Northeastern Scale Lumber. They have Ship Deck planking, doll house wood floors and many other various scribed siding that can be used. And nothing beats real wood grain. In the link I'll provide, is a very handy chart for scale lumber dimensions. I use them a lot on floors and wainscottingon buildings. I have been using Testers CreateFX stain that really makes the wood grain stand out. It is solvent base, but is very easy to use with a brush. Various colors.....I mainly use Brown and Slate Grey for an aged look, which you would see on a caboose floor:

http://www.northeasternscalelumber.com/uploads/pdfs/NESLCatalog_2013.pdf

Give link time to load....worth saving for reference.

Good Luck, on Your project! 

Frank

 

[MisterBeasley]

I've used scribed wood sheets from Northeast Scale Lumber.  They make great decking for structures and flat cars.

I've detailed a couple of cabeese, just freelance.  Instead of wood, I printed out floors and walls on my computer, using download texture images.  Try https://www.textures.com/

But, there's a problem.  The windows are very small, and even if you illuminate the caboose you're hardly going to be able to see anything inside.  (I work in HO scale, myself.  If you're in a large scale, you may have better luck.)  So, printed floors and walls work great for me.  I use the same technique for detailing structures, where the bigger windows work more in my favor.

For the interior of this City Classics Market, I also printed up the store shelves on cardstock to put on top of the floors.

Here's some real wood planking.  These Tichy flat cars came with scribed plastic decks, but I added the real wood on top to improve them.

[dstarr]

Would not a lot of cabeese have linoleum on the floors?  Which can be nicely simulated by finding a linoleum ad in a magazine, or on the web, and cutting the paper to size. 

[7j43k]

Another thought is to seal and paint the inside walls.  Then draw light pencil lines on for the vertical lines.

Also of interest is how thick the real walls were.  And whether the existing single sheet of wood from the kit matches that, or whether doubling it up would be closer.

Looking at photos and drawings of cabeese, it looks like the wall thickness would be about 4".  And one photo of a caboose with exterior vertical wood siding shows the inside with horizontal siding spaced maybe at 3".

 

Ed

[slammin]

Kappler Mill & Lumber offers scribed basswood siding. Here is alink to that page: http://www.kapplerusa.com/y2k/p-scribe.htm . They list KP003P12 that is approx 4" wide boards in HO.

[tstage]

I am interested in detailing the interior of a AMB wood caboose.  The inside will be painted a light gray.

I was hoping to find some styrene sheeting to mimic 1 x 3 & 1 x 4 planking/paneling and make installation easer.  I checked the Evergreen website but they only offer clapboard and boxcar siding.  I could use dimensional styrene, cut & glue the strips side-to-side, then paint and install it into the shell.  However, I wasn't sure if the individual planking joints would get lost under the paint.

1 x 3 & 1 x 4 wood strips are also an option.  I used Northeast Scale Lumber wood strips previously to detail the interior of a freight house and the individual boards did come out underneath the stain quite nicely.  (I would think paint would achieve a similar outcome; assuming I prime the wood before painting?)  And one plus with using wood strips would be adhering similar materials because the shell is also made of wood.

Any input or thoughts about the process is appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom