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The following photo shows my Athearn Caboose, which I modified to be a Northern Pacific Series 1000-1049 steel caboose. These were built in the N.P.'s shops in Brainerd, Minnesota in January and February of 1951. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/markdeschane/a2a02405.jpg[/IMG] In the late 30s, the N.P. 's mechanical dept. prepared designs of several 30 foot steel cabooses, to replace the standard 24 foot wood cabeese in use since before the turn of the century. However, they were not built until 1951. One of the N.P.'s conductors stated the steel cabooses were cold, compared to the wood cabooses and therefore at least he did not like them as well. My kit-bash of the 1001 started with a standard cupola Athearn caboose. The overall length over the body end sills is approximately 1 foot short. This seemed like a good difference to overlook, so I did. The biggest difference between the Athearn stock caboose and the N.P.'s is the location, width and height of the cupola. Also, the ladders need to be moved from Athearn's normal side, to the other side and a few windows filled in and others opened up in new locations. I started by sanding off all the rivet and panel detail on the car sides, ends and on the cupola. The Athearn caboose has a riveted metal joint between the roof and the car sides, whereas the N.P.'s caboose has a radiused corner. I filled in all the windows on the Athearn car body which were not in the correct position for the N.P. caboose with pieces of styrene sheet and Squadron's green putty. Then I opened up the new windows. The old cupola opening in the roof was filled in with a sheet of styrene, filled with putty and sanded smooth. The cupola stands a foot taller and is wider than Athearn's cupola. So I sliced the cupola in two and added sheet filler to bring the cupola width right out even with the car sides and added sheet styrene to raise the cupola up. When I was satisfied with this, I cut a new hole, on location for the opening in the car body roof and glued on the cupola. With the addition of brass wire grabs and end railings made from plastic angles, all that was left was adding the smoke stack, ladders, roof walks, painting mineral red and decalling and I had a unique railroad specific model made from one of the most common cabooses available. It's not an easy conversion, but doable by most anyone whom owns a little patiences.
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