I noticed that the caboose for the Grafton & Upton has a freight car end instead of a hand rail. Why is that? http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=498201
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Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
This is an example of a caboose converted from a boxcar, although it is unusual to see the original end left in place. That is probably because it was a local conversion instead of a more elegant rebuilding carried out as part of a major program by a Class 1. Forty-foot boxcars were mostly obsolete for revenue service but the frame is good and modification is far cheaper than building new.
If you look at the side of the caboose you can see the slightly different panels filling in where the boxcar door would have been in the center.
John
Agreed.
Many cabooses were rebuilt from old boxcars, and there are several obvious signs that this is a custom job.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
I see what you mean. I couldn't understand why they would put boxcar ends on a caboose when it's caboose parts on a boxcar. I wonder how I would go about modelling this. Would I get a caboose and kitbash boxcar ends onto it? Decisions decisions.
Actually now that cabooses are regarded as "shoving platforms" I bet the crewmen are grateful for that windbreak! That must have been a rather unusual car given the pattern of the boxcar end. Maybe a low express reefer type of car?
Given the relative thin-ness of the prototype versus your typical plastic kit part you might want to keep your eye open for the stamped metal ends of an old Varney or Athearn metal kit.
Dave Nelson
I'd probably go the same route as the railway, cut down a boxcar kit and kitbash that.
Here is an example of a more typical boxcar-to-caboose conversion. There's no question of the car's origination. The SP had a bunch of these and similar cars, mostly converted during the late 1930s and through WWII when there was an increased need for cabooses.
Mark, awesome picture. what kind of kit or kitbash is it?
Dave, I would've thought that if there was just handrails, the crew would just sit inside the cab during bad weather and look out the window. I guess if you have to be on the platform for switching, it's good to hve a barrier.
I was planning on using a caboose for a shoving platform with a headlight and a horn because my layout is going to be a loop of track on a table top that comes apart into 3 sections (hence the name Port Able Ry.) with just 2 industries to serve. Since the loop is small, I won't have any passing sidings (ala the Lancaster Northern Railroad) and the industries are served by trailing point spurs. The train will travel engine first from the interchange and push caboose first to the interchange.
Mike Kieran Mark, awesome picture. what kind of kit or kitbash is it?
Mike, it's a Westfield kit. They have 3 SP versions, as well as for one or two other railroads. Hope you don't mind installing lots of handgrabs.
Love extra details like grabirons.
Those windows are mighty Canadian National looking.
That Grafton & Upton caboose doesn't look much like a cut-down boxcar to me. It looks more like a CN-style caboose that the G&U has modified, probably for use as a shoving platform as others have suggested.
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
From what I've read, the caboose is ex-Maine Central.
Grafton & upton
Wayne
Sperandeo That Grafton & Upton caboose doesn't look much like a cut-down boxcar to me.
That Grafton & Upton caboose doesn't look much like a cut-down boxcar to me.
Me neither.
I emailed the Grafton and Railroad railfan website for fur ther clarification about the caboose (I can't find any other contact information). So hopefully there will be some light shed on the debate.
But if it was built as a caboose, why would they have boxcar ends instead of handrails. As I said, if they were using it as a windscreen (or some kind of protection), why not just stay inside the caboose itself?
Sperandeo That Grafton & Upton caboose doesn't look much like a cut-down boxcar to me. It looks more like a CN-style caboose that the G&U has modified, probably for use as a shoving platform as others have suggested. So long, Andy
Really? It looks pretty clearly rebuilt from a boxcar to me. Look at the side panels, and the middle panel(s) directly below the cupola, where the original door would have been. The sheet metal seams are definately different there, the opening has been filled in.
The cupola itself is pretty austerely boxy, and definately looks custom fabricated.
You can see how the doors and windows for the platform have been cut out of the original end and side, and there are only stirrup steps to get up into the platform. It's pretty clear the car has been cut down in height, reassembled, platforms cut out, door opening plated over and cupola added.
Seems like nobody bothered with the link which I posted earlier, so here's an even better one, showing the caboose on the Maine Central and in Grafton & Upton paint:
Maine Central
Simply click on "Caboose 646".
Sorry, I did Wayned. I'm just wondering if it's a boxcar rebuild or a caboose with a boxcar end and why they would put one on. I think that it would be a really interesting modelling project.
Mike, there's a little more info HERE, including a photo of a model. (Go to Page 3 in the link, then scroll down about 1/3 of the page.) I also found reference to the original cars in an RMC article on MEC wide-vision cabooses. Evidently the boxcar-to-caboose conversions (there were three of them) were done by MEC subsidiary Portland Terminal.
Wow!!! Great find. That explains a lot.
Check out,in Archives, Grand trunk Western cabooses as well. They have a very interesting "homemade" boxcar transfer caboose.
Hey David,
Did you mean GTW 5072?
rsPicture.aspx?id=438710
Just as a comparison, here's a pic of a New York Central caboose that the railroad created from a wood boxcar during WW2. Note how tall the car is. It doesn't look to me much like the G&U car.
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/nyc-18657.jpg
Now that is a great kitbashing project!!!
To be honest, I originally thought that this caboose was a bay window caboose with the bay windows removed. showPicture.aspx?id=2154180