You see often pictures with very rusted SOO cabooses. I've bought two. They're from Atlas Trainman and a fake. After buying I discovered that this type never existed at the SOO. To make it more plausible I've tried the weathering, making rusty streaks. I've used this time mostly the felt tip pen way. And I've used a straightedge. You can see more at my How To- Weathering site.
Here're the two sides.
Which site do you like better?
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
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Depending on how old you want it to be, you can probably rust it up a bit more and maybe seal the windows. Kind of like this prototype caboose: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=586748
TONY
"If we never take the time, how can we ever have the time." - Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded)
The latest pic, with more dust and dirt.
The weathering is good on both sides. I've seen rustier ones and some that weren't rusty--but they were all Wide-Vision cabeese. Did the Soo ever even own any of the "Eastern Style Cabooses?"
This has been typical throughout the history of the hobby: manufacturers decorating cars and locomotives for roads that never owned some of the cars and locomotives--like the GG1 electrics with modern New Haven lettering and colors, or the hundreds of Santa Fe steel cabeese rolling around on model rails in livery never seen in real life. There used to be good models of the Soo WV cabooses available: my HO model RR shop was in a city with a lot of Soo Line activity and I could hardly keep the kits in stock. (Now, the wood cabooses were something else again, as they were so distinctive! I used to paint and decorate Life-Like Pennsy wood cabooses and the local Train Set modelers snapped them up like crazy.)
Yes, rusty equipment was very much in evidence everywhere for the last 20 years of the Soo's existence, sad to say. I remember how sad I felt every time I spotted one of their husky GP30s, some of which looked like they'd been plying our salty Northern Wisconsin winter highways instead of the rails! Give me the more prosperous days, when only the revenue service cars were rusty and the equipment up front and bringing up the rear was merely dirty!
Here's the prototype picture for my SOO caboose.
wedudler wrote: Here's the prototype picture for my SOO caboose.Wolfgang
Yeah, that's the way I remember them. Soo owned at least two versions of the WV caboose, maybe more, mostly with two windows per side. Note the blanked window, which was necessary because of a stretch of track where people routinely took pot-shots at lighted windows as the train rolled through at night. This is similar to the heavy screens in front of the windshields of locos used in urban areas, after some kids dropped cement blocks from overpasses, killing at least one engineer. Barbarism or anarchy--or both? Give me the days when kids stood at trackside or on overhead bridges to wave to head-end and rear-end crews...
Wolfgang,
If you want a more-prototypical SOO caboose, try Atlas' 6205-1, 6205-2 (#81 and 119, both SOO brown) or the original Atlas 1912 (#2, original red and light gray). These are all models of International extended-vision caboose cars.
The car you purchased is an Atlas Trainman C&O caboose, done in various "foobie" schemes to match the Trainman engines. There are, however, a few roads done correctly for this car if you shop carefully.
Try an online search on the above Atlas stock numbers - you may get a hit (or on eBay) for one of these three extended vision cabooses. You can also pick up a Walthers International Bay Window caboose in SOO brown - these are models of former MILW waycars. I believe SOO also acquired a few from their purchase of the MN&S in the early '80s.
Thank you for the tip. Now I knew I had bought a fake. Next time I will buy not so fast.
But this was a good way to experiment with weathering.
If you're a cheapskate (like me) you can usually track down an Athearn extended-vision caboose for a lot less than the Atlas one. Less detailed but good paint. BTW yes you're weathering is very much like the pic you showed!!
I think the railroads plated over the side windows because of a law or regulation that came into effect around 1980(?) that said that all windows had to be of a special "shatterproof" type glass that was very expensive to install. Most railroads only converted a few windows on cabooses that were really necessary, and plated over the rest to save money.
Hey Wolf for a little plausible how those cars got there,you can say the Soo picked em up cheap from the Rock.
Good weathering BTW !! Looks like most SOO stuff I have seen.
Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train
wjstix wrote:BTW there's still a fair amt of SOO stuff in use. Going by CP Rail's Pig's Eye yard in St.Paul it's not unusual to see a couple of SOO GP's or SD's on a train, sometimes in all-red and sometimes in black and red paintschemes...on runs down to the refinery in St.Paul Park they use either a brown or red and white SOO extended vision caboose. There's even a few ex-MILW MP-15AC's in orange with much of the black patching faded away to show the orange paint and "MILWAUKEE ROAD" lettering underneath.
Yep - you'll see SOO cabeese in a lot of places. There's also one used as a shove platform in Hastings, MN, others in Red Wing, Portage, Winona. For a long time the SOO/CP kept one in Sturtevant, WI on the old MILW's Southwest Div. lead. Glenwood, MN is another good place to see a few.