Now that the winter weather is closing in, I decided to whittle down the unbuilt kit inventory. Plus I am suffering from a caboose shortage, giving rise to the disreputable practice of caboose snatching. Digging around turned up seven cabeese, four unbuilt kits and three "projects" (train show junkers needing renovation and repaint). I picked a pair of Roundhouse kits for the first build of the season.
s.
The body is a factory paint job showing off the B&M at its New England cheapest. To save a couple of bucks on paint, only the ends of the caboose are painted in bright caboose red. The rest of the car is done in cheaper boxcar red. I glazed the windows, added the cupola hand grabs, and brush painted the safety appliances yellow. My hand looses steadiness as the years go by.
And for a later era, we have the McGinnis "bluebird" paint scheme, also a factory paint job. I used a craft store white acrylic ($.99 ) for the safety appliances, and I liked how well it covered, compared to $5.20 Floquil. I thought about dulling this down with DullCote, but most of the pix I have show the bluebird paint jobs fresh from the paint shop. So be it.
I was going to gild the lily and put brake rigging under these guys, just to see how it came out. I superglued the brake cylinder, AB valve and air tank to the bottom in accordance with the Roundhouse assembly sheet. Then I went web surfing for a picture of brake rigging. By the time I found one, the superglue was hard, and I noticed that the brake cylinders (both cars) were on backwards. So much for brake rigging. Better luck next time.
I'm also wondering about handbrakes on cabeese. These kits had two handbrake wheels, one on each end of the car. Not sure if this is prototypical. The prototype hand brakes wound up a length of chain to give a pull on the brake levers, in place of a push from the air cylinder. A chain from the B end of the car pulls in the proper direction. How does a second brake wheel on the A end of the car pull in the proper direction? As opposed to pulling in the wrong direction?
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Looking good, and the plural is cabooses. Cabeese is a joking slang.
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Are we sure? May it's like moose
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Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
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JBCA Are we sure? May it's like moose
dstarr I'm also wondering about handbrakes on cabeese. These kits had two handbrake wheels, one on each end of the car. Not sure if this is prototypical. The prototype hand brakes wound up a length of chain to give a pull on the brake levers, in place of a push from the air cylinder. A chain from the B end of the car pulls in the proper direction. How does a second brake wheel on the A end of the car pull in the proper direction? As opposed to pulling in the wrong direction?
All the cabooses I recall had a handbrake wheel and a backup valve and whistle on each platform. IIRC a lever with its pivot point in the middle was used in the rigging under the car to reverse the direction of the pull of the rod from the A end.
It was a good idea to check both ends to make sure the handbrake was released.
On my prototype they are cabins. One would be cabin. Two or more would be cabins. Easier to spell then cabooses. Some call them hacks also. Not to be confused with a career politician or do nothing state worker (coat holder). I have also heard some refer them to be crummys also. So a singular would be crumb?
BTW your cabooses, cabins, hacks, or crummys look good.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Good looking cabooses/cabeese. I prefer the plainer one personally, as it's very similar to what the equally thrifty CPR used.
dstarr ..... I'm also wondering about handbrakes on cabeese. These kits had two handbrake wheels, one on each end of the car. Not sure if this is prototypical. The prototype hand brakes wound up a length of chain to give a pull on the brake levers, in place of a push from the air cylinder. A chain from the B end of the car pulls in the proper direction. How does a second brake wheel on the A end of the car pull in the proper direction? As opposed to pulling in the wrong direction?
..... I'm also wondering about handbrakes on cabeese. These kits had two handbrake wheels, one on each end of the car. Not sure if this is prototypical. The prototype hand brakes wound up a length of chain to give a pull on the brake levers, in place of a push from the air cylinder. A chain from the B end of the car pulls in the proper direction. How does a second brake wheel on the A end of the car pull in the proper direction? As opposed to pulling in the wrong direction?
Here's one possible arrangement, with the rodding from both brake wheels connecting to the white brake lever, one at each end. (Hint: enlarge the photo as usual, then click on the enlargement for an even closer look.)
There is a separate rod for the truck at the left end of the car, although, due to the angle of the photo, it looks like it's a shadow caused by the longer brake wheel rod. All brake rigging, of course, is bent or re-aligned near the trucks to allow operation on our tighter-than-prototypical curves.
For your mis-aimed brake cylinders, simply slice them off at the mounting bracket, drill a suitably-sized hole at the location of the former mounting pin and in the mounting bracket, then use a short length of wire and a little ca to re-attach them.
Wayne
I've got about thirty cabooses in my fleet, but no cabeese.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the origins and plural of caboose and all its derivatives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caboose
All my Cabeeses flew away with the geeses!
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
I still like the term 'cabeese' even though it is not correct. Every time I see it I get a chuckle! I guess it appeals to my (perhaps) twisted sense of humour.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
"All of this, caboose? Cabeese? just proves that we're all dummies.
Those funny-lookin' things that end our freights are CRUMMIES!"
(Tag lines from a much longer "Cabooses versus cabeese," poem.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with brake vans)
The plural for caboose is "vans".
Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com
For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
The plural for Caboose should be caboosii.....
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
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Texas Zepher JBCA: Are we sure? May it's like moose Somewhere on this forum is a thread that shows root-word and like-word research on the matter that indicates the plural of caboose should be derived like moose, maning the plural is caboose. What I never understood in the evolution of the word is how the "p" ends up being a "b". My pea brain can't follow that transistion.
JBCA: Are we sure? May it's like moose
Somewhere on this forum is a thread that shows root-word and like-word research on the matter that indicates the plural of caboose should be derived like moose, maning the plural is caboose. What I never understood in the evolution of the word is how the "p" ends up being a "b". My pea brain can't follow that transistion.
Wouldn't that be "bea prain"??
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
This all reminds me of a buddy of mine whose in-laws were arguing over the pronunciation of cement. One called it "suh-ment", while the other called it "see-ment". When they asked my buddy to cast the deciding vote; "We call it concrete."
A similar "inside joke" that shows up from time to time is someone asking about where to buy "safety black" paint to paint the handrails on their old cabooses.
Your brake wheels are on backwords...
m horton Your brake wheels are on backwords...
Uh-oh. So they are. I should have noticed that during construction. Of course the wheel should face the end platform to make it easier for a man to turn it while standing on said end platform. My bad.
Caboose is from Middle Dutch "KABHUIS" which is a cabin on a ships deck sometimes used as a cookhouse, also see KABHUSE in lower German, Also called: crummy, hack, waycar, dog house, go-cart, glory wagon, van, cabin car, bobber and many other terms too profane to appear in print.
CABEESE: This particular term is universally used in an attempt at humour.
Lived in big railway town and never heard a caboose referred to as anything but a caboose.
CABOOSES is correct. I just wish I owned one.