I was invited to visit an HO club layout last weekend and we spotted several goodies, including a V&T Ventilated Boxcar! Among the lot was this very interesting piece. It instantly made the "I must have one!" list. It appears to be an offset Bay-Window Caboose/Baggage/Boxcar. Has anyone ever seen such a thing? I'm searching for any info I can find on it, whether there's a real prototype, or just some crazy (hey, aren't we all) guy's Frankenstein concoction. Here are two other, yet similar photos: Isn't that just one of the coolest looking things!
-Mark
www.MarkWatson3D.com
I believe Silver Streak made that car originally - it was a wood kit with metal ends and bays. Train Miniature later made an all-plastic version, I think.
caboose
Wayne
That is a really interesting car. I think it lends credence to the oft quoted phrase that "there is a prototype for everything". It certainly has my kitbashing juices going!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
That looks like a refugee from my layout, except that mine has a one-bay hopper instead of a boxcar body...
Seriously, it looks like something that would bring up the end of a trainload of rail and ties. The box body would protect the kegs of spikes and the wired-together bundles of tie plates.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with some improbable kitbashes)
Gidday, On first glance I thought that's a "Train Miniatures" 42 ft Baywindow Supply Caboose that someone has removed the plastic cast-on detailing and fitted individual grab rails etc, but on closer inspection there appears to be a veranda, and I hope I've got the right terminology, at both ends, and the roof walk is different.
As for prototype, I have no definite answer, had a quickish search on the Model Railroader 75 Year CDs and Google images and while I didn't manage to find either your pictured caboose or the "Train Miniatures" one, when you see what was built over the years,1:1, I think it would be an extremely brave or extremely knowledgeable person to tell you "its NOT prototypical!!
Yeah it is a cool looking bit of kit and I can visualize a scatchbuilt 38 ft version at the rear of a consist behind that 4-4-0 of yours.
Cheers, The Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I have one of those cabooses, also. Mine was Santa Fe, too, I believe. While this caboose looks good in the photos of it at the engine facility, above. I always felt it was out of scale (slightly big for HO scale). It sorta looked out of place on the end of a train. Never took a scale to it to check it out; but, I always wondered if it wasn't actually OO scale?
I don't know where; or, when I got it, probably back in the 1960-70s when I was collecting HO models now and then for a "someday" layout. Since I felt it was out of scale "too Tall" for an actual caboose, I removed the trucks and turned it into a Yard Office on my layout.
It was not a Silver streak kit (had one of those also) as it was plastic. Mine must be a Train Miniatures kit, per the photos above. Although my roof looks more like the model first shown, it does not have a platform on the box car end.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
The TrainMinature plastic version was also latter sold by Walthers well into the 1990's.
Ye Old Huff and Puff still makes and sells the Silver Streak wood kit line, but the supply caboose is currently listed as "not available".
http://www.yeoldehuffnpuff.com/sstreakkits.htm
Actual prototype - good question - but I suspect the original Sliver Streak kit was based on something "real".
Sheldon
If you're looking for an interesting prototype, here's one which I last saw in New Castle Pennsylvania. The photo is from my collection, and is used with permission:
Thanks for the help everyone!
I was able to do some better searching from the info and found that the car is apparently called a "Supply Caboose", and part of early work trains.
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/trainminiature/id169.html
I still haven't been able to find any prototype info on it, but I think I have enough info and reference on the model to begin a scratch-build in N. I kinda like a single veranda version as that's rarely seen for a caboose.
Here's some more photos I was able to dig up:
(notice those looong out dated prices)
Cool!!!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Walthers also made that car as one of their "Work Train" sets (they had two different ones, in multiple RR's, including MOW), which came later than the Silver Streak and Tru-Scale set - made in plastic. I just got one of the sets off deBay a few months back (in the MOW grey set). I doubt that (in theory) they were used on a regular freight train - more likely (for the few such critters that may have really existed) that they would be on a work train where the RR was laying a new area of track (or doing major repairs, say after a big train wreck knocked out some track in the process).
My of semi-information...
Jim in Cape G.
Mark,
Interesting topic, thanks to everyone for their input, nice pictures & info!
Isn't the Walthers one set to be re-released? I thought I saw something on that a while back, & it caught my eye, but I can't remember if it had the end platforms?
Yeah, the Walthers cars I'm guessing will still be the wrong scale. ;)
Construction has begun on a Supply Caboose of the proper scale (N scale). :p
Built using styrene strip and Car Siding sheet.
Undercarriage
Basic Walls Cutting the windows by hand really takes it out of you.
The bay actually came together much easier than I feared. :)
ChadLRyan Mark, Interesting topic, thanks to everyone for their input, nice pictures & info! Isn't the Walthers one set to be re-released? I thought I saw something on that a while back, & it caught my eye, but I can't remember if it had the end platforms?
Gidday, I gather that Walthers purchased Train Miniatures in 1985 and that Walthers rehashed the Train Miniatures Work train set, shown by Mark in one of his earlier posts, because the same "supply caboose" is part of Walthers Work Train #2 set of six cars I bought some years ago.
Mark, I was slightly tongue in cheek when I said I could visualize a scratchbuilt version behind your 4-4-0, having viewed your scratchbulit box cars i wasn't doubting your abilities, just blown away with the speed and efficiency of your work shop!!
Bear, Thanks! Glad I was not dreaming that up, thanks for the info!
Yeah, Mark you are doing an excellent job! -rather very immediately like! -as Ja Bear pointed out.
It looks Great! I can't wait to see more of it!
Well I had a set back with the bay window. Once I brought everything together I realized the bays stuck out about 4 feet on each side! It looked like Dumbo, if ever a railcar could. Thankfully the fix wasn't difficult at all. Here are all the sides separate with the door details complete (perhaps you can see how much the bays extrude here). And here's the body assembled with fixed doors. After I fixed the bays, then the doors stuck out too much! (Notice how thick they are?). So, rubbed the doors on sand paper to thin them up then glued thin strip styrene in an L and made OPERATING DOORS! Here's the last two of the night on the layout (Posing next my beloved Nebraska Belt Line boxcar! ). With luck, this might be complete by tomorrow night.
Great to see someone who likes to build models!! I was under the impression building models was frowned on, today (You know, man, why would I build it when I can buy one for $40.00, ready to plop on the track and go!!)
Looking good! I might try kitbashing my own version of one.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
It's partially obscured, but it's in the back row of this family photo.
I remember saving for and finally buying this whole set when I was a teenager. They came in gray, as most of them I've seen, but also in a bright "safety orange" that looked downright unnatural.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
A fellow in our club in the Azores way back when Custer was a cadet had one of these turkeys; he used it in work train service. I never knew where it came from but, thanks to rail Mark Watson, now I do.
There was a guy in my club in Taxachusetts circa 1965 who had grafted a bay window section immediately forward of the rear platform as well as a sliding door section into the middle of a LaBelle wooden passenger car. He also confined this beast to work train service. It was an interesting car; this was rather early in my model railroading venture and there were certain things that had yet to spring to light and it did not dawn on me until much later that this may have been a freelance job as opposed to a having a prototype.
Anybody ever see anything like this before.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I'm digging your scratch-building project. Keep posting your progress.
I built one of the Silver Streak kits a while back. The bay windows make it too wide to fit through the tunnels on my layout, so (as you can see) it mostly gathers dust. I do recall that the kit included something about a prototype, but I don't remember any specifics except that it was described as a backshop project.
Regarding the Silver Streak kit, you can see that there were no end platforms and that the boxcar door had been replaced with a smaller door.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Thanks for the photos Phil. I don't think I've ever seen a roof walk with center approach boards! (Not sure what the correct term is, but "approach" works right?)
Tonight I completed the veranda. It took two attempts to get the steps correct. I had to dig out the really thin styrene sheet. Now just a few grab irons away from being ready for paint. Oh, and it needs a smoke stack too! AND an interior!!
Gidday, I presume the interior detail will include the train crews bacon and eggs cooking on the stove!
Seriously, well done to the Watson Railroad Workshops.
Cheers,The Bear.
Incredible work Mark. A true craftsman.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
The N.P. converted a few old box cars into Bay windowed cabooses. I think it may have been fairly common to do this.
Nice Work Mark!
Thanks Darren. :)
Here's the almost finished Supply Caboose taking up the rear of this entirely scratch-built freight train.
The Atlas 2-6-0 Mogul is undergoing a motor upgrade with gearhead reduction. (WHY IS THIS NOT STANDARD?!?!) Without the gearhead, the loco has two speeds; stopped and turbo. With the gearhead, it has 3 speeds; stopped, almost stopped, and PERFECT!
watch?v=nNI3 s26eVg
Great work! MDC Roundhouse used to offer freight cars of similar vintage as what you've scratch built. However, obviously, you don't need kits, anyway. Very nicely modeled!
The re-gear question has me stumped, also! You would think the manufacturers would understand this!
I had a Rivarossi Casey Jones 4-6-0 that was either stopped or running at interstellar speed! Northwest Short lines provided a re-gear kit that made it a great runner. Changing wasn't a simple process; but, doable. It's just that it shouldn't have been needed to start with!
The caboose looks great!
Great work, Mark!
I don't remember you having that much room for all those cars on your modules: were you placing cars on the track as the mogul moved?
You've almost convinced me to tender-drive my 2-6-0 when I finally get around to building it.Tender-drive looks so ugly, though (guess I could put some drapes and a fireman to help mask it)
But a moving mogul is better than a motionless mass of metal.
Thanks for showing!
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN