From my gondola and flat car building project, I had one more frame and deck made up so I decided to make up a caboose to go with the flat cars. I found a set of Ted Stinson drawings and started building it up. I have an extreme amount of balsa wood from my RC plane hobby as through the years as older enthusiasts have passed, ive ended up with their balsa collections. I easily have over $2000 in balsa if you went to purchase it new today and it’s probably more like $3-5000 retail so I am trying to use it to build things for the RR and this particular set of plans calls for the primary wood as balsa. Along with all the balsa I’ve collected, there’s been plenty of other dimensional woods like bass, popular, teak, and cedar as some guys also built model boats. In one box, there were lots of hard wood strips for planking and scribed wood for decking so while it’s not quite as wide as called for, I used the decking for the outside walls of the caboose. This is how much I’ve gotten done so far and will be making up the railings and ladders out of soldered brass. I also intend to have the side door slide in brass 3/16” channel imbedded into the deck and fastened inside the top edge of the door opening. I realize that the truss rod layout isn’t the same but that’s ok.  More to come.

Always nice to see modelers building, it's just the best part of the hobby for me, great job.

trainman

Looking Good. The restored original lives near me in Kent, Connecticut at the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association. It still sits on Shop trucks as they look for something suitable....

That’s great, than for the picture. Now I know how to paint it up. It actually looks like gloss red almost.

Ted Brito said:

That’s great, than for the picture. Now I know how to paint it up. It actually looks like gloss red almost.

I think the gloss wouldn't last long out in the real world.

Nice model, Ted. I just received a couple of NENG kits made by Ted Stinson after he drew the plans for GR. I don't think he ever made a kit for that caboose.

Ted Brito said:

That’s great, than for the picture. Now I know how to paint it up. It actually looks like gloss red almost.

Might be a satin.  I have no idea if this is an accurate color, or what they liked at CAMA.  This caboose is kinda like Grandfather's Axe. I'm not sure how much they actually salvaged from the original.  I know the cupola and entire frame where complete re-builds. Somewhere I have pictures early on in the process.

I’ll spray it with satin spar varnish after anyway to help with the UV and seal it better.

Jon, do you have pictures of the inside?

I went on Cama’s website and saw the restoration thread of 111. I think there’s enough there for me to make an interior.

Glad you found them.  Each time I have been there the interior was off-limits. I think I missed the Fall Festival that they did interior tours.

Ted Brito said:

I’ll spray it with satin spar varnish after anyway to help with the UV and seal it better.

I think you will find that spar varnish will not hold up that well outside, I'd use a good exterior paint of a high quality, why not protect what you have built with quality materials.

trainman

https://thecraftsmanblog.com/spar-varnish-vs-regular-varnish/

The final paragraph excerpt from the provided link :

The Conclusion

What it all comes down to is protecting wood, and for exterior applications, spar varnish does a better job of it plain and simple. Just like you need the right tool for the right job you also need the right varnish for the right application. Finding the right varnish is only half the battle, though. You need to know how to apply it properly and we’ll be talking about that next week.

The main reason most finishes fail prematurely is not because of an inferior product, but because of user error. Poor preparation and application can’t be overcome by a premium product. So, tune in to learn how to get a great finish next week.

Again YMMV

Pete Thornton said:

Ted Brito said:

That’s great, than for the picture. Now I know how to paint it up. It actually looks like gloss red almost.

I think the gloss wouldn't last long out in the real world.

 

This is EXACTLY why you spray gloss as it becomes satin in a few months then becomes flat after that!

I live down by the ocean and all the boats get coats of high quality varnish (Pettits Captains Spar Varnish Is a good one) even over the paint because of the UV protection it has. The hickory wood wheels on my 32’ Oldsmobile got 14 coats of gloss put on them. I use Minwax satin spar varnish in spray cans to protect my other yard projects like paint metal ones and others with decal transfers on them. It keeps both the paint and the transfers from fading plus stops the transfers from peeling. The gondola and line shed got a couple coats of the satin spray too.

Did more work on the caboose. Painted it red than made up an interior that closely resembles the original. Because I started with a flat car already made, mine is slightly shorter than the plans so Ill also make the cupola slightly shorter. I covered the inside wall with a narrower scribed wood and also put the brass channel in so I could have a sliding baggage door. The top channel is installed with tiny screws into the tapped channel. Once it’s all painted and detailed to my liking inside, I’ll put the glazing in along with the inside window frames. Lots todo yet but it’s coming along.

Had some fun and took some liberties with the interior. Put in a cook stove, some cabinets w/sink and across from that another cabinet with a bunk. Made up the two doors, painted, then installed them. Cut a piece of 1/8” balsa for the roof and used 6 tiny flat head wood screws to hold the body to the chassis. Now to glaze the rest of the windows and start ob the cupola.

nice . . . 

Very nice Ted.  When you get it finished you should sends some pics to CAMA !

Gotten more work done on the caboose. Soldered up out of brass the end rails and the ladder. Added the steps made out of brass angle then painted all the brass parts black. Painted the trucks red oxide and painted the end platforms red. The roof got painted underneath the glued on to the car body. Got all the bottom widows glazed and the inside window frames in. Covered the roof with 1500 wet/dry paper. Made up the cupola today and painted it. Still need to put the paper roof on and glaze it. Going to cut the brass smoke stack to length and solder on the wind baffle then paint it. Didnt get any pictures of the cupola yet.

Cupola is on and added the wet/dry paper roofing. Made up the grab irons, drilled the body and CA’d them in. Painted the irons and the truss rods black. It’s pretty much done now other than lettering and another brake wheel.