Went to a swap meet/ sale and picked up a LGB Caboose,#40790, thought it was a decent deal , get it home and the dang thing is ENORMOUS, just about as long as my 50’ USAT boxcar, and probably taller. Kind of wish they actually put their “scale” on the dang box. Oh well something to sell on ebay or facebook i guess. OK rant over , back to your regularly scheduled programming
I guess that is why it was still in the box.
Pete, yes LGB scale is a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes I get stuff I can use, other times I get stuff to sell.
Rooster, didn’t Bob say something about users making blank or pointless posts, just to boost their post count?
3. Avoid off-topic, and filler posts. Stay on topic within the thread, and contribute to it. Don’t post just to increase your post count.
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/filesharing/file/view/250/img-1798-jpg)Here is a picture with a USAT 50’ boxcar behind it, still think it is quite large, but several well respected guys have said they are supposed to be that tall.
Actually Pete, that looks fine. The caboose body is the same height at the boxcar, with the cupola above the roof-line so the rear brakeman can watch the train.
well I dont feel bad now and think it was a decent deal. I will look at some old pictures for reference
It’s unfortunately too big for a Santa Fe caboose.
Models on the HO layout here:
Note how much lower the caboose roof is compared to the PS-1 boxcar. And that is your typical run of the mill 1950s 40’ boxcar. Not a Hi-Cube either.
Prototype photos would also confirm this.
That LGB caboose also is not exactly an accurate paint scheme/window arrangement/number for a CE series Santa Fe caboose. Well maybe it might be, kind of complicated as the CE-5 class were oddballs. But then again LGB is not really known for being spot on prototype accurate.
As a side note, if anyone would like to see more photos of the HO layout here is a link:
Matt,
To my eyes, your caboose looks too small.
I don’t like using models as reference for what the prototype should be. Models are compromises, and sometime out right freelanced or fantasy interpretations of what the prototype is/was like. So I would use prototype pictures for an accurate reference.
Ok I am not sure how to resize this properly but most of the pictures I have found show the caboose to be shorter than a boxcar. So I will re think and contemplate what to do with the new piece of rolling stock. Thanks
David Maynard said:
Rooster, didn’t Bob say something about users making blank or pointless posts, just to boost their post count?
3. Avoid off-topic, and filler posts. Stay on topic within the thread, and contribute to it. Don’t post just to increase your post count.
Yes Maynard he did. However we just had a conversation with Pete about the caboose in chat and I was expressing to him that I had no more to say while acknowledging his post on the forums.
Maynard, it doesn’t specifically state blank posts and it wasn’t pointless between Pete and myself. It states “off topic and filler posts”. I apologize for offending you with that post but I gave you my reasoning. We all know that EVERY post you personally make on LSC is directly on topic and my no means a filler post to boost you’re post count. Yes my post count is over 10,000 which I don’t care. However it became that high from posting many many build threads with lots of pictures and information over a “10 year” period. Keep up the good work Maynard you are more than over 1/2 way to that count in 1/4 of that time.
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Pete Lassen said:
Ok I am not sure how to resize this properly but most of the pictures I have found show the caboose to be shorter than a boxcar. So I will re think and contemplate what to do with the new piece of rolling stock. Thanks
Like I said last night Pete. Look at the bolsters and see if it’s possible to lower it. Also one other thought is the wheel size. Not familiar with LGB wheel sets but perhaps you could put a smaller diameter wheel in the trucks dropping it down a little. Also as I asked last night if you had any Aristo cars to put in front of the caboose as they tend to be a bit bigger than the USA cars.
Either way it’s a nice caboose!
Good bashing fodder. Put a new roof on it (without the cupola) and call it a MOW car of some kind.
Unless you are a proto modeler, then disregard the above. 
David Maynard said:
…So I would use prototype pictures for an accurate reference.
Took me some time to get these from my resources. Hope this is more useful.
Well. That answers that.
Thanks Matt
going to need some severe weathering to make that bright red look like that caboose.
Rooster , no Aristo cars, might have to get one to put next to it if I really dislike the size once it get on the track. but for now I am going to hang on to it and see how things look together
Pete Lassen said:
going to need some severe weathering to make that bright red look like that caboose.
The bright red paint it fine. That is the later paint scheme. Indian Red. Think 1960s and up when the Santa Fe rebuilt their caboose fleet (Ce rebuilds) There are some good online resources about the Ce rebuilds:
http://atsf.railfan.net/waycars/
http://atsf.railfan.net/waycars/ce1.html
Here is a link to the Ce-5 info (LGB chose a Ce-5)
http://atsf.railfan.net/waycars/ce5.html
Most of my Santa Fe resources are for the 1950s as that is the time period I model (HO and O scale layouts). Back then the caboose fleet were painted in the mineral red/brown paint.
Pete Lassen said:
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/filesharing/file/view/250/img-1798-jpg)Here is a picture with a USAT 50’ boxcar behind it, still think it is quite large, but several well respected guys have said they are supposed to be that tall.
Pete, just my two cents worth, but I think your initial instincts were right…that thing is enormous. If you imagine a figure of a man in the doorway of the caboose and calculate how tall he would have to be to make sense with the box car, well, he’d have to be about four feet tall!
Maybe you could cut about an inch off the bottom of the shell? But then I suppose the windows would be too low. Maybe a half-inch off the top of the shell and a half-inch off the bottom. It could be done, although I couldn’t say for sure because I never tried anything like that really.
I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.
On the other hand, how many people will actually notice how ginormous it is?
