Large Scale Central

Heartland Drover's caboose

Reviews
#1

Today I received my Heartland Drovers caboose. So I thought I would share my impressions of it with you. It’s a plastic model, with a very shiny paintjob. The lettering, especially on the letter board, has some bleed to it,. The body is held onto the floor with 3 screws on each side. The screws are very visible, and detract from the appearance of the car. When I repaint the car, I will have to figure out how to disguise them so they aren’t visible.

The windows are frosted, but that helps to hide the fact that there are no interior details, except for a large rectangular protrusion molded on the floor behind the door on the back end of the caboose. Without taking it apart, I suspect it may house the wiring for the marker lamps. The marker lamps do light up, nice touch, but the lenses in them are all red. The interior lights up a bit too, but in daylight it was hard to tell. The end doors open out, and are not spring loaded, so they don’t spring close.

The wheels are the typical Heartland, ribbed backed, metal wheels on plastic axles. I have a few cars with these kind of wheels and they haven’t given me any problems, once I set them to the proper gauge. I put my wheel gauge on the caboose’s wheels and found one set was spot on, 2 sets were tight to the wide side and one set was wide. Actual measurements with a dial caliper showed 1.57, a bit over 1.58 for 2 of them and 1.59 for the widest of them. That may or may not be a problem, but when I run her through the shop, that wheel set will get fixed.

The caboose comes with hook and loop couplers, and I will upgrade it to KaDees when she is run through the shop.

The end ladders are plastic, and they have pins that fit into holes in the end beam and roof. One of the ladders has a definite bend to it. The pins the fit into the holes in the roof are too long for the blind holes they are to fit into. I think if I shorten the pins a bit, the ladder will fit just fine. The ladder hoop extensions are metal, but they are just press fit into holes in the ladder and roof. One of them fell out when I was taking wheel measurements. So they do need to be glued in before they get lost.

The grab irons on the car sides and cupola roof are plastic, but the railings on the car ends and end beam are metal. The brake wheel is plastic, on an unpainted brass staff.

I compared the Heartland caboose to the old Kalamazoo Drovers caboose, and they are the same size. I also compared the Heartland caboose to an Aristo caboose, see the pictures.

This caboose will be a nice addition to my railroad, once I repaint her and fix a few minor things. I also want to put an interior in her and clear glass in the windows. I am not sure if I will change out some of the marker light lenses for green ones or not.

#2

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Hi David:

Thank you for posting the photos.

I guess the HLW drover caboose is a reworked Kalamazoo mold. David Fletcher will know for sure.

Note that the 1:29 standard gauge steel caboose is of the approximate correct size for a 1:24 scale narrow gauge caboose. The 1:24 and 1:29 product lines were a great combined product offering to the hobbyist.

I wish that Bachmann had continued to offer additional 1:22.5 product following the addition of their 1:20.3 product line.

Norman

#7

David, from the look of it, all you need to do with that ladder is just move the pin back into the hole. If you remove any of the plastic, the pin will never stay. Give that a try first.

#8

Steve Featherkile said:

David, from the look of it, all you need to do with that ladder is just move the pin back into the hole. If you remove any of the plastic, the pin will never stay. Give that a try first.

Exactly my thought as well, David… As I looked at the images, I noticed that the bottom of the ladder wasn’t seated all the way in the holes in the floor. Once those are inserted properly, it should straighten out just fine.

Contact Phil Jensen at Hartland Parts. He can give you information on the mold… 402 571-2933

IMO, Hartland products are very well made and run extremely well. They’re also great fodder for the “kitbasher”.

#9

David Maynard said:

The end ladders are plastic, and they have pins that fit into holes in the end beam and roof. One of the ladders has a definite bend to it. The pins the fit into the holes in the roof are too long for the blind holes they are to fit into. I think if I shorten the pins a bit, the ladder will fit just fine.

If the pins are too long, I’d make the holes deeper rather than shorten the pins.

#10

David Maynard said:

I compared the Heartland caboose to the old Kalamazoo Drovers caboose, and they are the same size.

Hi David… You’re absolutely right… The Hartland Drovers caboose parts are injected from the Kalamazoo mold… Phil just added some additional detail “stuff” to it to make it even more classic…

#11

Bruce Chandler said:

David Maynard said:

The end ladders are plastic, and they have pins that fit into holes in the end beam and roof. One of the ladders has a definite bend to it. The pins the fit into the holes in the roof are too long for the blind holes they are to fit into. I think if I shorten the pins a bit, the ladder will fit just fine.

If the pins are too long, I’d make the holes deeper rather than shorten the pins.

I agree. Don’t force it, just get a bigger hammer! :slight_smile:

#12

Bruce Chandler said:

David Maynard said:

The end ladders are plastic, and they have pins that fit into holes in the end beam and roof. One of the ladders has a definite bend to it. The pins the fit into the holes in the roof are too long for the blind holes they are to fit into. I think if I shorten the pins a bit, the ladder will fit just fine.

If the pins are too long, I’d make the holes deeper rather than shorten the pins.

I took another look at it tonight. The one pin at the bottom of the ladder was out, but even with it in place the ladder is bent. I agree, I think making the holes in the roof a bit deeper would be the best choice. In fact, I could conceivably drill them all the way through, since they would be under the walkway and hidden from view.

Yes the Heartland is a revamped Kalamazoo, but with a lot more detail to it. She is going to look nice in P&CS livery. Yea, another project to the ever growing list of “someday” projects

#13

yes the exposed screws look a little outta place. howabout Nut Bolt Washer Casting tacked on with a little glue? Heck some red paint would go miles in improving that look.

#14

Cale, the caboose will be repainted in P&CS standard caboose yellow. Since I will be replacing the frosted “glass” with clear glass, and adding an interior, I will work out a way to hide or replace those screws. Again, that project isn’t on the “now” list, so I have some time to think about it.

#15

Today I got the caboose on the rails and earning its keep. I checked the wheels with my wheels gauge, and one set was a bit tight in the gauge, but the flanges still fit in the groves. So that one axle is a tad overgauge, but not by enough for me to worry about.

As I had pondered in previous posts, I drilled the ladder mounting holes all the way through the roof. This allowed to ladders to mount straighter. The roof landings cover the holes, so they cannot be seen. The ladders still have a slight bow to them, as if they are a tad too long, but they don’t look too bad. The metal ladder extensions fit fine on the marker end of the caboose, but on the other end they would not fit. I had to reform them with larger diameter curve to them. Being as they they are blacked steel, that was not easy, but I got them reformed and installed.

The caboose has one cabin light, dead center in the car. The markers light real nice, and can be seen in daylight at 16 volts on the rails. That may be too much power for the lights, but they haven’t burnt out yet.

I suspect that 2 axles have a wobble to them, because some times the car wobbles going down the track, and sometimes it doesn’t. Its like when the 2 axles get in sync, they car wobbles, but the next time around the axles aren’t in sync and they car has no wobble at all. But other then that, the car ran without any issues all afternoon.

As for repainting the car, and adding an interior, the repainting may not happen, now that I have a D&RGW locomotive. The interior will probably be a rainy day (or snowy day) project.

#16

Interesting how cars, and projects, develop and morph as bugs are worked out and new factors enter the equation. Caboose is a spiffy looking one.

#17

Thanks. Yes she is a looker. A bit shiny for me, but I am sure she will get toned down a bit.

Actually, she wont get a repaint more because I have overbought project cabeese, more then the fact that she has a locomotive to match up with now.

#18

David-

Many thanks for the effort you made (make) in evaluating and reporting to us in both photos and words your through investigation. I think that is why the thread absolutely stayed on topic.

Me? I add the LGB ball bearing wheels with the electrical feature. At night the lighting effect is worth the effort even with the frosted windows.

Wendell

#19

The caboose lights up nice right as it comes, right out of the box. I will be converting it to LEDs with a capacitor to remove any flicker.

#20

David-

Would you please share in the REVIEW section the how-to in your electrical conversion to LEDs. My guess I am not alone in understanding how to wire for LEDs to work off track power – what’s needed and how to wire it. Not having “flicker” alone would be great.

Thanks,

Wendell