Large Scale Central

My son and I rolled out our restored caboose yesterday

Other Scales
#1

I built this 1-1/2 inch scale caboose for my oldest daughter in 1980. She’s now 39. My son and I decided the car needed some TLC and a restoration. Because we are building seven Baldwin-Westinghouse electrics used on Pacific Electric here in So. Cal., we loosely based our restoration on P.E. Caboose #1975.

This is the result of thirteen months of restoration, sanding and painting, rolled out yesterday for a few photos.

The car has full working lights in the cupola and in the lower “office” area. The marker lamps are scale bronze castings from Railroad Supply Corp. As you can see there is a jumper seat for adult conductors and when that is removed, the grandkids can be “brakemen”. The cupola lifts off to get access to the electronics in the car. All leds are dimmable and have separate controls. There is a on-center off-on switch that turns all lights on in “HOLD” position and the other side is on a timer. When the timer is used, the lights come on automatically when the car rolls a few feet and they stay on during the run. When the car stops rolling, the lights remain on for another five minutes and then automatically shut-off. This photo was taken before it was repainted. Note the battery charger…I can use the same charger for this caboose as well as my Fn3 stuff.

#2

Very impressive craftsmanship! Large scale is a world of it’s own and this caboose restoration clearly shows just how good large scale can be. Lots of hours of work, with an excellent result. BTW how much does this “little” caboose weigh?

#3

Wow that is impressive! Nice work! :smiley:

#4

Jim Kottkamp said:

Very impressive craftsmanship! Large scale is a world of it’s own and this caboose restoration clearly shows just how good large scale can be. Lots of hours of work, with an excellent result. BTW how much does this “little” caboose weigh?

Thanks Matt and Jim. I’ve never weighed the caboose, but the trucks are about 20-25 pounds each…total 40-50 pounds. The body is just wood with some small angle iron under the car for added strength to the wood frame. 1/8 inch diameter steel rod for the hand rails and grab irons. Cast aluminum couplers and draft gear boxes. Electronics box and two 6 volt batteries. All totaled another 75 pounds. So I would estimate 125 pounds for the total weight of the car. Easily carried by two people, but I’ve never done that. :slight_smile:

Next stop is the sign painter to do the lettering. It will be very similar to the photo of the prototype. The nice thing is that the sign painter makes “house calls” so I don’t have to transport the caboose to his shop. He makes “stencils to match the graphics” on the car and then hand paints by brush to make it look as though it were painted/lettered like a real car.

#5

That is just a sweet job, Gary, well done

any other car restorations in your future

umm…7 B-W electrics? wow

Jerry

#6

Great work there, Gary!! We’d love to build a caboose and in fact have started to gather stuff together to make ‘kinda’ replica of a SR&RL-style caboose, with some help from fellow ‘cabeesisti’ here.

The one problem we have right now is getting suitable trucks for less than the price of a small car - sure, we could get them from Railroad Supply Co, but the shipping alone is more than the cost of the trucks…might have to have a radical rethink.

Anyway, great work, and a pleasure to see.

tac

OVGRS

#7

tac Foley said:

Great work there, Gary!! We’d love to build a caboose and in fact have started to gather stuff together to make ‘kinda’ replica of a SR&RL-style caboose, with some help from fellow ‘cabeesisti’ here.

The one problem we have right now is getting suitable trucks for less than the price of a small car - sure, we could get them from Railroad Supply Co, but the shipping alone is more than the cost of the trucks…might have to have a radical rethink.

Anyway, great work, and a pleasure to see.

tac

OVGRS

Thanks Tac for the comments. But my son did 99.9% of this restoration along with his girlfriend. They did much nicer work than the “old man” did 36 years ago!

AND I haven’t forgotten about you and the print for that SR&RL caboose. I’m STILL trying to locate one for you.

As far as finding trucks, try Steve Alley at Allen Models of Nevada. He might be open to working a deal for you. I talked to him extensively last week at the Los Angeles Live Steamers 60th Anniversary Meet. If you need some contact info for him, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

#8

jerry bohlander said:

That is just a sweet job, Gary, well done

any other car restorations in your future

umm…7 B-W electrics? wow

Jerry

Thanks Jerry. As a matter of fact, we have one more car to restore…a PFE reefer. It is still in pretty fair shape and about 6-7 years newer than the caboose. Just needs a new paint job and it’s good to go.

The top photo was taken about 20 years ago. The photo just above was taken earlier this year. The 48 ft. steel gondola was made by West Bend Railcar Shops in West Bend, Wisconsin. Ahead of the train are two of our Baldwin-Westinghouse electrics. The black electric on the head is my 35 yr. old loco. The new engine behind it is one of seven engines we are building as a project.

#9

The issue tac has is that he is across the pond. The shipping is what gets him. He would almost be better off finding someone to cast the trucks for him, there in the Yuck.

#10

Hah!

I think that was the caboose I saw in the background of something else you were showing and I thought by the color was a CVRR car.

Very nice

EDIT for : CABOOSE

#11

" Rooster " said:

Hah!

I think that was the caboose I saw in the background of something else you were showing and I thought by the color was a CVRR car.

Very nice

Thanks. Yeah, I remember your comment when our caboose was in the background of another photo I posted.

EDIT for : CABOOSE