Large Scale Central

Scratchbuilt Henry Ford's Caboose

Modeling
#1

Hey All, Well, it’s killed me to not post photos as I worked on this but I wanted to wait till I finished before I let you know what I was working on. I started this project during the Christmas holiday. I say it’s totally finished with the exception of replacing the trucks with caboose trucks once USA Trains releases them (later this year). There is very little that isn’t scratchbuilt on this. It’s been a fun and challenging project. It’s a model of a Steel Car Co. caboose that was built for DT&I in 1925 which was during the years Henry Ford owned the railroad. They had 40 of these cabooses (the most of one style ever on the railroad). I painted it in the paint scheme used between 1956 and 1971 when these cabooses were retired. The B&O had a similar model caboose. Many of these cabooses still survive today. Strasburg #12 was one of these former DT&I cabooses. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI has one on display inside the museum. Flat Rock, MI (home of the DT&I’s biggest yard) has one on display in the park. And several private owners have them on thier property, including the real #89 which was restored completely recently. Enjoy,

#2

Very nice job. I grew up around Detroit. Brings back memories.
I suggest a visit to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village to anyone who hasn’t visited.
Ralph

#3

Sharp. That’s some fine looking work. Got any tips to share?

#4

Beautiful! Excellent work! I like the color scheme too, very unusual.

If you have any pics of the construction, I’d love to see 'em.

#5

Dear Brian,

Beautiful model, wonderful detail.

Scale?

(Guessing 1:29)

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

#6

Wow, that looks great.
Dave

#7

Nice indeed! MORE pix, what is the scale? I was planning one for my freight consist. I have the USA caboose but it looks a bit large with my mostly MDC boxcars. You draw up any plans? HInt, hint…

#8

Wow, very impressive modeling.

#9

Brian , that is one beautiful scale model…very sharp!!!

#10

WOW - That’s very nice :smiley:

#11

Superb!!!

#12

Thanks Guys,

I guess I should have mentioned the scale…1:29

Yes, I did draw up plans for it. I drew them in MS Visio.

I don’t have too many construction pictures of this project, but, I built these a couple years ago in ‘O’ scale and took a lot of pictures back then. I built them almost the same (made a few adjustments for material thickness issues).

Brian B.

#13

Good job! I like the colors…:wink:

#14

Brian,

We’re so busy drooling over the model that we failed to mention the photography (camera use, lighting, background) …that’s all excellent too. Care to elaborate?

Any article would easily be published.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

#15

I’m especially interested in the ladders on your caboose. Did you make those, or buy them?

#16

Guys, thank you all for your kind words, Ray: I made the ladders (like darn near everything else on this). Here’s my solution to the ladders. I had thought of cutting them out of brass or plastic but either of those would have been very difficult to achieve consistant results. I even thought about taking flat brass strips and bending them but thought that might be more than the brass strip could handle. So, my solution was to take a 1/16 diameter brass tube and hammer it flat (Burl Rice makes his stirrup steps this way). It takes a lighter touch rather than hammering the crap out of it which results in a more uneven thickness and thinner section. Anyway, by using the tube it bent easier than strip stock would because of more material to work with. I bent it around a small Xacto handle mounted in a vise. Of course as it bent it also wanted to bow a bit but that was flattened with a few more taps of the hammer. There’s a certain amount of massaging you do as you work brass. Here’s a picture of my practice piece, which I ended up using as a drill guide for the ladders on the caboose. I used .028 brass rod for the rungs.

(http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/groupee_files/photo_albums/2/1/6/216108201/388105401_1727B1A5DE13DDE22290B64A57663B8F.JPG)

Joe: Thanks for noticing, I don’t fancy myself as a photographer but I read enough to be dangerous. It also helps having a wife that’s more talented at photography. Our camera is a Canon Digital Rebel. The pictures were taken in my trainroom near the floor (which has (8) 100 watt bulbs evenly spaced). The background is just a very large sheet of white paper curled up transitioning to the back (eliminates the hard line effect) I then added one 60 watt light off to the left of the pictures close enough to give the shadowing effect. All my bulbs are GE Reveal lights. I did use a white board to get the light reflection in the windows in the roster shots. Cheers, Brian

#17

I’m not a detail freak on rolling stock(or much other for that matter) …but I sure like and appreciate the work in scratch built things. I really enjoyed the history lesson with it as well! Thanks for the pics of a beautiful model even if the trucks aren’t correct…I wouldn’t know.
I will say I did notice that your floor is a different color and I thought it was wood at first. Looks good!
:wink:

#18

Brian, wow. You did a fantastic job. It sure looks perfect from here.

Jon.

#19

Brian, thanks for the ladder tip. I may try that method for replacing the ladders on my LGB short caboose.

#20

Brian, were you able to bend that tube around the knife handle without any kinks? Or did you just beat them into submission? :stuck_out_tongue: