Weekly Photo Fun 3/20 through 3/27

[KB02]

Starting this a day early since we seem to have missed this last week.

I seem to have a plethora of cabooses in my rolling stock fleet. I had two of them that I pretty much felt were hideous to look at. One was completely silver except for the copula, the other was completely red except for a couple of white stripes. Well, I had the paint and the time this weekend so I thought I would combine the color schemes to make a couple of cabooses that not only look pretty good but match as well (which is a rarity on the Whistle Stop RR).

My narrative is that the one on the right is new to the RR and the one on the left has been around the tracks a few times.
(Should have taken a before picture...)

 

[Iron Horseman]

Once again I've nothing cool to show. Who else has project scope creep? This was BNSF days at the museum so I was going to take my San Fransisco Chief. Just wanted to add a couple of new cars to the consist to change the year the train represented. So I started and discovered the new baggage car kit I purchased (used) had the wrong frame. The express box had the wrong trucks. Easy enough swap those from another model - darn the bolsters use a different mount. Built a new mount with associated knives, files, saws. Check the wheel gauge. Oh yeah, the wheels have to conduct electricity. Can't find the soldering iron so I get out the induction unit. Check the resistance, needs to be about 20K ohms. Hmmm not working, get out the conductive pen to fix. Check the coupler height - too high. Hmm never seen an Athearn car too high. Figure out why and fix. Since I've got the coupler and wheel gauges out, last time I did have a derailment issue so might as well check the whole set. Get the proper NMRA weight into the cars. Oh - the new car has a shiny metal weight in it. Get the paint out to make it flat black. etc etc etc. Pretty soon it seems I've gotten out every tool and taken a whole day. Anyone else have this happen to them?

 

[NYC_George]

That's everyday. The biggest time waster for me is when I drop something and it's never there when I look down.

George

 

[tootnkumin]

Pretty soon it seems I've gotten out every tool and taken a whole day. Anyone else have this happen to them?

Just about everything I do, or more correctly, attempt to do, seems to go that way. I call it the 6 paces back for every 1 forward syndrome.

 

[Rico]

Yup I get those days too, makes more work than I started out with. I call them government days!
Here's a couple shots of some stuff a buddy brought over the other day, both are brass.

 

[danpik]

KBO2. I will see your two cabooses (very nice by the way) and raise you four more. With RICO's it looks like it is going to be a "end of train" day

I finished some work on a few cabooses the other night. I have a few minor things to do yet along with tweaking the running characteristics.

From a little while ago.

 

[NYC_George]

The best days of my time on the RR was spent in a caboose. Cooked lunch there almost every day when working the Chatham switcher, Played cards waiting for passenger trains to clear. Nice warm place in the winter to have coffee with the crew. Three bunk beds if you needed to rest. A big loss to everyone when they decided they were no longer needed.

George

 

[tootnkumin]

The best days of my time on the RR was spent in a caboose. Cooked lunch there almost every day when working the Chatham switcher, Played cards waiting for passenger trains to clear. Nice warm place in the winter to have coffee with the crew. Three bunk beds if you needed to rest. A big loss to everyone when they decided they were no longer needed.
George

You had it too good mate, can't have that.

 

[logandsawman]

I got a photo of this guy looking directly at the camera. Back side of the sawmill, lumber waiting to be taken off with the forklift:

 

[montanan]

Some really nice photos. Looks like caboose week. Here are a couple of wood kits I built somewhere around 25 or so years ago and painted them for my freelance railroad. I think the drovers caboose is an old Silver Streak kit and the other Great Northern caboose was made by,..... I can't remember. I took the coil springs out of the Kadee trucks and replaced them with leaf springs which cabooses usually have.

 

[logandsawman]

Nice work, guys; Question: The bottom caboose on post 6 (danpick) the caboose appears to have covered windows. What is the reason behind this and did they make cabooses this way?

Thank you

 

[tootnkumin]

Nice work, guys; Question: The bottom caboose on post 6 (danpick) the caboose appears to have covered windows. What is the reason behind this and did they make cabooses this way?

Thank you

Looks to me as though it's just been painted and the masking hasn't been removed. As far as having covered windows, of the ones still in use, they have been plated over as the caboose is not used for accommodation or crew use.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Many times the windows of the cabooses were covered with steel plates to prevent vandalism and unlawful entry. I have seen old cabooses used as transfer cabooses and the windows were covered and the crew stood on the cabooses platforms. These were used maybe only several times a week and were parked in a yard when not in use.

 

[bob]

Many times the windows of the cabooses were covered with steel plates to prevent vandalism and unlawful entry. I have seen old cabooses used as transfer cabooses and the windows were covered and the crew stood on the cabooses platforms. These were used maybe only several times a week and were parked in a yard when not in use.

Yes, that's the usual reason. Just to clarify, they didn't "build them that way". The windows were originally used just as you'd expect. Then, as times changed and new requirements showed up, they modified them by welding over the windows. It is my understanding that some of the "Shoving platforms" even have the doors welded shut as well. They're purely a place to safely stand when backing up a train.

That MRL one is pretty fancy, with rooftop air conditioners and a horn as well as headlights. One of the nicer ones that I've seen. It's also a bit unusual. Apparently it's set up to convert any locomotive to remote control. You connect it to the locomotive with the MU cables and the locomotive then "thinks" it's a trailing unit in a multiple unit consist. The caboose has the remote control equipment inside, and that allows greater flexibility than just having a few r/c locomotives. Not sure why it needs a/c units though, i guess the equipment needs to be kept at a certain temp range.

 

[NYC_George]

One day I rode in the top bunk of the caboose on a 70 car freight. The one thing I noticed is that you could see the whole train on turns with no problem. I think that's why they were designed in this way to see if any cars were smoking or freight doors were open etc.

George

 

[NH Mike]

Nothing new from me lately but I'll join in on the caboose week with a couple of shots of LV T2. Ex N&W transfer car in brass.

 

[tootnkumin]

MRL has a number that are still in use. Robert Forsstrom's site shows some http://www.pbase.com/mrmrl/mrl_cabooses Here is another taken by Len Torney at Livingston, Montana 5/12/15, leaving RY Timbers yard with loaded Centerbeams. As the train crosses a road as it enters/leaves the yard, it would seem probable that the caboose is used to protect the rear of the train (and the public) as it reverses into the yard (my conclusion anyway).

 

[Rico]

Toot that's exactly what it's used for.
Some have headlights and controls to operate the loco remotely.
I brokered a couple cabeese years back that had the controls put into them.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Seems that it is caboose week here. I'll play along.

 

[Iron Horseman]

I guess I can do caboose. My three newest less than a month old.
A fellow at the museum had one. I really liked it as I've been wanting a 26' NP for a long time. He said they were all sold out everywhere and impossible to find. Undaunted, I went to Walther's and sure enough the NP version sold out. Searched with google, many places all showing out of stock. Finally found a place and ordered. Next day got an order cancellation - out of stock. Found another ditto. Searched all the google provided listings for hours. none. Was ready to give up when it hit me, switch to Yahoo. Searched there and within a few minutes I had ordered two (from different places) where the orders actually went through. So I guess it is true that google mainly finds and presents only "google friendly" sites. Never believed that before, but hard to argue with these results.

Northern Pacific only ever had one of this class of caboose. This model does not have the correct number. Number 1285 was a 26' caboose but had a completely different window arrangement (even in the cupola). I'll leave one as is from the factory and pretend, but change the other to the correct number.