Its nice companies are coming out with more of a variety of ready to run caboose models and easy to assemble plastic kits, but is there any types you would like to see come out that are not available at this time? RTR Caboose models and kits i would like to see come out would be UP CA11 transfer caboose, MP shorty steel transfer caboose, PC/NYC N9E transfer caboose, ATSF steel cupola caboose, troop sleeper caboose, and Ann Arbor/Wabash cupola caboose. also what would be great is any of the above mentioned models coming in data lettering only
I’m still pretty “chuffed” (as our UK cousins would say) about Walthers DM&IR caboose, being an iron ore modeller. I wouldn’t mind seeing a similar NP wood caboose in HO by Walthers.
I’d like to get a Soo Line wood caboose at some point. (I did order one when someone came out with them a few years ago, but Des Plaines Hobbies - even though they confirmed they got my order - couldn’t find my order by the time the cabooses came out, so they had sold out before I found out.)
A nice woodsided bay-window caboose would be nice, maybe something generic enough that it could be used for an M-St.L or a C&NW/CMO caboose.
That all being said, I’m still a bit ticked off that 20 years ago I decided on the undecorated MDC three-window woodside caboose kit as the “standard” caboose for my freelance RR. Now you can’t get the cars as kits or as undecs.
I want the Point St Charles. It’s been done in Brass, and I missed the Resin version, but there’s enough CN modellers and enough secodary purpose roads to sell the thing.
I’m curious aboutr what a Troop sleeper caboose is?
A Monon Rider Car would also be very welcome, as would the Monon Bay-on-the-Coupola caboose.
Individual railroads usually/invariably had more than one caboose “standard” over the life of the cars. So, the good news is that it looks like you need to adopt one or more new standards for a more prototypical look. In my instance, the roster includes SP cabooses in the C-30 and C-40 series as well as boxcar cabooses, all fitting into the mid-twentieth-century period.
Mark
Maine Central caboose in pre-mid 50s colors, i.e. not yellow at a reasonable price, NOT $30 or $40
The Point St. Charles cabooses should still be available, as shown HERE
I’m not sure about the availability of the Athabasca brass kits, but if you contact Clare Gilbert at Sylvan, he may be willing to produce one of the resin kits for you, even though they’re not shown in their catalogue.
Re: Caboose models: what do you wish?
As for me: none. [;)] I’d rather scratchbuild the ones I need and have something which is otherwise unavailable. (Of course, as soon as I have them finished, at least two manufacturers will come out with all versions of the same cabooses, and all done infinitely better than I could hope to accomplish.) [banghead]
Wayne
I would love to see an accurate model of a 17000-, 18000-, or 19000-series wood NYC caboose in plastic. And I’m amazed that there are so few renditions of NYC cabooses available on the market:
-
Walthers (wood w/low cupola)
-
Atlas Trainman (Big 4)
-
Athearn (Big 4)
-
Trix (wood w/low cupola - OOP)
-
[Edit: Wright Track (bay window version)]
Other than those, the only cabooses available are either brass or in kit form.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to snag three Waterlevel Models wood caboose kits off eBay for $25 a piece. Very hard to find, I scooped them up as quickly as I could press the Buy it Now! button. I now have one of each kind available, plus the undecorated version. It will take a little while to put them together but I will have a very accurate fleet of cabooses when I’m done.
Tom
The MP Short Bay window caboose is available from Rail Yard Models.
The Wabash Caboose’s are available from Wright Track Models, although they are labeled as an Ann Arbor Caboose, they were built by the Wabash, they also have the unstreamlined labeled as an N&W Caboose.
Tom, Wright Track also makes the Lot 782 Bay Window NYC Caboose.
Rick
My take on the caboose models post may be somewhat different. For me its not the particular road name or the caboose type. I would like them to make it a common practice as follows:
-
All are equipped with working and proper running (marker) lights.
-
All are equipped with actual windows instead of a hole in the wall.
-
All are equipped with interior details.
-
A high level of detail
-
Quality running ability as in all rolling stock.
I hope I am not going too far – perhaps even smoke.
Given the position of the caboose the outside lights are for me very important.
The main one I want to see is the Santa Fe’s CE-rebuilds of their peaked roof waycars. These cars were built by ATSF patterned on the ACF cars purchased several years earlier by the Santa Fe, with the exception of the roofs. the peaked-roof cars used the same patterned roof material as standard boxcars of the day. Sunshine Models came out with a kit for the peaked-roof cars, but they are the early version. The Sunshine kit covers the as-built version with wooden framed windows and non-cushioned underframe, painted mineral brown. The version I want to see is the rebuilt version with sealed windows, some of them plated over, cushioned underframe, and painted Indian Red with a large circle-cross herald on the side.
Athearn has a nice rendition of the un-rebuilt radial (curved) roof cars, and Intermountain/Centralia has VERY nice models of the same cars. Centralia also did passable models of the rebuilt radial roof cars as well. So far, though, the only way to get a CE-rebuild version of a peaked-roof car is in brass.
How about an ERIE caboose. Many mfgs. put out motive power,but no cabooses. The only options are brass or a resin kit that is sometime available at a substantial price. Was fortunate enough to get an old wood model on ebay. It assembled up to be a very good model. Really need wood & steel 3 window cupola models in plastic in the $25 range.
L&N short bay window and a SCL caboose and a CRR one.
An RTR M5 caboose in the Seaboard Coast Line scheme!
Well, though Walthers and Horizon (MDC) have given us pretty good copies of standard-gauge Rio Grande wood cabooses, I sure wouldn’t mind seeing the black WWII-post-war steel cabooses that they used.
They are available, if one does a lot of hunting, but they’re brass and pretty darned pricey.
A nice plastic one from Intermountain or Walthers wouldn’t hurt.
Tom [:)]
What, nobody can build a model anymore!!!
http://www.wrighttrak.com/page3.php?view=productPage&product=20&category=2
Rick
The Milwaukee bay-window caboose is fine for Transition Era, but I’d like to have some from the 1930’s for those days when I set the Wayback Machine a little earlier.
Yes you are right i am one who cannot build.But i hope i can rebuild my layout soon.
Thanks, Rick. Forgot about that one. Maybe I can put a bug in their ear about making one of the earlier wood cabooses.
Tom
Yes, some of us can build or modify a model. But consider this:
I recently purchased a new Atlas Wide-Vision caboose in the Frisco scheme. It is a bit annoying that, after spending money on the caboose, I still have to remove the trucks and body details and chemically strip off that beautiful factory paint job so that I can repaint it into the SCL scheme. Trip to the drug store to buy 91% alcohol = ching-ching$. Then I ordered Herald King SCL caboose decals = ching-ching$, plus I purchased a jar of Pollyscale SCL orange at my LHS = ching-ching$. To sum it up…now this homely little caboose is costing me more than a Rapido passenger car. But what choice do I have if I want an SCL caboose?
Even it I had gotten it “undecorated” (which Walthers will sell to you for about $28 when you include shipping) I would still have to purchase the Herald King decals and Pollyscale paint.
A while back a manufacturer did offer an unpainted, M5 caboose kit…for $50+! I paid less than that for a new-in-the-box P2K E7 at a train show. Again, paint and decals would still have to be purchased. It’s in scenarios like these that I’m not ashamed of taking the RTR route. It is a consolation that, according to Walthers, even more modelers are becoming interested in southeastern roads like the SCL, L&N, and Southern so we should be seeing more models in those paint schemes.
Tom, good luck with your “Walthers hope.” Acquired a “gold series” C-30-1 Southern Pacific caboose a while back. It looked weird compared to the brass and American Model Builders versions in my roster. Accurate model? Hah! Ended up giving the off-scale Walthers model away to a friend (with less critical tastes) because the body height and platform widths were noticeably WRONG. I’m presently building an AMB kit of the C-30-1 with the full-width, straight-sided cupola. Probably my last caboose because I’ve already got more than one can shake a stick at.
Mark