I saw this on eBay, does anyone know who the manufacturer is? It is obviously 1970s train set quality, but it has potential.
-Kevin
It looks like a Mantua from the 70s or so. I have what I think is an IHC Drovers.
They make a great caboose to go at the end of a logging train.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I have one of that style Mel. The other one I saw on eBay has five windows on each side. I do not remember seeing one like it before.
-Kevin
The basic car without the cupola is the Mantua / Tyco combination car that went with their General 4-4-0 in train sets and separately; they also had a coach. Later Mantua offered variants on the original tooling including a clerestory roof. What you show is their old time combination/caboose. Not unlike what some railroads actually had, but as someone has pointed out, it seems unlikely that the cupola would be right over the baggage door. If you have ever climbed into the cupola of a caboose you’d understand why. You need a way to climb up and someplace to put your feet and the baggage door would seem to eliminate both options!
Move the cupola to the end of the car, or black out a window or two, and with a slight bit of surgery you could make a usable and realistic car out of it.
Dave Nelson
I can see cutting out a section of the roog and flipping it, putting the cupola at the rear. Cut 1 - just in front of the cupola, cut 2 - just in front of the rear wall.
–Randy
The caboose in Mel’s post is an old Model Die Casting caboose. They had several caboose kits (three-window wood, side-door, drover’s) that except for the one-piece body were basically the same caboose. I have several (including the drover’s) on my layout; in fact, I just finished a kitbash project combining two of them into an MN&S bay-window caboose.
Thank you Dave. That is exactly what I needed to know.
I appreciate the help.
Since it will be a STRATTON AND GILLETTE caboose, it will need to be a center-cupola caboose. I think blanking out the two windows closest to the center will help the look.
That would be a good looking model also.
My GORRE AND DAPHETID caboose is built on that model. I love it!
The shape of the cupola roof is great on this model. Maybe someday I will find one in a scrap-box for a project.
-Kevin
Mantua/Tyco is correct. I have one of these, it was the only drover’s caboose available that to my eye looked anything like the one the SLC used.
It’s a constant work-in-progress for me and like many old Tyco cars needs a lot of TLC and detail, but I bet it’ll be great for your needs, Kevin.
Phil
Thanks Stix
I don’t remember purchasing it sometime back in the late 70s and it sit in the box until the mid 90s. Then I decided to light it up a couple of years ago and decal it for my logging train.
It figures that its a MDC kit because it was stored with my MDC shorty coaches. I made the Alamogordo Sacramento Mountain RR decals for the Drovers and my coaches and tow them with a couple of MDC Shays.
We lived in Alamogordo NM for 19 years and the Cloudcroft Lumber Company/Alamogordo Sacramento Mountain RR has a great history behind it so I needed them on my layout. The trestle on my layout is modeled after the Mexican Canyon Trestle at Cloudcroft.
Before ↑ Restoration After ↓ Restoration
Over the years I climbed all over the original trestle. That setting is where I got the inspiration for my layout.
Mel
Here’s a link to the (discontinued) MDC car on the Athearn website (sorry if link doesn’t work, this laptop and the MR site don’t play well together):
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=RND86689
The Mantua/Tyco one was similar, but had more windows on the side with passenger silhouettes (a la Lionel O gauge passenger cars) in the windows.
I think the car in question was a Frisco car. I also think there was a drawing of it in MR in the 50s.
Like the other Tyco “Old Timer” cars. I had a couple to go behind the AHM Reno, Genoa, and Bowker. The AHM old timer cars had no such silhouettes.
–Randy
Thank you to everyone that helped me out.
I found one on eBay, and it arrived today. Now I have the raw material for another project… that I will get to eventually.
-Kevin
This is the IHC Drover’s caboose. My paint job plus some wire grab irons.
American Model Builders has one.
I believe that is a neat and clean version of a drover’s caboose. Often in livestock trains, the owners reps would travel with the animals to assure they were properly taken care of…
David, I believe that’s actually another MDC caboose, the ‘blind end’ wood caboose. Although the body is different, it uses the same roof, cupola and underbody detail parts (like the trussrods) of the other MDC 30’ wood cabooses.
https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/zn0AAOSwxrJeilQi/s-l200.jpg
One of these can look excellent on a Depression-era shortline or even a rural branch of a Class I. As they say, there’s a prototype for everything, so equipment like this can be pretty versatile.
IIRC, the side dorr caboose was outlawed early last century - too many people were missing the steps of a moving and dying beneath the wheels. Can some one comment…
As far as I know, this was just for cabooses that did not have end platforms and the trasin crew had to enter through the side door.
Side doors for drovers, passengers, and baggage were still OK.
Someone else will probably have better information.
-Kevin