Greetings,
Just curious how many cabooses everyone has on there layout?
Also what is your favorite type?
Standard, Bay, Wide?
I think I have about twelve or so. I really like the ones by Atlas in Ho scale.
I do have all three types listed above but most are extended wide vision.
Mark in Texas
I only have a few functional now. However I’m working on a CSX widebay, L&N widebay, and I’d like to build a Conrail transfer soon.
I pretty much model every caboose that I can photograph…It’s not like their are that many now a days…
I have two cabeese.
ATSF CE-1
UP CA-4
both are Centralia Car Shops/InterMountain
Ch
I have 9 Reading steel cabooses, 7 LL P2k, 2 rebuilt Varney shells on kitbashed underframes, plus a MP wide vision and 5 P&R bobbers under construction.
Dave H.
Just one. A Atlas Standard caboose which is cleaned and decaled for the Western Maryland. It is a tad modern for my Late Steam era roster. It was the grab irons that were very nice on the unit.
There will be several others built soon (B & O and C & O) and possibly a RF&P unit.
My cabooses are retired, at least for now. I’ve seen a few on the real railroads, but not many. They are still used for the occasional odd job, but certainly not on a regular basis. I might leave a couple in the yard for looks
I model 1971, when all the cabeese were getting old but still required on trains. I have about 35 locomotives (or will have, once all my rehab and kitbash projects are done). Sadly, I do not have a matching number of cabeese. I think I have about a dozen.
Still, this should be enough for trains which are double or triple-headed. My favorite caboose type is the Norfolk & Western’s preference for slightly-off-center cupolas; I used to like bay windows, but they aren’t right for my railroad. I figured out how to kitba***he standard Santa Fe-style 36’ offset cupola caboose in order to produce a nearly-centered 33’ caboose, and this is my basic caboose type for my fictional short line. However, I am desperately hoping for some manufacturer to release an NW C2 or CG style caboose in N-scale; until then, I am content with Atlas’s C31-P (though the cupola windows are wrong) and LifeLike’s Northeastern style caboose. I also have a few Pennsy-style N5 cabeese painted in my fictional road’s colors. I do have one single bay window caboose lettered for Southern- I just couldn’t resist!
A Santa Fe LL NorthEast style caboose. Enhaced with free-standing grab irons and handrails, Walther trucks, metal wheels, and new coupler boxes.
A Santa Fe brown Athearn Cupola caboose. Enhanced with metal wheel, new grab irons and hand rails, and KDs.
A D&RGW brown wooden cupola caboose from MDC. It has new trucks, Intermountain wheels, and KDs.
Now, I’m looking for an Athearn SP baywindow caboose and a Marklin UP center cupola one.
Since I like cabooses almost as much as steam engines, I have a few. I have 4 brass N.P. cabooses, three 24 footers; a PFM, a W&R and a NWSL and then one Overland 30 foot bay window. I also have a standard Athearn caboose converted to a series 1001-1050 high cupola steel and one Atlas standard International N.P. caboose painted pre-merger BN green and one Athearn wide vision BN caboose. I also have two bobber cupola cabooses and one crane tender caboose. I will likely have two more N.P. 24 footers.
i have 2 that actually look good and then one backmann from my first set that i repainted and i’m trying to see what it will look like with my railroad name and everything on it. one is a Burlington Northern and the other is a Rock Island. sorry haven’t gotten down the types yet. one has windows on the side and one has a extended roof.
I have 5 cabin cars and 4 cabeese.
Bowser N-5, PRSL, 2.
Bowser N-5c, PRR, 2.
Athearn, PRR, 1.
Atlas RDG, 1.
Athearn, B&O, 1.
old AHM, Soo, 1.
Bachman, “1776”, 1.
My favourites are bobbers and tiny crummies. This is a blue bobber;
and off to the right, a crummy;
I have two currently on the roster–one is a WP four-window cupola with exterior bracing that I bought at a train show (ready-to-roll), one is a kitbashed Mantua “bobber” caboose (much like LightBender’s above) converted to two-truck configuration to better resemble a Sacramento Northern prototype.
I have two three-window cupola cabeese in boxes waiting for assembly and painting and mild conversion to resemble the “Gould Standard” cabooses that Sacramento Northern received in the mid-1940’s.
Further down the road is the scratchbuilding and/or kitbashing of two CCT wooden-frame electric freight motors that were converted to caboose service by Central California Traction. That should be an interesting project…definitely one of a kind.
I have more cabeese than I need, at least one of each of the steam-era models available in N scale. I would like to build some wooden USRA cabeese (the ancestor of the Northeastern caboose, which I have selected as my “standard” caboose). I have a Rapido bobber, a number of Sante Fe-style cabeese, and a pair of the Atlas wide-vision cabeese. I would like to kitbash a branchline caboose, basically a combine with a coupola, as well as some transfer cabeese.
Four at the moment. I’m planning to add a few more though - mainly in the interests of having matching loco and caboose sets!
My fleet:
Walthers Amtrak Wide-View caboose - only cost me about £8 RTR, have added glazing, extra weight, and a figure stood on one end platform, have also painted the trucks and underframe matt black - they were unpainted plastic - looks a lot better now!
Athearn SE triple pack of C&O/B&O cabeese - 1 yellow and 1 blue bay window, one red wide view - this was the first US HO scale stock I bought - still have to buy at least one matching loco! I added glazing and Kadees, two of them have figures added to the end platforms. I’ve a tendancy to do this as it adds a little life to the car.
Nice Bobber
Where did you get that one?
I’m very partial to these type. I have about 8 cabooses of various types, 3 of which are Athearn, 1 Roundhouse and a Walthers
Only 1 caboose on the layout and it is in a park. When you model the modern era cabooses become mighty scarce.
2 built - 1 wood sided, 1 steel sided. Still have one steel sided to complete. That’s only 3, but there are only about a dozen pieces of rolling stock, so cabooses (vans in Canada… makes the plural simpler [;)]) are a significant percentage!
Andrew
I’ve always loved cabooses and never run a freight train on my layout without one. I just counted and it turns out that I have about 85 cabooses of all different types in HO right now, plus I also have more in O and S gauge.
8 AMB NKP 1000-series wood center cupola
3 Athearn NKP 400-series bay window
2 Roundhouse NKP 700-series steel center cupola (kitbash)
1 Rundhouse NKP 101-series NKP wood center cupola (kitbash)
1 Roundhouse NKP 800-series ex-W&LE wood (kitbash)
1 Walthers NKP 400-series ex-C&O wood
1 Division Point NKP 80-series ex-LE&W wood
2 Overland NKP 1340-series war-emergenct composite
2 custom resin NKP 1385-series wood rider cars
1 Bowser PRR N-5b
2 AHM PRR N-6b (reworked)
2 Des Plaines IC steel side door
2 AMB IC wood side door
1 AMB IC Iowa Division wood
2 F&C IC wood transfer caboose
2 Athearn GM&O “ATSF style” (actually ACF) steel offset cupola
1 resin GM&O wood center cupola (ex-B&O)
1 Mantua C&IM northeastern caboose (stand-in)
1 Des Plaines C&IM steel side door (ex-IC)
1 AMB wood side door (ex-IC)
3 Roundhouse P&E (NYC) wood offset cupola (kitbash)
3 Roundhouse TP&W wood offset cupols (kitbash)
1 AMB P&PU transfer caboose (ex-M&StL bay window)
2 Roundhouse P&PU transfer cabooses (extensive kitbashes)
1 AMB CB&Q waycar
1 AMB Rock Island caboose
1 AMB M&StL wood bay window caboose
1 Bachmann bobber (for no apparent reason!)
This is the first time I’ve actually cataloged my cabooses. Jeeze! I didn’t realize I had 50 of them. I do like cabooses though, and will most likely end up buying a few more (notice that I regularly use Roundhouse wood cabs as kitbash bait. They must be my favorite!)