To my knowledge, the Milwaukee Road built transfer cabooses (cabeese?) using old steam loco tender frames and trucks. Has there ever been or still a manufacturer of those in HO scale?
fox valley models has one in N scale. there is a photo on their web site. it looks like a pretty easy thing to scratch build or even kit bash. i have a thing about transfer cabeese and have succesfully build several different ones in HO scale starting with flat car kits. my favorite one ( not yet started ) is a Rock Island with the bench on the roof.
grizlump
The Milwaukee Road Historical Society publishes a nice soft cover book on steel cabooses that includes good coverage of the transfer cabooses.
There was also an article on building a transfer caboose in the December 1982 MR. I guess it would not suprise me to learn that there was a brass model in HO in the past.
I have seen the Fox Valley Models N scale model at Milwaukee’s Trainfest and it is simply exquisite, a gem.
Dave Nelson