Hello I am looking for a old caboose for a office but not sure what year it should be. My era is 1935-45 I know in that time things would be fixed or made into something else. How long would a caboose run before it was retired. I think as long as it was safe they would run? Thanks Frank
Frank,
You don’t mention that you’re modeling a specific railroad, so I’ll guess you’re freelancing. I’d recommend using a “bobber” caboose–the 4-wheel ones. Bachmann makes them. Another possibility would be one with a truss-rod underframe, though it might have been tempting for railroads just to put the old body on a new underframe. Thus, the bobber might be a better choice. If you just HAVE to have a larger caboose (and don’t want to put two bobbers together), I’d recommend something like the Walthers CB&Q woody–it’s got lots of windows and has an attractive “older” look about it–just add truss rods. These’ll all be wood sided, of course.
Ed
An old passenger car, perhaps with some windows covered over, or a boxcar modified with a few windows, a human-sized door, and a chimney, would be much more common prototypical solutions.
Mark
Hello I like the NYC and the B&O. But any road or loco is welcome. What I would like from the layout is for it to look like it could be a real place in the 35-45 range even if the train should not be there. My first thought was a caboose. Because it’s kinda a office on wheels to start with. And I have seen more old caboose setting around over the years then anything else. I have one office by my TT that is a old baggage car not to sure of the year of it but it looks ok . The boxcar I did not think of. I thought the RR would use them till they got to bad to keep on the rail and then part out what was left. How far back should I go 15-25 years for it to be old in the mid 30’s. Thanks Frank
Waycars (cabooses) could and did last a long time in service. The CB&Q had wooden cars built in the very early 1900’s that lasted until the merger in 1970. However, as they acquired newer steel waycars, they did retire some of the wooden ones. Since you’re going to put this “on the ground” anyway, you may be able to find a MDC Roundhouse or other wooden caboose fairly cheap at a train show, LHS or maybe even eBay.
Ricky
Wood. Any kind of wood caboose would make a plausible yard office. Some time before WWII safety regulations were enacted to ban the use of pusher engines behind wood cabooses, lest the force of the pusher crunch the wood caboose and it’s crew. To save a lot of cutting off of cabooses, lotta railroad bought new strong steel cabooses. This created a surplus of wood junkers available for yard offices.
Limitations on pushing cabooses applied to those with wooden-underframes. This limitation didn’t apply to steel-underframe cabooses which had a wooden body.
Mark
Since cabooses weren’t used in interchange, they really could go on forever. As noted, some wood cars (probably with archbar trucks) lasted well into the diesel era.
A very old wood caboose like a bobber wouldn’t be a bad choice, and you can find them cheap in plastic, or you could get a Ye Olde Huff-and-Puff craftsman’s kit and build it without the wheels. (BTW didn’t Roundhouse or somebody offer a kit for converting one of their cabooses into a yard office…back before the Athearn takeover??)
Although I’m sure they probably had a few cabooses used as yard offices etc., both NYC and B&O were big prosperous railroads in your era, so they’d probably be more likely just to build a yard office or move and old wood depot to the yard to use as an office.
I found this website: Cabooses 4 sale
Frank,
What about a old wood boxcar? They were sometimes “retired” and turned into storage sheds or yard offices. If that would equally fit your needs, here’s a link to a how-to for kitbashing one from an Accurail 40’ 6-panel wood boxcar. Just add some windows and a door.
If you really want a caboose, however, Walthers makes a decent looking NYC low cupola version. It even comes with detailing parts like the side, back, and top grab irons.
Hope that helps…
Tom
Hello well I had a chance to work on the layout. I have a bobber caboose and took off the shell and set it where it will go. Looked way to small to me. So popped the shell off a bigger caboose it look a lot better. Then I took a boxcar and set in the spot it look better then the big caboose. So now I am going to look for a boxcar. Thank you for the help Frank