I have acquired sixteen Pacemaker freight cars with different numbers and I am looking for a matching caboose. I have found an unpainted brass one that looks correct but cost $150.00.
NYC had five I believe converted from 36 ft boxcars and had plywood sides with the Pacemaker logo. Very simple design. I think a couple feet where added to the caboose at build time. Have to find the article where I saw this info.
Below is a photo of a brass model. The cupola has to be lowered a little compared to many cupola type caboose. You can see that in the above photo.
Can anyone suggest a present HO scale version with the 436 foot or so length length I could just repaint and decal myself?
Although the detailing is okay, an MDC/Roundhouse 40’ wood boxcar might be reasonably close. I used one for the prototype for an NYC Emergency War caboose that I’m kitbashing. This is just a first pass at it:
The MDC/Roundhouse boxcar, unfortunately, only comes RTR - which makes kitbashing a little more challenging. The detailing of the cars, as mentioned, is merely okay with paint a tad bit on the heavy side.
The windows, doors, and stairs on my prototype all came from a Walthers NYC wood caboose and seem to work well. Eventually I’d like to scratchbuild or kitbash one completely. Those and the Pacemaker cabooses definitely make for some unique cars on one’s layout.
Well I found the Trix NYC wood caboose for $35.00. The car has the truss rod style frame. I know they were converted from boxcars and were slightly over 41 feet long. The photo at the beginning of this tread, they look like they have the fish belly frame that some 36 foot boxcars had. The frame looks like some of my older 35 foot Roundhouse freight cars with the fish belly frame.
I will paint it and lable like the car above in the picture. I have to lower the smoke stack if you have ever seen a photo of the Trix model.
Thanks, I will consider that option when I get the Trix caboose I ordered. I did look it up at Walther’s and it is in stock. My LHS can get it with no problem.
Besides that brass model, this is a scratch & bash project. The problem is the PLYWOOD sides, which everyone seems to have forgotten about in their responces. The NYC also lowered the roof line of the donor boxcar and scrapped the Murphy steel ends, so chopping up a double sheathed boxcar is essentially a waste of a decent car.
This project’s actually simpler than it looks. Essentially, you need to scratchbuild a “plywood” box and add an shortened Accurail fishbelly underframe and NYC end platforms. The easy but expensive conversion would be to chop up a Trix NYC caboose for the donor parts needed (and for templates for the ends and roof), use an Accurail underframe, and scratch the body out of Evergreen styrene and Tichy bunk car windows. The cheaper, but less accurate version would be to use the NYC caboose flat kit from MRR Warehouse and donor end platforms off of an Athearn wide-vision caboose.
NJ International published plans for these cabooses in the early 1980s, in a book on NYC and NH cabooses that they published.
Right now I am looking at the below photo I downloaded from ebay. It shows the Pacemaker car unpainted. Blowing up the picture, I am pretty sure I see the "plywood panels” if the sides are accurate.
I just received the Trix caboose and it is OK. Would need some work to make it look more like the prototype but definitely not for the Pacemaker.
I just picked up the NJ International book you mentioned off of Amazon for about $16.00. I an going to look into the scratch and bash option.
I did find a nice book on ebay, NYC Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment for about $29.00 including shipping. Only one photo about the Pacemaker freight car. Lots of good color photos about other NYC stuff though. The book is going for at least $55.00 on Amazon. The seller did not know the value as e
I perused through that very book at my LHS this past Saturday. MSRP is $60 so you found it for a very good price. I thought the book contained a nice variety of NYC cabooses, as well as their other rolling stock. And the fact that the pics were also in color was a real bonus.
