Offset copula caboose orientation when coupled to a train.

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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I just opened the Christmas gifts from my son and family and it was the Hallmark Keepsake train ornaments for 2013. Lionel Locomotive, tender and caboose. Very nice.

BUT! Hallmark screwed up! The couplers are just a hook on one end and a loop on the other and on the tender they are on the wrong ends. The Locomotive has a loop on the back, but the tender has a loop on the “coal end” and the hook on the “water tank” end, so the only way to couple them is to have the tender backwards.

I took the tender apart and swapped the trucks end for end and reassembled it. Then I went to the Hallmark website to look at the photos of the tender and they show the couplers are wrong there, too. So it was not just a one-off error in assembly. AND I am not the only person to make the observation that it is assembled wrong as there were already 3 comments posted by consumers pointing out the error.

I added a posting, explaining how to correct the error, (not hard but does require two drops of glue) and my comment may show up after they approve it.

Then I looked at the caboose… and it has only one coupler on it and it is the hook, so it can now attach to the tender, but… the hook is on the end of the caboose that the copula is closest to.

To “MY” eye, that makes the caboose “backwards” in the train. To ME it LOOKS better with the copula toward the rear of the train (or with the long end of the caboose toward the front). This brings up the question of which way it “should” be, or if there is a “correct” orientation in the real world.

With a center copula caboose, I have always assumed that the orientation would be such that the chimney from the stove (if it had one) would be put to the rear when the caboose is on the train, so that smoke and fumes would not blow back over the copula to bother the trainmen in the copula observing the train.

But with the offset co

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Random placement.

Mac

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I’ve seen photos of cabooses with offset cupolas BOTH ways on trains, cupola forward, cupola in the rear. In real life ot probably didn’t make much difference. HOWEVER I’m with you. Here on the layout in the “Chugger Barn” the cupola’s always to the rear, it just looks better that way!

By the way, I have the caboose smokestack on center cupola cabooses toward the rear just to make life easier for my imaginary trainmen, but in those real-life photos smokestack placement didn’t seem to make any difference.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

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I’ve had the “opportunity” to ride in a lot of cabooses, coal and oil heated, and have not seen any difference made by the stove location. Also, have not seen or heard of anybody caring about which way it was turned.

I do think, however, offset cupolas and bay windows “look” better toward the rear end.

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The cupola is just on whichever end it was when the caboose was coupled to the train – railroads did not turn cabooses around.

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The stove chimney was generally made tall enough to carry the smoke over the cupola when necessary.

I’ve ridden the cabooses both ways. You would be able to see more of the train on curves (somewhat) when the cupola was toward the rear (when there was a tall car ahead of you), but other than that, it made no difference.

Proper chimney placement? At the end of the stovepipe.