Which Caboose with which Road?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hi,

I’ve got a 2-8-0 loco in Western Pacific livery and was wondering which other road’s caboose I could run with it? Seeing as I can’t find a Western Pacific caboose for it.

Also I have a number of CNW and C.St.P.M&O locos, are the cabooses for these roads interchangeable?

[All the items are in HO scale]

Thanks,

Ian

2

You can run any road you want.

Realistically it would be fairly rare in steam days to run a different caboose than the engine, especially a train pulled by a 2-8-0. It would pretty much have to be a road that interchanged with the WP, such as the SP or DRGW.

3

You could “lease” a caboose from the SP,UP,GN or any Western road.

Railroads did lease locomotives/ cabooses in heavier traffic periods.Of course these was short term leases that ended when the extra traffic peak and started to return to normal.

Why not paint and decal a WP caboose or remove the lettering and decal it for WP?

4

CMO was part of the CNW so they could share cabooses.

5

Although they’re currently out of stock, Athearn made bay-window cabooses in five different number or paint scheme variations a few years ago. I’m sure you could still find one online or at a flea market, or in a LHS.

Walthers currently has WP bay-window cabooses on sale, either individual ones or a two-pack.

Or get and undec caboose and decorate it yourself. [:)]

The Omaha Road, although having it’s own HQ in Minneapolis, was a subsidiary of CNW from about 1910-1960. Somewhere around 1955-60 it was completely folded into the CNW. Except for reporting marks, engines and cars were lettered the same for both…so you could use them together. But of course neither road was related to the Western Pacific.

6

Depends on the era, in the steam and early diesel days, WP rarely if ever used foreign cabooses, it bacame common in later years to witness UP pool cabooses out of Salt lake City and BN pool cabooses off the highline.

If you seeking an accurate model of the single sheathed outside braced caboose, brass is the only accurate example, these were rebuilt beginning in 1916 from obsolete boxcars and are truly unique and long lived too, the final examples were not retired and scrapped until the mid seventies.

I don’t know what is available these days for the shingle sheathed example in HO or N, virtual copies of those on the Rio Grande which would makes sense as both were under common ownership. The former roundhouse caboose would produce a fair copy although a bit short for my taste.

WP bay window designs were of common design, Atlas or Athearn should have what you need, though you may have to resort to painting and decaling to get what you need.

Dave

7

I think the best one(outside of brass) for your locomotive would be the one made by Roundhouse in the Western Pacific delivery. It is of the coupola design and is of the era that would fit in with your 2-8-0. I see them for sale quite often on the un-named auction site.

8

WPAllen is right. The Roundhouse WP cabooses are also readily available on a special order from your LHS if they don’t have one in stock. And they’re very close in design to the WP outside-braced caboose type.

Back in the steam era, it was easier to borrow a locomotive from another railroad than a caboose. [:P] Though with Western Pacific, it would be more likely to see a Rio Grande caboose than any other RR if a WP wasn’t available, since Rio Grande was WP’s chief Utah connection.

Tom [:)]