I have not seen one advertised anywhere. I possess an Erie Kato Mikado and it would feel out of place with a PRR caboose. Does anyone make them, or will I be forced to make my own?
Atlas is releasing a new EL caboose #202.You could always erase the Lackawanna. Decal can be obtained also. MS & Prime Mover Decals will work.
I could take a shot at the Erie 'hack'. It is really a neat looking short caboose. I've made a few of other roads
Here's an actual ex ERIE caboose playing O&W. [ April 05, 2005, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]
of course, all of us who had Lionels in the 1950's coveted that Erie bay window they had, with the lightning bolt "Radio Equiped" wording on the sides. Did Erie have any bay windows for real, or was it just a toy? I've been tempted to make one just for nostalgia. I wanted one so bad, never got one. Hey, why not?
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/frt/erie-c303prp.jpg From the Fallen Flags Website. Salamanca, NY 1954 Frank
Erie did have bay windows. 300 was the first and had a different window combo than the rest. This is the begining of one of the rest: Still wating for those lightening bolts to be added.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/frt/erie-c300adb.jpg http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/frt/erie-c313b.jpg http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/frt/erie-c349lb.jpg
Hey, those erie B/W's look great. Of the several bay window shells that are usually available at swap meets, which one comes the closest? Does anyone offer that distintive "bicycle wheel" radio antenna detail? I would probably use the MT "express reefer" trucks. Should not be difficult to do one. brass end platform detail sets are available - roofwalks too. Although I don't know of any that are an exact match, they would still upgrade the appearance, helping to nudge the car into the "close enough for runnin' " category. I don't own any Erie power, but this one is going on my "someday" list anyway. The LL Alcos look nice in black and yellow with the wings on the nose, so I could solve the lack of power issue easily enough
I believe the Walthers caboose with the full bay is a close match for this car. Check with Sunrise, I thought they had one. I was just at their website and the part with antennas wouldn't come up. BTW, the D&H ended up with some of these cabooses after the formation of CR. Frank
I used a model power caboose to start with. Re-did the windows. The "wagon wheel" antenna is from Gold Metal Models PA-1 etched detail set. The trucks are MT express with the shock removed. You can take it further and add a leaf spring witch I did on other cars.
Just for fun, I thought I would give a try to making an Reie caboose. I love the short cabeese. Trying out a new camera and cannot figure how to enlarge and save, soooo, I had to make due with this picture
Fotheringill---I was glad to see Kato produce an Erie mikado, but I hadn't really thought of the current unavailability of Erie cabooses. There was a late 60s Con-Cor wood caboose in Erie, that must be pretty rare these days, and also in the 70s or early 80s, someone produced a really nice bay window one (and I can remember seeing many of these on the real Erie when I was a kid). Ten or fifteen years ago Northeast Decals existed and they provided many otherwise unavailable decals. Their Erie caboose set was ER-08. The proprietor's daughter now lives in Ohio and has been known to supply applicants with decals from the remainder at $1/set if she has them. I had her address once, but no longer. There have been people on the forums who, from time to time, have supplied this address, and perhaps someone "in the know" will see this. It is also possible, however, the entire stock has been sold. I used these decals with LL northeastern cabooses to make my Erie cabooses, utilizing for convenience sake ones that were already bright red with black roofs (like the P&WV) so I only had to paint over the original logo and put the Erie diamond over it, and then the car number. Of course, Life-Like cabooses are still reasonably easy to get on that "e" place, whatever you call it. Another option you might have is Rail Graphics (1183 N. Lancaster Cir., South Elgin, IL 60177). Since they will make custom logo decals for people's railroads (just send in the drawing) I imagine that if you sent the right size Erie diamond, they could do that just as well. It might be a little pricey, but you'd have your caboose. But if I were Kato, if I manufactured an engine in any railroad, I'd make sure that a caboose was available. And Kato does manufacture cabooses, too---so why don't they make one, say, in Erie? Are they too dumb to do that, or am I a genius?
OK, the die is cast. Over the weekend I became the proud owner of a LifeLike FA/FB1 set in black and yellow, like the Lionels from the early 1950's. Now, I have sufficient justification to make up that bay window caboose! The Sonoran Desert will soon host the Erie on the world's longest Shoo Fly, I guess. PS, I bought one of those shorty little Kato trainset cabooses in brown, but unlettered, a while back. I put the light kit in it. Not a bad choice as a fill-in for NTrak running if you don't happen to have a caboose on hand to match your power. All I need is the "L" in a circle on the side, and I'll be tinplatin' for sure.
