A Belt Railway of Chicago shorty caboose

I need several BRC cabooses for the layout and, since they are very Railroad-specific, I am having to Kitbash them.

Spikre sent me three well-used Athearn Bay-window cabooses last year and they mahe a good source of materials for the project.

Here's an example of what I am starting with




Here's what I hope to achieve - although not necessarily in the same colour scheme - BRC used red during the transition era





I started by shortening the underframe





I then removed the bay and fixed the 2 ends together






Jon

 

Lastly I test fitted the 2 parts together




The next stage is to lengthen the roof and remove all trace of the windows.

Jon

 

Look good so far, keep up the nice work. I have thought about building a Family Lines patio style caboose useing an Athearn as a starting point. Well that is a project for a later day. Keep us posted on the project.

 

Jon...that's a very nice job so far on the Beltway caboose.

And all this time, I thought Geordies only drank beer in their spare time :teeth:
Cam

 

Thanks guys. More updates as I do the modelling.

Cam, are you calling me a Geordie? Why I outta......

Anyway, beer makes me wobbly, and wobbly and modelling don't mix too well.

PS, the Bengal Lancer curry house is now a hostel for down-and-outs!! - sheesh (kebab)

Regards,

Jon

 

Ooops, sorry...I forgot Sunderland is south of the Tyne. Is there still a rail station near the Bridges Shopping Center?? Do your local hobby shops carry America railroad things or must you order online?
Do you ever see Eric Burdon lurking about? I hear he's an RR fan.
Cam

 

Now this is the sort of project I just love! Its nice to have cars that only your railroad had (and that no one makes a model of).

Look forward to seeing it finished.

 

Here's the latest progress on the cabooses

I filled in the windows with plastic and Squadron filler




Next I weighted the chassis with more than enough lead - double NMRA recommendation, so that the caboose creates some drag and helps prevent unwanted uncoupling in the train.





I painted the bodysides to show up any imperfections and then filled them with Milliput





Most recently I have extended the roofs, added side strips and started cutting out the windows - a long and slow job




Jon

 

What have you added to the trucks?

 

I built up the 'axle boxes' using the standard Athearn trucks and 'Milliput' epoxy filler. (Not sure if you have it in the US, but it is terriffic stuff to work with and is used extensively for repairing rusty spots on car bodies.) It is a paste, rather like plasticine, but goes rock hard after about 15 minutes.

I rolled a blob of the filler and applied it to the roller bearing, then cut the edges off while still soft. Once dry I trimmed and filed the box to profile. See what you think now the trucks are painted.


Window frames, roof walk and handrails in place






First layer of paint and decals applied.









Next comes the glazing and underframe details, before tackling the ladders etc.


Jon

 

Very nice so far Jon.

I'm running away from a scale project that involves some cutting. What kind/brand of glue do you use to hold them together?

verse

 

CA glue mainly, or Plasweld (from Plastruct) for small plastic-plastic parts.


Jon

 

Glazing, smokestack Plano ladders, brake wheel and handrails added






Now for some paint


Jon

 

Paint applied, the caboose enters service on Sweethome










Took longer than I anticipated, so the other 2 cabooses will have to wait a while, at least until I order some more Plano ladders


Jon

 

Finally, a comparison between the early style caboose with walkway and later post-1964 livery model (nb. some of the cabooses ran in red until at least the early 1980s, albeit without the roofwalk






The End


Jon

 

Very nicely done Jon how many will you be doing in total?

 

Thanks. I have another 2 cabooses of a slightly different design on the workbench which will get the early and late paintschemes. I will need another couple of sets of the excellent Plano ladders first, though.


Jon

 

Very nice model. Do you use squadron putty as filler?

(he he was snaeking into TB on my break and skimming. Didn't see the line where he says "filled with squadron putty" lol. Yep squadron putty.)

 

Great job on both!

 

One set of coupler cut levers added - and a second caboose, to boot. The longer caboose is based on a 32', 1953 prototype and one is preserved in the Illinois Railway museum (#223)













So far I have only sufficient lettering to finish one side of each caboose - I ran out of C's - but I have some on order.


Jon