Has anyone figured out the prototype for the new KATO caboose? I have looked at several caboose books and searched the web for caboose photos, and I have not found any caboose that matches the photo on KATO's web page. The fact that KATO's photo doesn't show any reporting marks doesn't help
Hello Larry, a warm welcome to Trainboard, and to the N scale forum (the happening forum) I think I read somewhere that it was described as "an American style caboose", which is probably code for "freelance"! ------------------ Alan The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale! www.alancurtismodels.com Andersley Western Railroad Alan's American Gallery
Isn't the caboose as American as apple pie? I don't recal seeing them on foreign railroads... (but I'm probably wrong) ------------------ espee2 Railroading in Southern Oregon www.tunnel13.com layout: SP's Newberg Branch in N scale
Yup, but there are an awful lot of different ones ------------------ Alan The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale! www.alancurtismodels.com Andersley Western Railroad Alan's American Gallery
Hi Larry, and welcome. I hear the Kato caboose is on a "North-Eastern prototype" of which not many can recognise. It may have been a little used one. E2, as for cabooses being used on foreign roads, yes, they were used throughout Australia and the UK, but were generally phased out just before the caboose took the final plunge in the US. Here in Australia we called them guard's vans and they came in many shapes and sizes. Gary. ------------------ Gary A. Rose The Unofficial TC&W page TrainBoard Moderator and Member No.377 N to the Nth degree! [This message has been edited by Gats (edited 02 December 2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sir Gats: Here in Australia we called them guard's vans and they came in many shapes and sizes. Gary. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Hey Gary.. are they still round? I see heaps of coal and freights going thru Sutherland etc without a guards van.. they only have the pushbike size light flashing on the back of the train??? ------------------ CK& Bird Butt Railroad - Its a coal mining region of a place far far away, that shares rails with SP, NS... Era: Time stands still round these parts, and we have everything from Steam, to Diesels...
IMHO Bogus! I prefer the Atlas and Microtrains ones. As always, Kato stuff looks and runs good though.
Welcome Larry. Good to have you. I'm a displaced Kansan myself. Charlie ------------------ Ship It On The FRISCO! | IAMOKA.com
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by virtual-bird: Hey Gary.. are they still round? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> O/T reply follows... The only ones you will find are in the museums or on someone's rural property. WB (without brakevan - also another name used) working is using the flashing light and it commenced sometime before '86 if I recall right. Initial flashers were merely barricade flasher types with a red lens and no air checking (dumb). Since then, LED based units have been introduced on some of the 'shortline' operations, still 'dumb', and the types NRC use which have air checking like the US/Canadian EOT/FRED's. ------------------ Gary A. Rose The Unofficial TC&W page TrainBoard Moderator and Member No.377 N to the Nth degree!
This was discussed earlier this past summer on the N List at egroups.com I thought I had bookmarked that thread, but I could not find it this morning. At any rate it is supposedly based on a Canadian shortline caboose from the Essex Terminal Railway (ETR), in the Windsor, Ontario area. See the Kato caboose at this URL http://www.katousa.com/images/2000Poster/CABOOSE_780.jpg I have a b/w photo of ETR 55, a similar caboose, but I am not sure how to post it here. How do I post photos on Trainboard? You can email me off-list and I can send you the photo of ETR 55. dondia@gateway.net N Joy Don Brown Tucson AZ USA
The Essex Terminal suggestion led me to a web site which did not show up in my previous searches. The site, http://lib2.clark.cc.oh.us/caboose has a photo of an ETR caboose #55. This caboose is NOT the prototype for the KATO caboose. It has completely different riveted joints from the KATO prototype photo. The color scheme and #56 in the KATO photo would suggest that the caboose in the photo may be ETR. However further down the page, I found photos of three Monongahela RY cabooses which are dead ringers for the KATO caboose body. Anyone know anything about this caboose?
There is a Union Pacific (Yellow with red lettering) Steel Caboose #25660 sitting on a short storage siding at the southwest corner of Landcaster Blvd. and Handley-Ederville Road in Fort Worth, Texas. IT has been there since last spring. I checked and it was still there at noon today 12-5-00. It is all locked up and on Railroad property, but there is easy access to it from all directions with parking where guys park cars for sale over weekends. It would not be difficult to get photos, maybe inside also, I don't know. Its cold here, so unless someone really wants photos of this one, I wouldn't get any for myself, I've seen more than one of these, and this one is beginning to get some rust at the seams. The BNSF comes by here about every thirty minutes or so, so not any vandalism I could see from the road. ------------------ Watash #982 [This message has been edited by watash (edited 04 December 2000).]
