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B&M Branchline Caboose Kitbash Ideas Locos and rolling stock
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Regular poster 222 posts fishnmack Regular poster 222 posts
fishnmack

Looking for good ideas on slicing and dicing an Athearn wide vision caboose to create a reasonable version of a Boston and Maine branch line (buggy) caboose.  By "reasonable" it does not have to be museum quality to detail, but to have clean craftsmanship and better than a general representation of the prototype.

The International Car Co. rebuilt thirty-eight cabooses in 1959 from fifty wooden bodied, steel framed cabooses for the B&M. Many of these cars served into the 1980's, generally in branch line service.

My initial idea is to remove part of the the Athearn body where the cupola sits and glue the two halves back together.  A Moloco kits narrow cupola could then be dropped into place after a new roof cut-out would be created.  A shortened frame assembly is an obvious need, but with altered truck spacing.  The restroom window will need to be relocated.

Not quite for sure about the prototype length of these cars or other fairly pertinant data.  All of my initial calculations have been taken from photographs on various web sites.

Has anyone tried this project, lessons learned, better ideas, creative input, all of these subjects are more than welcome.  I have a razor saw and am not afraid to use it, but I also see no need to waste a donor model if there is a better way to attack this project.  Thank you in advance, M.

 
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David Husman dave1905 MRH Author 9,833 posts
David Husman dave1905

Kitbash

My suggestion would be to base the length on the roof.  Set the length based on the number of roof panels on the prototype or that fit the length closest to what the caboose looks like and then adjust the sides and under frame to fit.

if most of the windows were plated over it might be easier to use plain sheet styrene for the sides, just keeping the roof and ends.

Dave Husman

Visit my website :  https://wnbranch.com/

Blog index:  Dave Husman Blog Index
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blindog10 Prolific poster 3,324 posts
blindog10

What's the # series?

So we can eyeball these puppies. 

I'll second Dave's suggestion about working to the roof panels, because you want those panels, especially the embossed ones, to all be the same width.  That said, another issue is the Athearn wide vision's roof panels are wrong for ICC cabooses.  He misread the drawings for the diagonal panels and gave us a roof more appropriate for some made at the NYC's Despatch Shops.

Scott Chatfield 
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fishnmack Regular poster 222 posts
fishnmack

B&M Caboose

Thank you Dave and Scott for the fine ideas to base the size of the caboose on roof panels.

My initial idea was to base the size on side panels since both the Athearn and Atlas model have the same width. Maybe that was an International Car Company standard.  With just six side panels, this is a short car.

The series of caboose that I am thinking about was renumbered several times, but for an early 1970's appearance, car #115 would be a good example. A late renumbering has these cabooses in a series around #485. An earlier renumbering is in a series around C64R.

I stumbled across a web site dedicated to all things B&M.  This site is wealth of information for numbers and history, but their suggestion to use the Model Die Casting model for a starting point did not sound correct.  The peaked roof and square windows of the prototype seem to point to the Athearn model.

Currently out of pocket from my desk, I will pull out my scale and calipers on my return to check and measure roof panels.  Have not cut one piece of plastic and already this is turning into a fun adventure!  M.
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blindog10 Prolific poster 3,324 posts
blindog10

So like this?

http://rr-fallenflags.org/bm/bm-C084jpa.jpg
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fishnmack Regular poster 222 posts
fishnmack

B&M Caboose

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Yes, that is the style of caboose that I am looking to create.

http://www.faracresfarm.com  James B. Van Bokkelen's Unofficial B&M R.R. Page, this site is wealth of information concerning the Boston and Maine Railroad.
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blindog10 Prolific poster 3,324 posts
blindog10

Chop chop

Carbody ends from the Athearn wide vision, roof panels from the Athearn bay window, shortened frame from either, Moloco split-window cupola, scratchbuilt sides.   Don't know what you'll do for those trucks, although I gather they were retrucked after 1975, so what's your era.  Those old trucks look similar to those used by the UP, so maybe Centralia Car Shops sells them separately.   The Athearn express reefer trucks are also similar.   

Scott Chatfield 
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Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,784 posts
Neil Erickson NeilEr

Chop shop

Always interested to see what people come up with this way. Following. 

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

My Blogs
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fishnmack Regular poster 222 posts
fishnmack

B&M Caboose

Back at my desk and starting to compare models, the Athearn wide vision, Athearn bay window and an Atlas wide vision are all next to each other.  I totally missed the roof panel style of the Athearn to the prototype, thank you Scott for that "head's up!".

Maybe the better base model for this project would be the Atlas wide vision caboose model.  It is a much nicer model to start with; just shorten the body and frame, patch one little window and add a lower sill strip.  The Moloco split window cupola would still be used.  

It is always impressive how this type of project will morph from a quick (and cheap) essay to a much more involved (and expensive) modeling safari!  An internet trip to the Atlas parts department is in order account I am not willing to chop up the Atlas caboose currently on hand.   M. 
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