The Chicago Great Western gets a little bit of work on my layout. It basically interchanges with the Chicago Northwestern and hauls freight onto and off the layout. It has no yard or other permanent residence on the layout itself.
For what little work it does, I've got a pair of Atlas RS2s plus an old Athearn F7A-F7B combo that I detailed and painted as per a Model Railroader article that appeared many years ago. What I was missing were some cabooses to go with them. There wasn't really anything available that was an exact fit, though the Bowser NE style cabooses were close. I decided to make a "close enough" model that would keep the general look of the CGW caboose. Here was my general inspiration:
The caboose had small little ribs that were a distinctive feature. Also note the little safety dots along the bottom. I don't have any "in progress" pictures because I started this project before I started the blog. I had to shorten the deck length a bit to start. After that, I basically used small styrene strips to create the ribs and then found a can of spraypaint that was pretty close in color and painted the body. I then decaled it, including the safety dots which pretty much sapped my energy out of this project for the better part of a year.
After picking up the project again this past weekend, I stole some ends of a junk caboose that better matched the CGW model, and raided an old Athearn caboose for the "up and over ladders" (have no idea what they are actually called -- they go above the roof line and then arc back down, forming a sort of safety railing) as opposed to the straight ones that came with the Bowser kit. I also stole the metail running boards from the Athearn kit because the Bowser ones were wood, which weren't right. I also added Detail Associates grabs in various places and brushpainted them yellow.
I'm pretty happy with the end result. It certainly has its flaws as a "model", but looks close enough to the part to keep me happy. Here are some shots before I painted the running boards and end steps.
The photos make the finished product look a little more red than it actually is. Based on the various photos I've seen, the caboose color varied pretty widely anyway depending on age and upkeep.
I've got another undecorated kit that was originally going to be a sister caboose, but I had to raid a bunch of parts from other kits that I don't have any more of, so that project may be scrapped.
A better starting point today would be the Atlas NE caboose for the NH, which is what the CGW cabooses were based on. If I find one cheap at a show, I'll pick it up and make it into a CGW caboose, because it will eliminate all the body work I had to do on this one -- though I'll still have to add the ribs I believe.
For what little work it does, I've got a pair of Atlas RS2s plus an old Athearn F7A-F7B combo that I detailed and painted as per a Model Railroader article that appeared many years ago. What I was missing were some cabooses to go with them. There wasn't really anything available that was an exact fit, though the Bowser NE style cabooses were close. I decided to make a "close enough" model that would keep the general look of the CGW caboose. Here was my general inspiration:
The caboose had small little ribs that were a distinctive feature. Also note the little safety dots along the bottom. I don't have any "in progress" pictures because I started this project before I started the blog. I had to shorten the deck length a bit to start. After that, I basically used small styrene strips to create the ribs and then found a can of spraypaint that was pretty close in color and painted the body. I then decaled it, including the safety dots which pretty much sapped my energy out of this project for the better part of a year.
After picking up the project again this past weekend, I stole some ends of a junk caboose that better matched the CGW model, and raided an old Athearn caboose for the "up and over ladders" (have no idea what they are actually called -- they go above the roof line and then arc back down, forming a sort of safety railing) as opposed to the straight ones that came with the Bowser kit. I also stole the metail running boards from the Athearn kit because the Bowser ones were wood, which weren't right. I also added Detail Associates grabs in various places and brushpainted them yellow.
I'm pretty happy with the end result. It certainly has its flaws as a "model", but looks close enough to the part to keep me happy. Here are some shots before I painted the running boards and end steps.
The photos make the finished product look a little more red than it actually is. Based on the various photos I've seen, the caboose color varied pretty widely anyway depending on age and upkeep.
I've got another undecorated kit that was originally going to be a sister caboose, but I had to raid a bunch of parts from other kits that I don't have any more of, so that project may be scrapped.
A better starting point today would be the Atlas NE caboose for the NH, which is what the CGW cabooses were based on. If I find one cheap at a show, I'll pick it up and make it into a CGW caboose, because it will eliminate all the body work I had to do on this one -- though I'll still have to add the ribs I believe.
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