Two cars in a group recently received are these fine examples of scratch building in American OO. Both are ATSF models built by James Trout. In the OO rosters put together by Temple Nieter he was always listed as James Trout but he actually had a professional name, Jimi Trout, and was an artist for Disney for more than 40 years. His OO models show some serious skill and are worth a close look.

First up is the caboose. I first saw this on a list from his son I wondered if it would be a simple ATSF lettering job on a S-C or Lionel caboose. No! This is a completely scratch built model and is of the distinctive ATSF design. Look first at the trucks; they are not commercial products (that still roll great) and are prototype specific. Then start looking around. There are a lot of details to feast your eyes on. The body is metal (thin tinplate, I think), the windows are real glass and then see inside? It has a full interior that is very difficult to see with the small windows. The roof can’t be removed, either, it is a detail you have to really work to see. A final detail to mention, the lettering is not decals, with the skills he had as a Disney illustrator he painted the lettering by hand.

The other car that I will focus on today is this boxcar. On first glance it looks like a nicely built up Eastern or Famoco car. But look closer, those are Scale-Rail Industries sides and this is not your average boxcar. Starting up top, the roof walks are not wood strip, they are of the metal grate type that is almost never seen on OO cars. The roof itself has the raised panels between the familiar Eastern/Famoco ribs. The doors are Eastern/Famoco as are the ladders. The underframe is made from shapes and the AB type brakes are visible under the car. The Andrews trucks are Nason (square bolster) and I believe are a choice on his part to be prototype specific. Finally note the good match of the paint, which is no easy thing to do today (especially with Floquil off the market) but he managed this easily I believe with his art background.

Both do show some effect from the long storage. I will clean both a bit more but then again, it does pass for weathering to a point! Every few weeks I will focus on a couple more of these cars, displaying craftsmanship worth taking a close look at.

UPDATE 2021: This is the first of the posts on his models and I still keep coming back to that caboose. In HO, this model is easily available and common. In OO, this is the only one! I can only imagine how many hours it took to build. Amazing model, worth highlighting beyond the photo seen in my book.