In May I saw in the Facebook group a post by Jeff Barker on a project he had going, which involved using parts of two Scale-Craft cabooses and sides from a Mantua (overscale HO) caboose to make a nicely scaled Northeastern caboose in OO (this link should take you to the post).

This was an approach I had not considered! I did at one point however own a Mantua caboose that had been kitbashed into a nice OO model by Bill Gilbert. What he did was take two of them, split almost down the middle, and blend the bodies together, which may be seen here. Take a look at what he did, it is a rather nice looking car.

That caboose I sold a few years ago — maybe I should have kept it for whenever I finally get a Nason Reading 2-8-0 running — but I did have the leftover sides from his project and that gave me an idea. How about splicing the sides into a single Scale-Craft caboose body? This is the type of quirky project that can get my juices flowing.

So, I got to it this past week. It took multiple cuts and at least three blades but I still used my trusty jeweler’s saw to make the cuts. The zinc material cuts like butter compared to the brass I’m cutting more often. Then I used the big file seen to open up the space, leaving things looking as below.

What we need next are sides. I’ve gone a bit further now than the photo below, which shows what I started with.

The reason Jeff had to use two S-C bodies for his project is because the sides are longer than the SC sides by essentially one panel on the end, plus also the S-C cupola is off center. I’ve got a couple options how to deal with that, but I’m leaning toward eliminating a window on the “small” end of the car, leaving only 3 windows.

It will be a freelance caboose design never before seen, but I think a nice change of pace from all the Scale-Craft and Lionel cabooses. Be watching for part II when I have the body together.

Continue to Part II