The Home Machinist!

Your caboose would look better if you added some details...
(yes...tongue firmly planted in cheek...)
You do enviable modeling! Thanks for sharing with us.
~RN

Rwilliams wrote:I have to give Donald credit for this addition to the coal box details. He recently went on a day long research mission to look at a C-30 caboose on display. I had visited the same museum a few years earlier and the coal box door was not there, so I just left a gaping black hole in the top of my coal box and moved on with other details. His photos showed a nice lid since a recent restoration of the caboose and I was inspired to construct a lid for the coal box.

A proper handle and some caboose green paint will soon follow to bring the top of the coal box up to the new standards.

Robert,

Glad my daylong trek provided missing details for your project. I am sorry to say that I was unable to find any prototype mouse holes in any of the woodwork, no signs of rodent infestation, nor was a mouser to be found. Must not have been a system wide problem.

For those interested here is a link to a couple of the C-30 photographs of the caboose in Mooney Park, Visalia, Ca.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dyungling ... 2010482713

As usual Robert, your work is impeccable.

Donald

Resistance was futile. Had to make the 90 mile Southwards journey to see Robert's caboose first hand. Upon arrival I thought I was at the wrong house when someone looking a lot like Tom Selleck opened the door. Once Robert's identity was established, an enjoyable day was spent talking cabooses and other interesting subjects.

Here is the first set of photographs from the recent travels.

Donald

And... Here are the rest of the suitable photographs. Thanks to Robert for allowing me to steal a full days time from his busy schedule.

Donald

Ok I'm a little confused, is this a new caboose being built or the first one? I would like to thank Robert for his caboose build and sharing it with us. I had a heart valve replacement back in 2013, and during my recovery I followed Robert's pictures and built my caboose with many details like his. This year I plan to put it on the rails.
Thank you again.
Don Jermyn

Hello Don, Robert is a man who freely shares his talents. He will need to jump in with the details but here is what little I remember.

The photographs I recently posted are of Robert's caboose, which is currently being built.

The attached Silver caboose is one Robert purchased several years ago and is putting the finishing touches on.

Robert is involved with others in helping them "kick up the detail" as Robert likes to say. I believe some of the photo's he has posted have been of other peoples cabooses. I was confused as well.

There is the Caboose that Jackman sells drawings for and has been featured in some of my photographs and Robert may also have posted some photographs of the "Jackman caboose" as he likes to call it. On Discover Live steam, in the for sale pages, the drawings for the Jackman SP wood sided caboose can be purchased.

All other details will need to come from the maestro himself.

Donald

While on the topic of Robert's many talents, he likes to set scenes for photographic endeavors. In fact we are suggesting an hour or so window during the Friday of a meet to be set aside so trains can be positioned and photographed as prototypically as possibly. Here is a couple of our earlier attempts.

Donald

The issue of the missing coal box door has been resolved and then a proper looking handle had to be secured. I almost ended up making a handle and then stumbled on to a nice handle casting purchased from Howard Groin at the last Train Mountain gathering. Had forgotten about the purchase of the handle until the Christmas chaos had subsided. Then a set of hinges was located in the doll house department of eBay. Just might look like the original with some fasteners and green paint.

This is very unfair. Very, very unfair.

Flaunting work of this nature to those of us who are mere mortals.

Glenn

Jeff Smith of Branchline products also provides a similar brass cast handle. Used these as hand holds on the end of the my cupola 'boose. Carl B.

Carl,

Yes, the Jeff Smith product is a rather nice handle and the one I used on my tool box build. I considered the Jeff Smith handle for my coal box but did not want something larger than what would look good for the smaller area of need. When I set the Gorin handle casting on the top of the door compared to the Jeff Smith handle casting, it was an easy visual decision to go with the slightly smaller handle.

Both products are very high quality and just need to be applied properly in our model building needs. I believe we both got it right in that regard.

Robert

The top posting on page 16 of this series gives a quick look at the restroom/battery box almost completed and ready for the interior green paint. I was in a big hurry to complete this pilot model part for my friend and seldom took detail photos of the construction details soon hidden once the sides are glued together. This second restroom/battery box is better documented in relation to how I constructed the hidden interior supports for the battery.

The battery shelf is never glued into place so wiring can be manipulated at any moment in the future. Just need to allow enough room for the wires to rise up from the hole in the floor and access the top contacts on the battery. I can shim the battery shelf if needed for a higher setting once the height of the sides are finalized. This build will feature a slightly taller restroom as the ceiling in my caboose will be a bit higher than the one in my friend's caboose.