6557 Smoking Caboose/Potentially Stupid Question

Just a thought, but why don't you think about trimming it and gluing a donor step in from another caboose? If done well you would hardly see it and it is original. 

The cab number is what makes it unique. If it was mine I would do what Tim suggests but it would have to carefully done. Alternatively you could just add a smoke unit to a more common 6457. Lionel rereleased the 6557 a few years ago. You could likely use the smoke unit from that caboose in a 6457.

Pete

The only stupid questions are the ones not asked.

Funny you should ask.  I did this very thing about a year ago.  I had picked up a lionel 6557 caboose off of ebay. The original body shell was destroyed. I took cheap unpainted Lionel caboose and painted it and then applied microscale decals to it creating a Santa Fe 6557 smoking caboose.  Also dont forget to drill out the smokestack hole

I bought one that had been swapped over to another body too. You just need to cut the hole. I let mine sit on a powered siding so you can see the smoke.

Rob

There's goes the collector value.

Ah, but the OPERATOR value just increased.

I am not certain what the operator value would be.
Maybe my experience is not typical, but mine doesn't smoke very much.
I thought that I read that they generally do not produce much smoke.

If you are using an original heating element, the documentation states that a #55 bulb must used. The bulb is wired in series with the heat element, so the type is important.

The 6557 --or at least mine-- definitely does not smoke very much while it's running, but it produces thick plumes when the voltage is up and it's in neutral; so much so that it wafts out of the bottom of the caboose as well as the chimney. My kid loves it.

You didn't ask, but if it was mine, I'd use it as is.

Careful with all that smoke, you don't want to melt anything.

If you decide to modify another shell to fit (should just be drilling a hole, as previously mentioned), I hope you will save the old one.

Hello CW--

The good thing about swapping cabs is that it's easily reversible in a matter of minutes. I just wanted to make sure that other caboose cabs from the postwar period (6017, 6457, etc) would fit onto the 6557 base. The 6557 is the only caboose I have, and along with my other trains, it was passed down to me as a kid in the 70s.