Great Norther Wood Sided Caboose

Gerry49er posted:

our club recently obtained a very nice GN Mikado steam engine and we are looking for a era equivalent GN caboose to go with it. It seems that we can find one that best represents this era but they all have the safety message on them or they're the wrong color or the GN logo is in the wrong place. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Buy the model that you like and custom paint it. 

I wish I had my pictures on this computer to share.  Custom paint.  Make "decals" off of photos from Great Northern Railway Historical Society.  My wife and I have custom painted and custom decal from an actual photograph 3 Great Northern Railway wood-sided cabooses--including 1 is a "bobber!"

I can't wait until some looks at one of these and says:  "That's NOT prototypical."  Because, the paint is from historical paint chips and the decal is made identical to an actual picture.  So much for that!  :-)

Mullet River Models made a very nice GN wooden caboose kit. They are no longer in business but perhaps you can find one at a dealer or auction site. 

John C. posted:

I wish I had my pictures on this computer to share.  Custom paint.  Make "decals" off of photos from Great Northern Railway Historical Society.  My wife and I have custom painted and custom decal from an actual photograph 3 Great Northern Railway wood-sided cabooses--including 1 is a "bobber!"

I can't wait until some looks at one of these and says:  "That's NOT prototypical."  Because, the paint is from historical paint chips and the decal is made identical to an actual picture.  So much for that!  :-)

I checked on your site, it looks like you have a lot of GN stuff. Did you buy them all already decorated or did you modify some of them yourself? Do you have a GN wood side caboose you'd be willing to sell? If so you can contact me at gck49er@gmail.com

I believe an important question in this discussion is: what model of a Great Northern Mikado are you trying to match the caboose to? Is it one of the Sunset/3rd Rail highly detailed GN O7 or O8 models? If the steam locomotive model you are trying to match the caboose to is NOT a truly "scale model" of a GN Mikado, then an MTH nicely done GN painted caboose model would work just fine.

Jim R. posted:

Gerry49er posted:

our club recently obtained a very nice GN Mikado steam engine and we are looking for a era equivalent GN caboose to go with it. It seems that we can find one that best represents this era but they all have the safety message on them or they're the wrong color or the GN logo is in the wrong place. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Buy the model that you like and custom paint it. 

Not Everyone has the time, SKILLS or DESIRE to custom paint a Caboose, thus asking here if anyone knows of any that fit the need.

Doug

I too wish there was a nice GN wood caboose available. I have one, but it weighs 41,000 lbs. Also have an Oriental, Brass,  25 footer, we custom painted. MTH did a caboose with my number, (X582),  but the caboose is sure wrong. Paint wise, come as close as you can, but remember this. Regardless of paint chips, when companies mixed paints, you were never going to get a perfect match. Maybe today it is possible for a computer to match 100% a color you take in, but that wasn't the way years ago. Pullman green is another example. We have found more than 10 "Pullman greens" and that doesn't have anything to do with each mix of the formula. Remember too even today, when you buy paint, customers want to make sure they have the same batch number "color". The Safety Slogans were added to GN cabooses in the 50's, and there were 10 of them. For instance the number "2" slogan was on every caboose, whose number ended in number "2", thus my GN X582 caboose would carry...You Can't Afford an Accident. My restored car is restored to 1940 approx, thus no slogans! I also have a drawing for the placement of the herald and lettering etc. Hope this helps.

The GN Man posted:

Mullet River Models made a very nice GN wooden caboose kit. They are no longer in business but perhaps you can find one at a dealer or auction site. 

Any pictures of Mullet River Models GN caboose (kit)??

Gerry49er posted:

John C. posted:

I wish I had my pictures on this computer to share.  Custom paint.  Make "decals" off of photos from Great Northern Railway Historical Society.  My wife and I have custom painted and custom decal from an actual photograph 3 Great Northern Railway wood-sided cabooses--including 1 is a "bobber!"

I can't wait until some looks at one of these and says:  "That's NOT prototypical."  Because, the paint is from historical paint chips and the decal is made identical to an actual picture.  So much for that!  :-)

I checked on your site, it looks like you have a lot of GN stuff. Did you buy them all already decorated or did you modify some of them yourself? Do you have a GN wood side caboose you'd be willing to sell? If so you can contact me at gck49er@gmail.com

We modified several.  Not selling.  Thx.

challenger3980 posted:

Jim R. posted:

Gerry49er posted:

our club recently obtained a very nice GN Mikado steam engine and we are looking for a era equivalent GN caboose to go with it. It seems that we can find one that best represents this era but they all have the safety message on them or they're the wrong color or the GN logo is in the wrong place. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Buy the model that you like and custom paint it. 

Not Everyone has the time, SKILLS or DESIRE to custom paint a Caboose, thus asking here if anyone knows of any that fit the need.

Doug

I thought Gerry49er was asking the question. It seems like he's interested in a custom painted model. Maybe let him comment? 

Jim R. posted:

challenger3980 posted:

Jim R. posted:

Gerry49er posted:

our club recently obtained a very nice GN Mikado steam engine and we are looking for a era equivalent GN caboose to go with it. It seems that we can find one that best represents this era but they all have the safety message on them or they're the wrong color or the GN logo is in the wrong place. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Buy the model that you like and custom paint it. 

Not Everyone has the time, SKILLS or DESIRE to custom paint a Caboose, thus asking here if anyone knows of any that fit the need.

Doug

I thought Gerry49er was asking the question. It seems like he's interested in a custom painted model. Maybe let him comment? 

Gerry49er is the one asking the question, and I believe that Doug is simply clarifying my inquiry as to whether or not anyone knows where I can purchase one already made. Jim's curt response was NOT the response I was looking for as if making one ourselves was what we we looking to do we most certainly would have done that, and may still end up doing so. We were simply taking the easiest route first...

If you decide to paint one you may be able to find a set of the old Champ decals which were correct. They also are very east to build, grab some Evergreen scribed siding and give it a go.

Depending on how much money you are willing to spend, Overland Models Inc. imported an EXCELLENT brass model of the GN 30 foot wood caboose, quite some years ago. You might try watching eBay for one of those. I use the one I found behind my MTH model of the GN 4-8-4 in freight service.

Again, I would think a LOT depends on just how prototypically accurate you desire to have a CORRECT GN caboose to operate with your GN 2-8-2, assuming THAT model is prototypically CORRECT.

You are correct, ours is a 4-8-4, I don't know what I was thinking when I originally posted this...

Gerry49er posted:

Jim R. posted:

challenger3980 posted:

Jim R. posted:

Gerry49er posted:

our club recently obtained a very nice GN Mikado steam engine and we are looking for a era equivalent GN caboose to go with it. It seems that we can find one that best represents this era but they all have the safety message on them or they're the wrong color or the GN logo is in the wrong place. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Buy the model that you like and custom paint it. 

Not Everyone has the time, SKILLS or DESIRE to custom paint a Caboose, thus asking here if anyone knows of any that fit the need.

Doug

I thought Gerry49er was asking the question. It seems like he's interested in a custom painted model. Maybe let him comment? 

Gerry49er is the one asking the question, and I believe that Doug is simply clarifying my inquiry as to whether or not anyone knows where I can purchase one already made. Jim's curt response was NOT the response I was looking for as if making one ourselves was what we we looking to do we most certainly would have done that, and may still end up doing so. We were simply taking the easiest route first...

Hmm, interesting. You said you found the caboose you like but without the proper decoration. And then you asked for any suggestions. You said nothing about not wanting to obtain a custom-painted version. So I replied succinctly, not curtly, with that option. I didn't mean to imply you had to do the painting. (I have only dabbled in custom-painting myself and have otherwise bought from others when I'm interested.)

It seems like all the responses in this thread point to options that will require custom decoration. Good luck with your search.