MoPac short bay caboose kitbash

Excellent job on the model.

One of a kind, I am sure. Great job!  Imam kitbashing a number of New England short line cabooses and had planned on omitting the window screen till Imread your hint about the N-scale fencing.  thanks.

Beautiful Tim!

Saw one like this in the Pueblo yard in the late 80s although the

MoPac markings were gone.  Yours is very well done...please

post more of your work in the future!

Any idea where I can get some MoPac Screaming Eagle decals in O Scale for a cables U30C I'm doing?

Thanks,
Rick

Thanks everyone!  

Rick, there's one set of Microscale 48-704 decals listed in-stock at Des Plaines Hobbies.  These are the older '62-'74 sawblade scheme with the large "turbo" eagle on the long hoods.  If you need the later eagle+sawblade cab logo, I had to make my own for some GP15-1s before Atlas released them in Mopac.  They turned out just as good as the Atlas Master MP15DC logos, and even better than the Atlas GP15 ones, so I kept my custom-painted GP15s and sold the Atlas factory painted ones.  

Unfortunately I lost the cab logo artwork when my PC crashed a few years ago.  But, it's not too hard to make them.  I don't have an Alps printer that prints white, so I had to get crafty with a two-layer decal.  (Edit:  I didn't have any luck printing directly to white decal paper, but found that this 2-layer decal provided sharper results.)  After getting the size and aspect right, print the attached logo or similar on clear inkjet decal paper.  Seal with spray gloss clear.  The white parts of the logo will wind up as clear.  Then cut white decal film slightly smaller than the logo decal so that the white eagle and sawblade teeth would show through.  Position the white base decal first, then carefully overlay the clear decal with the blue and red printing.  I also wound up making the EMD builders plates on clear decal paper too since they go over the white sill stripe:

Tim, looks great.  Your side grab rails are perfect.  I picked up a brass OMI 2R shorty on eBay a couple weeks back and the curve in the grab rails is not right. 

Here's the artwork with the reverse image for the other side of the cab.  I also increased the font and made the white sawblade a bit larger so that they show up better in print.  Printing 1.8" x 0.5625" should be close in size compared to my factory Atlas Mopac MP15DC and my previous custom decal sizes.  

Gregg, Congrats on getting that brass caboose!  I had my eye on it too, which is probably another reason I decided to complete the kitbash project.  For the curved grabs I used a cap from a Floquil paint bottle to bend the wire to the right radius.  You might be able to use a cap from a paint bottle or similar to massage the wire back to the correct curvature.  

that's terrific work, congrats on finishing!

Very nicely done!

Great to see others here actually building stuff!!!

I think someone once said "cabooses are like potato chips - you can't have just one".  With that I decided to make another Mopac short bay window caboose.  This started as an undec Atlas standard cupola model so that I could get the frame, trucks and lighting components.  The platforms and steps are made from 24ga. perforated stainless steel with 1/32" holes shimmed with styrene strip.  I still need to modify the end rails to be more prototypical and add the roof details.  I'm hoping to paint it in a week or so.  This one is definitely better than the first one.

That looks great!

Thanks Gregg!  I've been more patient with this one and paid more attention to the details.

Outstanding conversions.

Hi Tim,

Great job on the caboose!  This has always been one of my favorite cabooses.  I used to hoard the Overland models in HO before my switch to O scale.

Did you have drawings to work for to build the model.  Years ago I remember seeing a book on Mopac caboose that had thorough information on the cabooses but I didn't spring for the book at that time.  I regret that decision still.  I figured possibly the Mopac historical society might have information I could use when and if I ever got around to building one.

Jim

Tim,

I think you have done a fabulous job! That is one handsome caboose. Is the Morton roofwalk on the second one from Protocraft?

Malcolm

Thanks Jim, Matt & Malcolm!  I grew up a few miles from the Mopac DeSoto shop where the SBW caboose bodies were made and then shipped to Sedalia, MO for final finishing and paint.

The tool box and fuel tank on the B end platform needed to be a scale 6" taller, so those were redone last night.  I'll swing by the LHS soon to get more .080 angle for the legs.  

Jim, I do have Cabooses of the Missouri Pacific Lines.  It has one schematic that shows the general SBW dimensions that's really helpful (roof length, truck centers, etc.).  I also printed out a side view photo at 1/4" scale for other dimensions.

Malcolm,  I was going to use some Atlas 6-bay cylindrical roofwalks like your models, but started looking for round perforated roofwalks like those on the Atlas Trainman PS-4750 covered hopper (BTW, those aren't available according to Atlas).  I looked everywhere for a suitable perforated plastic with no luck.  I thought about using Protocraft roofwalks, but wanted a larger sheet that I could trim to fit in as few sections as possible.  I found the 1/32" perforated stainless sheet on eBay and the seller cut it into manageable pieces (2.5" x 2.5").  It still gave my new Dremel a workout though.  I might opt for the Protocraft Morton roofwalks next time as their hole pattern is a bit more dense and they might be easier to cut and shape.  AND...thanks again for showing me how this cool caboose can be done.  Your work really inspired me to give it a try.

Looks good. looking forward to the finished and painted. 

Just the kind of project and craftsmanship that I'd like to have in OST.

Thanks MWB!  Not the greatest pics, but here are a few shots of the finished caboose.  It turned out so well that I'm going to redo the first one.  

If interested, Tim, contact me through the magazine.

Great work! Even though I am not a MoPac fan I do like the caboose. So after the rebuld of the other cab. Whats the next project?  

Thanks Doug!  I'm not sure what's next.  I'll probably let my wife have some more creative time...she's been very patient with me while I've worked on these.  

~Tim

WOW!!!

Dick