why can't I find this model in 0 scale?

Well, it is available - you just have to put it together.......a little glue, some trucks and other detail parts, and dab of paint and you'll be go to go.

https://www.labellemodels.com/...n-combine-p-150.html

The LaBelle kit MWB mentioned is On3 and has also been done in brass.  For a=n O Scale standard gauge version, check out this LaBelle kit:

https://www.labellemodels.com/...rs-waycar-p-154.html

ChipR

Back in the day, somebody (I think All Nation but maybe Walthers) made a very nice kit of a standard gauge drover's caboose from a Burlington prototype. I got mine on eBay a few years ago, so far I haven't gotten around to building it. 

Standard or narrow gauge? If'n you'll take narrow ga, Bachmann makes one in On30. Otherwise, like mwb sez, it's scratch or bash, unless you want to wait a long time for a (expensive) brass one to show up.

That's the one I was really looking for as an example - the On3 one just jumped up faster.  The La Belle kits are about 2-3 rungs up the ladder from scratchbuilding - someone else put all the parts in the box for you and provided instructions,

I'm scratchbuilding 2 variations of a drover's caboose right now in parallel - takes a bit of planning since I'm trying not to paint myself into a bad corner when it comes time to doing the interior.

Why, why, why?  Universal question, and all the answers above are correct.  I have a

fleet of scratch built ones, and Hallmark brass ones (T&P, and two styles of ATSF drovers), plus somebody else's ATSF side-door, all converted to 3 rail.  These last four were fairly common and inexpensive once.  I haven't seen them lately...but don't search brass on the net.  My motto is "no boring cabooses", with two common styles (uh, make that three) seen in tinplate, again and again, and again, studiously avoided.

I have one of these in my stable. Probably as close to a reasonably-priced drover caboose in O gauge as you'll find (some drovers were bay windows). This NP version is MTH No. 30-7725. I'm not sure what other road names it came in. (I think Pat's Trains has one in stock - you could paint and decal it for a different road name, if you can't find one in the railroad you want.)

Thank you very much guys!

Breezinup's MTH caboose is kind of ironic. MTH puts Bettendorf T-section trucks on most of its modern cabooses that should have roller bearing trucks, but here's a turn of the century homemade job that actually would be prototypical with them, and what does it have? Roller bearing trucks, which are as anachronistic on it as the turn of the century trucks on a modern steel caboose!

I have one of those; it's in the paint line waiting to become Milwaukee Road.

Simply put its prototype is a 3 foot narrow gauge car and it is avalable as a kit and brass model from several manufacturers in O scale  1/4" to the foot. it would be very small in size compaired to your O scale 4'  8 1/2" gauge equipment.  its based on a D&RGW car that ran on a train to Pagosa springs. very nice car that there was only one of but has been modeled thousands of times. hope this helps   rick

So just curious (and I suspect I may not be alone), what was a drovers caboose used for, and why is it different from most other cabeese?

Rod

As I understand it the drover's caboose provided quarters (sort of) for the cowboys who were transporting herds of beef cattle to market first overland to the railhead and then via rail to the final market. The term "Drover" describes the men who "drove" the herds long ways to the final market. Most likely not all the men needed for the transport of the herd accompanied the herd to the final market.

Here's a PW Lionel Drover's caboose:

Remember though, that a "Drover's Caboose" must have a side baggage door.

The car in the origanal post was a combination car uased on a local frieght and was set up to handle small frieght items , a few passengers , a cupalo for the crew to observe its train and a small desk at the rear for the conductor.  it ran up a branch line where a passenger train would be overkill. A drovers caboose was almost the same but was more for the crew and small frieght items to be handed of at local stations. most of these cars went away when roads and delivery services came into play. the pagosa jct car lasted becase of the remote are  of the line.

As I understand it, a "drover's caboose" was a rider car for the cowboys (drovers) accompanying the herd to market.    So it would not be on a local necessarily.   It might more likely be on a stock train going some distance from a railhead stockyard to a city-slaughter house stock yard.   The drovers probably had to water and feed the cattle periodically if the trip was more that a day I would think.   In modern times there were strict government rules for handling, feeding, and watering livestock on trains.   I don't when these developed.

So a drover's caboose is more a "rider coach" than a combine.    And it most likely would not have had a baggage door - but could have.  

The coach-caboose-combines (with baggage doors) were probably put on mixed trains that handled a small amount of express and passenger business on a local.

The drovers took their horses with them thus the side door.

Some brief information I found. There were different varieties of drover's cabooses, some with baggage doors, but some without. Some had no cupolas or bay windows, as well.

"Drover's cabooses looked more like combine cars than standard cabooses. The purpose of a drover's caboose was much more like a combine, as well. On longer livestock trains in the American West, the drover's caboose is where the livestock's handlers would ride between the ranch and processing plant. The train crew rode in the caboose section while the livestock handlers rode in the coach section. Drover's cabooses used either cupolas or bay windows in the caboose section for the train crew to monitor the train. The use of drover's cars on the Northern Pacific Railway, for example, lasted until the Burlington Northern Railroad merger of 1970. They were often found on stock trains originating in Montana."

"In the days when cattle were shipped by rail, the law required a stop every 50 miles or so to allow the cattle to be unloaded, fed, and watered.  A crew of cattlemen rode in a drover's caboose, which was an extended length caboose usually made from a converted boxcar with bunks and cooking facilities for the drovers.  Some drover's cabooses just added benches for the drovers in one end of the same caboose that the train crew used, and some were a second caboose just for the drovers, depending on the number of cattle cars and drovers being transported.
Special sidings were built where these trains could stop while the cattle were unloaded, and there were usually holding pens for the cattle."

ATSF 2318, Drover's Waycar
Date: 6/1/1960	Location: Holliday, KS   Map	Views: 566	Collection Of:   mark mcdowell
Rolling Stock: ATSF 2318 (Caboose)			Author:  mark McDowell

i'm pretty sure their first choice would be an empty stock car.  don't forget, this was also the train crew's living quarters.  sleeping under the stars next to your horse is slightly different than cohabitation in a small space.  if a door existed, it was for oversize baggage and supplies.