S&A Weaver NE Caboose

[DaveJfr0]

Okay, one post of sadness and disappointment needs to be balanced with a project that turned out relatively well.

Took the ubiquitous Weaver NE Caboose and upgraded the molded-in details, modified some stuff to match the prototype, piped out the underframe and all and gave it an accurate paint scheme for something found on SOU rails.

Kept the basic interior, added some tubing to represent prototype pipes for lighting and lit the interior with an NCE Light-It and some SMD LED's.







for reference:

[up148]

Nice job Dave. You captured the prototype well. The decal is super.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[De Bruin]

Dave, excellent looking caboose, well done, the only problem I have with it is, if I had it, how I could get an appropriate S&A Baldwin DRS-6-4-1500 in front of it?
8^)

Were the trucks under the model stock from Weaver?

That would indeed have been sweet if Weaver did Taylor Flexible trucks,
As an aside I suppose that means this caboose was an ex-Reading car?

[DaveJfr0]

Were the trucks under the model stock from Weaver?

No these are OMI brass Taylor Trucks, another upgrade, which cost more than the rest of the materials combined, lol. This cab was one of two ex-Reading cab AFAIK.

[sarge]

Were they acquired during the Baldwin era or later when the Southern black & white stuff held sway? I do remember high-nose GP35s with AAR B-trucks and SA sublettering. Very cool looking things.

The late '60s and the '70s were an interesting time for those cabooses wandering about. I seem to remember some of the old Reading cars getting sold off first when they bought the big International extended vision "Cadillacs" and again at the beginning of the Conrail era in '76-'77. I'm rather curious whether S&A got theirs during one of those events or earlier when Reading would build them new-to-order for a number of railroads.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[sarge]

I'm very glad for those cars and pretty much everything they did in Northumberland. Unlike so many of the Kader imports, you're not starting from "behind scratch" in noodling them up for a particular prototype. We were very fortunate to have Bob Weaver and his stuff over the years.

Like your car, Dave, I've found them the perfect place to start on a build. Admittedly these are ops-grade conversions rather than contest winners like yours appears to my eye, but:









I have more in the queue; a couple earlier Valley cars, an LNE and at least one plywood L&HR.

[E7]

Dave, An 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Sad to think that now all we have is the dreaded EOT device!

Rich

[DaveJfr0]

Martin,

I was lucky another modeler had an unused pair and was willing to sell to me. Never reached out to Bill Davis. I never saw them listed on his site.


Sarge,

Those are nice cabs.The screens look custom, but what about the steps? Almost looks like Weaver made those. I'm guessing the trucks are non-Weaver too.

[sarge]

Thanks for the kind words, Dave,

The steps are LV specific, a 3d print off Shapeways. The screens are actually from a sheet of styrene siding that came from the UK, brand I've now forgotten. The back-side of the sheet had that wonderful texture you see, so I played with them a bit and got that effect; cut shapes, then framed with Evergreen strip. The screen effect is shoe dye cut with methylated spirit, brushed in after painting. Rock shields on the ends, end windows cut in, new roofwalks, hoops atop the ladderwork, new taller stovepipe, drip strips over the windows, paint and weather.

The trucks aren't quite correct, but kinda close; Walthers, oddly enough. The right trucks are scarce; keeping my eyes open but I'd need four pair when all is said and done.

[DaveJfr0]

Thanks for the kind words, Dave,

The steps are LV specific, a 3d print off Shapeways. The screens are actually from a sheet of styrene siding that came from the UK, brand I've now forgotten. The back-side of the sheet had that wonderful texture you see, so I played with them a bit and got that effect; cut shapes, then framed with Evergreen strip. The screen effect is shoe dye cut with methylated spirit, brushed in after painting. Rock shields on the ends, end windows cut in, new roofwalks, hoops atop the ladderwork, new taller stovepipe, drip strips over the windows, paint and weather.

The trucks aren't quite correct, but kinda close; Walthers, oddly enough. The right trucks are scarce; keeping my eyes open but I'd need four pair when all is said and done.

Brian - for not having done much, you've done a lot to "prototize" them. Yep just coined the phrase. You heard it here first, lol. I thought the stovepipe mighta been Weaver since its a separate piece, but that one looks great. The window screens came out really nice for being styrene, though I'm guessing they're opaque. I guess not really an issue if these are ran with no lighting inside. Makes modeling the interior easier!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[DaveJfr0]

The steps are LV specific, a 3d print off Shapeways.

Those looks nice and light; what material are they printed in? Brittle at all? I've been finding some of these ever so nice detail parts to be surprisingly brittle.

My experience is that the ultra frosted types (super detail) from shapeways are indeed brittle. If you need any sort of serious robustness, you gotta print in wax and work with someone who can cast them in brass.

I do have several fragile parts on some of my diesels, but very few. Most of the stuff I'm printing going forward with this method are for scenic or interior use. (I designed/printed an entire caboose interior's worth of gear...project still TBD.)

[sarge]

These steps are as robust as the styrene ones that came off the cars, so perfectly satisfactory in the choice of print material.

I have a couple SW1 bodies that are 3d prints, one of the frosty plastic materials of which there are several. Working them is no issue for brittleness and, again, no more scary than styrene for workability or handleability. I wouldn't want to hit the floor with one after a drive makes it appropriately heavy any more than, say, a Red Caboose Geep, nor would it meet the robust-as-my-toys-were requirement of the three-rail world, but they seem to be perfectly handleable with the respect due a model. They are pretty big prints given where this all started.

Yes, the screens are opaque, but as you mention it isn't an issue since illuminated interiors are not a priority here. Since the purpose of the layout design is as a proto-ops platform the lighting is designed for being able to see what you're doing; it's always daylight during our ops sessions. Grin!