Having already built a couple of Ambroid's O-22 ATSF Caboose kits (Please ignore the 'lobster claws' on these two cars and read/look onward)...
I came across a third kit at a price I couldn't resist. Rather than build yet another of the same style, I decided to see whether I could find a more interesting variation. Found some photos and a couple plan views of an earlier side-door version of their wood-sided waycars, checked some dimensions, decided it was doable...
Here it is pre painting/finishing (cupola not attached at this stage)...
The prototype was only 1 foot longer in the cabin than the original kit version. So the fabricated side door was the perfect location for absorbing the 'stretch' in the sides. In actuality, only the two floor components and the roof/sub-roof kit parts needed an extra 1/4" added...1/8" stripwood at either end...to fit the plan.
So, what just came off the workbench a couple weeks ago, is the finished waycar...
The trucks are modified Athearn archbar...I/M wheels, PS leaf springs. Marker lights by Tomar, battery powered by Evans Design.
I decided to use Kadee couplers for this build. I then wondered whether I could modify one dummy 'lobster claw' coupler to fit the Kadee box. I did. It works. Takes but a couple minutes to make the change. When I run this car on my O3R layout, I put the LC on the long end. When she's displayed...on the ready track..., she wears the Kadees both ends. If I win the Powerball Lottery someday...and live another 78 years...I may convert everything to Kadees. Meanwhile...
This was a very satisfying kit build plus. My only disappointment was in trying to obtain additional information regarding this particular prototype car and its unique features...especially the underbody. For those first two kit builds, I was able to find sufficient information regarding underbody piping/braking to add those details in a bit more than rudimentary form.
However on this particular side-door version, I could only find textual confirmation that the huge tool cabinet did, indeed, extend the full width of the car. I also had an old brass HO import model of this caboose style that had the full-width tool cabinet...and no other braking/piping/leverage componentry. As big as that cabinet was, where were all the usual airbrake components, and how would they have been serviced?? Probably the biggest disappointment was seeking help from a historical group to which I've belonged for 20+ years...several email addresses therefrom...and receiving no responses whatsoever.
Perhaps my inquiries were viewed as 'SPAM' and blocked? Dunno.
So, I'm sure it's no contest winner. But that's not what this project's goal was. I had a lot of creative fun building a unique kit variant.
FWIW... And thanks for looking!
KD
