ATSF Wartime “Church Pew” caboose

Interesting concept for sure... Great model as always, Malcolm.

Yves

Beautiful work Malcolm.  Welcome back!!

You don't know me but welcome back mate, I like your work. Roo.

I built a model of one of those, but not an exact scale model as that is, as l like "different" cabooses. Will want to see your finished model, and have missed seeing your efforts on here.

Thanks guys! Here are a few “almost finished” photos.

Malcolm welcome back, it's great to see your fantastic workmanship again. My all time favorite caboose is the Akron Canton and Youngstown bay window I got from you. Has to be one of the best on the planet!

Great to have you back on the forum. You have been missed! Never heard of the church pew caboose, and can't imagine how you would convince someone to take a ride on the top of that thing.

Beautiful work as usual...

Your use of an Exacto knife is like a painter using their brush.   Thanks for sharing your work.

Very interesting.  I'm sure the originals were the brainchild of some penny pinching RR exec, re-purpose an old freight car into a cabin car on the cheap.  Nice work as always Malcolm.  Good to have you back.

Hey Malcolm, welcome back.

Do you have any idea of the reason for this seating on top of the roof????

Ron

Incredible model you've made! Can you elaborate on the history of this prototype? 

Riding up there certainly could make one find religion...

Rusty

coach joe posted:

Very interesting.  I'm sure the originals were the brainchild of some penny pinching RR exec, re-purpose an old freight car into a cabin car on the cheap.  Nice work as always Malcolm.  Good to have you back.

From what I remember reading, these were wartime rebuilds.  Expediency, material shortages and increased traffic are the reason these were built.

Rusty

Good looking model! 

Jeff C

Is this the OSHA version?

The "church seats" are OSHA.............. Outside Seeing Heavenly Angels if you sat on those things very often.

coach joe posted:

Very interesting.  I'm sure the originals were the brainchild of some penny pinching RR exec, re-purpose an old freight car into a cabin car on the cheap.  Nice work as always Malcolm.  Good to have you back.

Nope, as stated earlier there were plenty of boxcar cabooses/cabins during World War II.   Shortages of materials as well as wartime priorities made for many creative ways to save man hours and materials.   Think of the common NX23 Pennsy boxcar cabin made by adding porthole windows as well as a small bay window to an X23 single sheathed box car.

Interesting concept, it's cupola seating without the protective cupola.  Must have been interesting getting up and down during train movement and I can't imagine being up there with slack action banging that car around. 

Would be great to know what type of service they were used in to make more sense of the Santa Fe's idea.

Surely just on branch line service where speeds were low. 

Will Ebbert posted:

Surely just on branch line service where speeds were low. 

Doesn't look like a branch line to me...

Rusty