Transfer Caboose O-Gauge Model

Yes, Lionel has offered a transfer caboose of the type you mention in several roadnames. Simply enter "Lionel transfer caboose" in your favorite web search tool and you should see several.

Yes, Lionel has made them but never in scale to the best of my knowledge. I would love to see someone do a scale Penn Central one:

I just "googled" Lionel transfer caboose and found quite a few roadnames. My only complaint would be that the roadnames I found were all northeastern railroads. I did like the Bethlehem Steel transfer caboose though.

I was hoping to find a couple southern roadnames to choose from, e.g. SAL, ACL (not purple), L&N, Southern, N&W, etc.

I want to build this one but so far I have not talked myself into sacrificing my VO-1000 for it. Malcolm

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/gn/gn-x325agh.jpg

Here's a picture of a Lionel transfer caboose that I repainted for Milwaukee Road. It's  fairly realistic - really just a wooden shack on a flatcar. I think the top part is actually the doghouse from the old postwar work caboose. It looks quite a bit like the ones the Milwaukee ran, except that the Milwaukee ones were steel and they were built on old steam tender chassis rather than flatcars. The biggest problem I had with the repaint was that the railings are some sort of slippery flexible plastic - maybe polyethylene - and they don't want to take paint, even if you sand and prime them. 

The locomotive is a Lionel SD-9 that I swapped a Milwaukee Road Geep body onto and renumbered. 

I kitbashed a PC N9 using a Lionel PS-1 boxcar for the frame and floor.  Here is a photo of the finished product.

Tom

Here is IRM's Rock Island transfer caboose. I don't know if there is an O Gauge version.

Really nice N9 transfer Tom!  Thank you for sharing.

Malcolm, you should check MTH for parts.  Maybe you can pickup just the frame?

Fred

I want to build this one but so far I have not talked myself into sacrificing my VO-1000 for it. Malcolm

Me too, Malcolm. Many of these GN transfer cabooses survived well into the BN era. Here is a picture of BN 11474 (ex GN X-180) at the West Coast Railway Association museum in Squamish, BC. Time for me to go back there with my camera and tape measure! 

Wow! Tom, that is some intense kitbashing.

You ever consider selling some of the products of your talent?

Thanks guys.  I had a lot of fun building this one, but I'm not really interested in producing them for sale.  I have been thinking of building another one with the logo paint scheme.  MAYBE..... I could document my progress and show everyone how I did it.  Probably won't happen until after the first of the year, however.  As the old saying goes: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.  Teach him how to fish and he eats for life."

Here are some photos of it under construction.  The real (red)one is owned by a local business that was gracious enough to let me crawl around on it and get measurements.

Tom

Red Block,

 Plans were published several years ago in RMC. I decided instead of sacrificing my VO1000 I would just copy it. I have one end done this morning.

Tom, Beautiful PC cab!!!

Malcolm

Got this far today.

Looks great, Malcolm.  You work a heck of a lot faster than I do!!  Where did you get the material for the steps?  This is exactly what I'm looking for for the end decks of my next N9.

Tom

I want to build this one but so far I have not talked myself into sacrificing my VO-1000 for it. 

Why would you have to sacrifice a VO 1000?  Why can't you use Williams/WBB ALCo Fa-1 trucks? They are a LOT cheaper!

Trucks were not the problem, it was the frame but I decided to build it to save my VO. I am using Atlas trucks that I have modified.

Malcolm