A&O Railroad Forum

A&O Railroad => A&O Projects => Topic started by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:24:07 AM

Title: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:24:07 AM

Back around the turn of the century Jay Barnaby had an idea to build a caboose for the Appalachian and Ohio 1.0. A visit to the greatest hobby shop in the world that will never close; Caboose Hobbies, provided a handful of pieces and parts. A couple different styles of styrene caboose window castings. Some cool Precision Scale brass caboose steps. A set of trucks and an Intermountain boxcar frame.  He dug up some arrangement drawing for a Rio Grande’s steel caboose to use as inspiration for window placement and general dimensions, after all the Grande’s home-built cabs are probably the best proportioned tail end ever seen on a train!

Jay wanted an older wooden sided car, so he started with some scribed styrene from Evergreen Models.  He laid out the car body and floor and cut out windows. And just like that, life moved on…college, a new career, a couple relocations, a new bride, couple of kids…twenty-five and a half years blew past! Somewhere along the way Jay handed me a shoebox holding the pieces of his still born caboose. “Always thought this would be a neat model someday” he probably said. About six months ago, while passionately arguing about some obscure but very important detail of some “what-if” model project, Jay asked me if I had paid any thought to that shoebox of parts. “Of course! It’s the next project on my list.”
Now where did I put that box? 

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:26:41 AM

Basic layout
(https://i.postimg.cc/zbvLrh9g/AOcab1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/zbvLrh9g)

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:29:10 AM

Adding layers of texture. Curved roof formed in a jig.
(https://i.postimg.cc/672Jx5M0/AOcab2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/672Jx5M0)

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:31:09 AM

Finalizing details including brass end railings. The ladders and brake ratchet are castings.
(https://i.postimg.cc/KkhZ9Mmg/AOcab3.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/KkhZ9Mmg)

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 24, 2026, 09:32:34 AM

Paint and decals visually tie everything together.
(https://i.postimg.cc/R6TzXpPn/AOcab4.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/R6TzXpPn)

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: Bob on September 25, 2026, 07:37:45 PM

Wow! That is some great craftsmanship, Rick!

Bob

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on September 29, 2026, 07:15:34 AM

Thanks Bob! It has been a ton of fun building this one.  I'm on track for it to be at the RPM open house next month.

Title: Re: The last wooden hack on the A&O; a quick 26-year project.
Post by: RickBacon on October 13, 2026, 09:25:07 AM

Only a couple days until the Colorado RPM meet!  This caboose is getting really close to finished.  Still needs air hoses, cut levers, and marker flags.  The weight (a piece of rebar) and conductor figure were epoxied in last night and the roof sections went through a final fitting and will be permanently attached after all the glue/solvents/paint have out-gassed.  The couplers still need a rusty finish and a hit of graphite.
(https://i.postimg.cc/yk44pQSH/AO-129.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/yk44pQSH)