MOD: 7597 Western Caboose... in reality?

[roamingstop]

I have just taken my 7597's out of temporary storage to assemble and make sure all the pieces are present, before I started on a rebuild to a larger scale - it always looked a bit small. However I did a little google search for Western Caboose and came across this delightful little story of a restoration to Caboose #3. - so I thought I would share.

Looking at this, it seems that actually the scaling of 7597 Caboose was not too bad at all - if it had been made from reddish brown plates it would look excellent... even if it is a shed on wheels. I know where my next MOD will be.

Really not much space to add the full bunk bed and ladder. A small grey fuel stove is missing; formed from a cone and round brick would look fine. And some more reddish brown windows / door... 6 wide is very small. I removed the door frame + red door (why no brown) from the interior photos.

Edited May 3, 2011 by roamingstudio

[Legoless]

I think I prefer your MOC to the rather ungainly original!

Life aboard that caboose can not have been pleasant- for a start it had a very short wheelbase which would have made for a rough ride. Secondly, it is hard to regulate the heat from a stove like that, so in winter it would have been uncomfortably hot near the stove, but cold and draughty elsewhere from having to have the windows open.

On long American freight trains injuries to brakemen were common, resulting from the train driver (or engineer in US Speak) putting on the brakes and the brakeman not reacting fast enough to apply the caboose brakes to keep the couplings taut. With each wagon colliding with the one in front (due to the kind of slack couplings and lack of through-train brakes) by the time the caboose caught up there would be one hell of an impact. This was less of an issue on British freight trains since they were much shorter.