[MOC] Caltrain C-50-9 Caboose

[jtlan]

Having built one of Caltrain's switchers, I decided to follow up with another piece of maintenance-of-way equipment.

Caltrain inherited much of its equipment from Southern Pacific, and these cabooses (two total) are no exception. International Car Company (by then a subsidiary of PACCAR) built the steel-bodied C-50-9 series of cabooses for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1980; the model number indicates they were the 9th order of the C-50 series.

The two units reside in the San Francisco terminus on Caltrain. My understanding is that JPBX tacks them on to work trains and uses them around Christmas for a "Holiday Train" special service. Despite this, and despite the relatively large number of these cabooses owned by Southern Pacific, I found it hard to locate diagrams. Fortunately, 
the Western Pacific Railroad tacked on 6 units to the Southern Pacific order (source), and I was able to find a drawing of that to work from. 

Internally, this model is a riot of SNOT; there are studs pointing in every direction, including upside-down! I'm particularly proud of the technique I used for the bay windows, where 1 x 2 x 1 panels close flush with sloped tiles. 2x3 tiles made some details sturdier, but the real MVP is Brick, Modified 2 x 4 x 2 with Holes on Sides!

Finally, for this model (as well as the MP15DC) I tried out a new "sticker" technique. Inspired by a frustrating experience with trying to cut and align sticker paper, I instead printed the caution stripes on regular printer paper, then attached them to the model with an ordinary glue stick. The longer "open time" allowed me to reposition the "stickers" slightly while applying them, making them easier to line up. Next step: printing up some gigantic Caltrain logos.

The end! Full gallery here, pending moderation.
 

[legobanker]

Nice build!  It appears to be 6 wide yes?

[Pdaitabird]

Nice use of SNOT throughout! I like the technique you used for the roof.

[SteamSewnEmpire]

I think I would have preferred an interior... but, then again, there's not much that could be done with 6w interiors, anyway.

Wasn't your locomotive 8w?

[jtlan]

6 hours ago, legobanker said:

Nice build!  It appears to be 6 wide yes?

2 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

I think I would have preferred an interior... but, then again, there's not much that could be done with 6w interiors, anyway.

Wasn't your locomotive 8w?

Rather than choosing a stud-width, I build all my rolling stock to the same scale: 15 inches/stud. Based on that, I figure out the correct width for the model. I find this makes for better models because they will all be the correct size relative to each other. Look how much larger the locomotive is than the caboose in real life:

Another benefit is this method frees me from the mental constraint of stud-widths. In this case, the caboose is 8 studs across at the bays (as is most American rolling stock). Meanwhile, the body is 6 studs + 2 plates, a solution difficult to see if one starts with the assumption "I'm going to make this model 6/7/8 studs wide".

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

As always a perfect work from you!

The stickers are the icing on the cake!

 

[zephyr1934]

Excellent work (I really like what you did with the gentle slope of the roof).

[Paperinik77pk]

Very nice caboose - I like lot the roof solution!

[jrathfon]

Great MOC! Nailed it! Lot's of good techniques here. Love the roof as well. As a side thought, and for others looking for a similar roof, with each side being three wide, you could sub in the minifigure bases for the tiling. Could actually do this on a 4 wide/side design with the 3x4 plates rotated the other direction.

[jtlan]

1 hour ago, jrathfon said:

As a side thought, and for others looking for a similar roof, with each side being three wide, you could sub in the minifigure bases for the tiling.

I actually considered this during development, but switched to alternating 2x3 plates and tiles to capture the "corregated" look of the roof.