Just as some of the DL&W’s eight-wheel wood cabooses were re-sided, so too was this
model.The scribed wood has given way to styrene. PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
Modeling C&IM caboose 31: an ex-DL&W wood caboose gets steel sides Modifying the HO scale Sparrows Point Division kit/Scott Lupia
L
ast month I built and detailed the Sparrows Point Division DL&W wood caboose kit. The re-
sult was a very nice looking model of the DL&W’s eight-wheel wood-sided caboose. As was mentioned in Mike Del Vecchio’s article “The All-American Ca- boose” (July RMC) several of these ca- booses lived out the rest of their years on other railroads. I fell in love with the few DL&W cabooses that received metal sheathing and decided to kit- bash one using the same Sparrows Point Division caboose kit but with some modification.
The Chicago & Illinois Midland rail-
road had three ex-DL&W cabooses. The C&IM numbers were 31, 34 and 35. The 31 was the only caboose to re- ceive steel siding. The window all the way on the left of each side of the ca- boose was removed during this process, which altered the balanced look of the original configuration. The cupola win- dows were also modified at this time. The window on the handbrake end of the caboose received tracks and could
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
be slid open for ventilation. Other than those two modifications, the cabooses retained their distinct DL&W appear- ance.
Construction of this caboose started by building the core of the caboose per the instruction sheet. This was covered in my article last month. Rather than using the wood siding on this caboose, I cut new sides using .020″ styrene. This will represent the steel sheathing placed over the wood siding. I peeled the backing off of the wood siding and stuck it directly to the styrene sheet. I then traced the perimeter and window openings with a very sharp pencil. Next, I peeled the wood siding off of the styrene sheet and cut the sides using a hobby knife. I knew that the dimen- sions of the styrene siding might be a little off since I traced around the wood siding so I test fit each piece on the ca- boose core. When the parts fit to my liking I attached the styrene sides to the wood core with cyanoacrylate. Since the styrene siding matches the wood siding in thickness all of the oth-
er parts fit the styrene siding without any fussing around. I added the brass frame strips and wood caboose end flooring after the styrene siding was attached.
I opened the cupola windows to large rectangles at this point because I was not quite sure how the windows were arranged. Fortunately, a photo sur- faced showing the windows and their tracks. After the siding was attached I used a little Squadron green putty to fill the seams between the sides. After a little bit of sanding with fine grit sandpaper the seams were smooth and clean.
I added the window frames in the same fashion as I did in last month’s article. Outer frames first and inner frames after paint and decals. All of the window and door frames fit my sides perfectly since I had taken the time to test fit parts. I then added strips of .005″ styrene to the exterior of the ca- boose. There is a long horizontal belt rail and two small vertical ribs per side. I also scored vertical seams into
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