Good Morning list, For all the folks that would be interested in this...I might as well send it to my wife...but anyway..been trying to do some modeling....1st the SHS Frisco caboose in the red and white...beautiful paint job but the cupola has the wrong window layout for the Frisco...but by golly you can relocate the windows to the outward edges of the cupola insert a filler panel of .020 or 030 painted plastic between the window inserts and save the paint job and have a great Frisco looking caboose. The one other caboose that with would apply to is the Cotton Belt International cabooses...but you are going to have to letter these cars...no paint job to save. Oh on the Frisco caboose ...caboose red is a decent color match for the panels.. One other thing you can do with a red painted caboose, is the last 8 of the Frisco cabooses in the 1200 series were built to another clearance plate in that the cupola is about 12 inches lower on these cars..so you have to move the windows, and then cut 3/16 off the cupola faces' bottom edge so the cupola will sit lower...you also have to remove Carl and his coffee cup or remove 3/16" from his chair and feet and with the windows relocated you can move him back as far as possible...oh you can also leave a window pane out for an open window and move Carl over to the window...might have to get rid of the chair and a bunch of Carl to get him in the window..these caboose did not. ok I have not seen a photo of one in red and white...the extended portion of the cupola goes down a foot lower than the top of the windows...where the regular cupola stops and this is also the top of the white strip...the line across the tops of the windows.
The other thing is the renewed use of the unit train coal cars in scrap service...this is modern...this is today. The Arkansas & Missouri has acquired some x-CP Rail bathtub gondolas these where painted black some time in the past and now they are in the A&M 1500 class of cars still in black and pac man showing thru the weathered paint..At the same time these cars showed up for service with TRG a bunch of DJJX cars showed up for loading at Rogers Iron and Metal these are much like the CP cars but a lot of differences..they are ACF Coalveyors...in looking at them...the brake equipment is on the A end of the car and the brake wheel is at the other end of the car...the brake wheel faces out on these cars.. On the x-CP cars the brake wheel faces inward, I knew that and the plans show it that way too also on these cars on the A end they have added two beams with a plate on the beams and grab iron ladder to get to the top of the car..the plate surface and grab irons are painted white..the side beams are still black. This ladder is right in the middle of the end and at a slight angle off straight. Then if you are still reading this far and still awake...I hate to bother everyone with this but since we have had to give up all the data bases of what everyone likes in the way railroads...Does any one have a caboose diagram book or any sets of drawings of Boston & Maine International Car Co cabooses? They carried these numbers late in life 453, 460, 463, 474 477. Also I came across this site while looking at unit train cars..lots of information: www.matts-place.com/trains/coal/coaltrains.htm You have now come to the bottom of the page...and that is it for now.. gale hall
