A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY

The caboose you see in the photos is what I call a "working model". I think we may build models to one of three levels of "quality": Throw-together, working, and contest. Anybody with much exposure to the hobby magazines knows the extreme detail and faithfulness to prototype required of the contest model. Building such a model is very, very time consuming and the result, while immensely pleasing to the eye, is often too delicate for the real world, or at least the part of it in my outdoor railroad. The throw-together type, on the other hand, usually looks incomplete to me. So I built 0505 to my "working class" standards: It has to look good from five feet away. That means the underbody will have only the most obvious details, the interior will have no details, and the delicate parts on the body must withstand handling, derailments, and other hazards along the right-of-way. I beef up those parts to make them more rugged, make them replaceable, or make them easily repairable. Luckily that usually has very little effect on how the model looks.

TOOLS YOU'LL NEED

Don't worry, you won't need a professional class workshop for this model and what you will need won't cost much! A complete tool list and also a parts list appear on the next page. For cutting, I find single-edge razor blades indispensable, along with a few sizes of razor saws. If you buy your razor blades at a paint or hardware store a box of one hundred should cost about seven dollars and last for years. You'll also need a good machinist's square at least four inches long. It's an absolute necessity for cutting sheet squarely, setting up square corners, and making models come out true. For clamps, my favorites are the kind of spring-steel binder clips you find at office supply and stationery stores. Get the kind in Figure 1. They are cheap, come in small, medium, and large sizes, and you'll need a bunch. Weights are often much better than clamps for gluing jobs. Go down to an industrial metal supply house and poke around the remnant box. Pick out four or five pieces of steel or aluminum of various sizes and weights, keeping the general dimensions to about 3/4-inch x 3 x 5. A hand-held vise may come in very handy; also a "nibbling tool" for trimming brass. Finally, because large-scale cars are just that--large--I would suggest buying a three-foot metal ruler to use not only for measuring but cutting. And be careful in picking one. Not all long rulers are perfectly straight!

LET'S GET STARTED

We'll begin with the cabin. By that I mean just the enclosed part, excluding the platforms, cupola, and roof. First we'll lay out the sides and ends as separate units. Then we'll assemble them into a unit. The sides will be a lamination of two 1/16-inch thick sidings. I used wood with 3/16-inch scribing. That's a bit oversize, but the only other choice, 1/8-inch, is undersize. You might prefer it the other way. The inner lamination may be plain. The wood grain of the outer siding should run vertically and the inner horizontally as in Figure 2. Crossing the grain maximizes strength and minimizes warp. And because the scribing on the outer siding runs up and down, you'll have to butt several pieces side-by-side to make a single piece wide enough. Using the square, cut off the ragged end from the sheet. Measure 3.7 inches and cut off the first piece with a razor blade. We'll need five pieces, assuming the siding you bought is the same width as what I used. Don't worry if the pieces are slightly too long; we'll trim them in a few minutes. At this point you must decide what method to use for the corners. Figure 3 shows both. On this model I used beveled corners but on other models I have used the "corner beam" method with equally good results. Keep in mind that if you use the "corner beam" method you'll have to round off the visible edges to blend in with the siding. In a similar manner, cut a sheet of wood the correct length for the inner siding. This time the sheet probably won't be wide enough so we'll need to butt it against a second, narrower, piece. Examine the cut ends of the five outside vertically scribed pieces for the most perfect end and mark them as the bottom edge of the car. The letterboard fascia will cover the other end, at the top. Also notice whether the vertical edges have an incomplete board. Scribed sheet almost always has at least one incomplete board. Trim it off, cutting at the groove, as in Figure 4. The idea is to cut and trim carefully and gently so when you place two pieces next to each other the groove with the joint will be as wide as the others and indistinguishable from them. Take the trouble to make your joints perfect; any defect will be painfully obvious on the finished model. When you have enough pieces ready to do one side, coat the back of the inside sheets with glue. I used yellow aliphatic resin carpenters' glue. Lay down the outer sheets carefully and gently so that the bottom line is as even as you can get it. Also make sure glue doesn't seep out into the joints. See Figure 5. If it does, clean it out well now, before it hardens. Now do the same thing again for the other side. After you have correctly aligned and butted all the pieces, put weights on the whole side until it is thoroughly dry. Allow plenty of time for the moisture to evaporate to avoid warping. This is one instance where weights work much better than clamps. The next step is to file or sand the bottom edge of each assembly so it will be perfectly straight. And if you cut those vertical pieces slightly long, now is the time to trim the top edge with a razor blade. At the moment you have two identical rectangles. But remember, a caboose has a right side and a left side. I find it handy to think of the window end of each side as the front and the cupola end as the rear. Mark the ends now, and do the same with each new piece you create so, as the model becomes bigger, you'll know where everything goes.

BUILDING THE WINDOWS

Next lay out the windows. We'll cut a big opening now and frame it in later. Measure 1.75 inch down from the top and 3.18-inch up from the bottom. Use a long straightedge and mark the horizontal lines for the window tops and bottoms. Run the machinist's square along the bottom edge of each side and, using it as a straightedge, draw in the vertical sides of the windows as in Figure 6. The other side will be a mirror image. Now let's cut 'em out, first to rough size, then precisely. Use a razor blade to cut around the inside of the lines, then push out the center. Or you may drill a starter hole and use a jeweler's saw to cut out the center. Either way is tedious! Next cut a piece of scrap siding squarely and precisely to the finished dimensions of the window openings. Glue another piece of scrap to the back as a handle. Mark it so you don't accidentally throw it out! This will be your gauge for the trimming process. I use files, not sandpaper, for most wood trimming and it is definitely the way to go here. Take a lot of care to file out each window opening to exact size and alignment. The results will be very visible. When everything is neat, clean, and aligned, it's time to install window frames. Shortline Foundry makes appropriate window frame castings and, for a few dollars, you may save yourself a lot of time if you use them. Skip this section if you are using window castings. If you like to scratchbuild everything as I do, or if you want to learn how to build up custom windows for other cars or structures, I'll explain how I do windows. My method looks fine from the outside but is incorrect if you plan to show off the interior of your model. As I said above, my model has no interior and this method is pretty quick (the drawing is in Figure 7). Cut a strip of wood 1/32-inch thick by 1/4-inch wide into twelve pieces, each about 1 3/4-inches long, to become the window frame sides. Begin by filing one edge straight and smooth. It will become the front edge of the frame. Next draw a line parallel to that edge, 1/8-inch in from it, the length of the piece. Draw a wavy line parallel to that first line. We'll put a thin line of glue over the wavy line and press it against the inside of each window opening. The straight line should just be visible along the edge of the window to indicate how much frame will stick out. If any glue oozes onto a visible part of the model, clean it off thoroughly. Working with one window at a time, glue in the right and left side frames. See Figure 8. Before the glue sets use a ruler and your eye to make sure the two pieces are parallel and have exactly the correct amount of width showing. and that the space between them is even and correct. Now do the top bar of the frame in the same way and using the same strip, but measure and cut the lengths to be a tight, square fit between the side frames. Put glue on the ends of the top frame where it butts against the side frames as well as where it rests on the cabin wall. Clean up excess glue thoroughly front and back. The bottom frames are wider, 1/2-inch. When you install them, allow .28-inch (instead of 1/8-inch) to show inside the widow opening. Now the bottom window sills. Make them out of 1/32 x 5/32 inch lumber. Cut each individually to fit tightly inside the opening. And note, as you glue, the sill slopes slightly downward--so the rain runs off, not in! Cut the top sills from the same size lumber and cut and install them just as the bottom sills but without the slope. Finally, using the same lumber again, make and install the side sills. And remember to cut an angle at the bottom to match the slope of the bottom sill. For the window itself I like to use real glass (available from Clover House). I got two panes out of every 2.3-inch by 0.9-inch sheet, using a Clover House cutter. If you prefer, Clover House also sells a very tough plastic called Lexan. DO NOT INSTALL THE WINDOWS YET! Strengthen the cabin walls by gluing 1/4-inch or 3/8-inch square beams along the top and bottom of each side and four vertical beams between them as in Figure 8. Remember, the beams along the bottom are longer and run the length of the car. [Editor's note: If you want the underbody framing more closely to copy the prototype, you also will want to add a floor to your caboose from 1/16- or 1/32-inch sheet. You'll do that in a little while. For now, leave off the lower longitudinal beams and trim the vertical braces by the appropriate 1/32- or 1/16-inch or you'll end up with a real problem later!] That finishes the sides for now. Put them aside and let's move on to the cabin ends.

NOW THE ENDS AND DOORS

The ends are very similar in construction to the sides except, instead of windows, each has a door. I make the ends as oversize rectangles, then round off the top after I cut the door opening. So make a couple of ends. Again, if you prefer to use Shortline Foundry's door and frame castings, cut an opening of the appropriate size and glue in the castings. On the other hand, once you've done windows, doors are simple. Cut the two side frames from 1/32-inch thick sheet and install them as you would window side frames. Then cut and install the top, bottom, and middle frames. Glue a sheet behind the bottom half of the door. And finish by laying in the vertical center piece. I suggest waiting to install the center bar of the window until just before painting because it is delicate.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

You should now have two sides and two ends; it's time to put the cabin together. Glue one side to one end, hold it by hand until the joint gets a little stiff, then use the square to make sure the unit is aligned both vertically and horizontally. While it dries, do the other two pieces. Remember you're assembling a mirror image, and don't glue on an end upside down. Now join the two "L" units. If you glued everything squarely, they should fit perfectly. Still, it's a good idea to double check everything with the square. Cut four interior braces from the same square beam material you used for the sides. They'll go along the top of the cabin. Two should fit under the front and back walls of the cupola and one an inch or so from each end as in Figure 9. If you place them too close to the end you'll see them through the door. [Editor's note: Ignore the step in this paragraph and the one in the following paragraph until installation of the floorboards if you are building a prototypical underframe and floor. Instead, build up the underframe using timbers with the scale dimensions taken off the plans. Cut flooring to fit precisely inside the body of the caboose but don't glue it in yet. Instead, position it over the frame, glue it down, and cement the entire assembly into the caboose body.] Four more beams fit across the bottom, above the lower side beams, and butt up against the inside of the side walls. You may space them evenly across the bottom. You may now glue the center sills to the underside of the cabin cross beams. I used two in the very center. They must be exactly the same length as the side beams and line up perfectly with them because the end beams must attach to them. When all the ends are true and square, glue on the end beams. Mine are oak for extra impact resistance but basswood will probably do just as well.

FINISHING UP

The last thing we'll do this time is make the floorboards for the end platform. Notch the board closest to the cabin to fit around the door; you may need a narrow one to make a good fit. I marked mine on the bottom to indicate what end they fit, stained the tops and ends, and set them aside to install later. As you can see, none of what we did was very difficult. It just took a little time. Next month we'll add the trucks, couplers, some of the body hardware, and do some painting.