My Version of the Tionesta Valley Caboose

Here is my version of the Tionesta Valley caboose, which started life as an IMA On30 kit. I had started to scratch build a TV caboose in highshcool but dropped the project due to other interests. When I saw the kit for sale online, I thought, here's quicker and easier way to get it done! The IMA kit had some laser cut parts and was a close enough fit to the TV Caboose that I just had to try it out. Not very expensive but nor was the kit perfect. It did not come with trim, ladders, and was not quite the same as TV caboose drawings but again, seemed close.

The basic structure went together very quickly but the windows were, well, not such a good fit. The windows in the basic body, were partially laser etched on the inside and had to be cut out with a knife. The windows had no trim, so the fit had to be perfect and it wasn't. I really didn't like to gaps, especially in the cupola, which had been laser cut all the way through- just a bad match up. So, I cut some small styrene strip, painted it and mounted it on each window. The process was slow but I think improved the overall look of the final product.

 

I added the tissue paper "tar paper" roof, the stove stack, the ladder,trim and some MacLeod Western On3 Russel trucks. The couplers took a little fiddling but worked out well. Not a perfect TV caboose but looks nice on the layout and I think I'll keep it!