Some of you may know that I've been in N scale since about 1970. Some of you may know that the last real layout I had was as a teen in the basement of my parent's house. That got dismantled when I moved out to go to college in the late 70s. I still have some of the stuff I did from that era, though I wish I had a digital camera back then, so I'd have photos of my C40 layout, but since film wasn't cheap, and I had not yet worked out how I was going to get depth of field with my Nikon F - I have no photographic evidence of that layout. (I was waiting to get it more sceniced before attempting pix). :-[ I do still have some of the models from that era, all the way back to 1970.
Since then I've never really has a layout, except for a module that I started in the mid-80s. About the same time I got married, started having kids, and that along with a demanding job pulled back on the reigns of my N scale pursuits. Still, I did find time to do some modeling here and there.
I wanted a modern N&W caboose, so I looked at what was available at the time and decided the Bachmann EV caboose would be the best starting point for the model (N&W C31). I removed the cupola and cut it down the middle, then removed equal amounts from each side, until the sides of the cupola were flush with the caboose body sides. I then filled or added windows where needed. I also thinned the roof walks. I added wire rails to the sides. The end railings were scratch built from wired and I soldered it all together. I body mounted Kadee couplers and added Kadee RB trucks, which were the closest trucks available back then (though I later learned some of this class had friction bearing trucks). I added Kadee low pros (the original versions). I lowered the body onto the trucks as much as the end couplers would allow. There were no decals available then for N&W cabooses, so I combined a HO diesel "hamburger" with parts of the microscale N scale N&W diesel set. I guess I would have gotten around to painting the roof silver, and I was planning to try out one of the "crystal glaze" type products for the windows, but never got to it:
Over a decade later, Atlas rendered this kitbash obsolete with the caboose shown to the right, which I now own a fleet of. Compared to the Atlas model, my kitbash stinks. Well, the Bachmann caboose stank to begin with - check out the underbody detail! Even though the roofs of both models pretty much match up, the Bmann model looks like it is on stilts compared to the Atlas model. The only thing my model has on the Atlas model is correct cupola window placement (the Atlas model is not correct here for N&W, but otherwise is a pretty nice stand-in). Also, I think my end rails look better. I did not address the safety striped on the end, so my model is also missing this.
N scale has come a long way, and in future months perhaps I will photograph some more of my dinosaurs for your viewing.
Lately I've been getting my train room organized for action, so once I get the track rolling so to speak, with digi in hand I will share some of that.
Mark
