More Color More Color - O scale trains

Caboose ConversionCaboose ConversionGary WoodardBrooksville, Fla.Back in the day Atlas made somepretty amazing stuff in O scale. Alongwith the F9, they made some decentfreight cars at a reasonable price andeven a little Plymouth switcher. Oneitem they made then was a little woodbobber caboose. I guess it wasn’t toopopular because there are so many ofthem still out there.This is why I’m writing this article.These cars have provided some of thebest eight wheel cabooses to run on anO scale layout. In a way, they’re similarto the AHM 0-8-0’s that have beenbashed into everything from a 2-8-0 to aBig Boy. So it is with the old Atlas 4wheel bobber. (By the way, you can alsouse the bobber that was put out byAHM as well. It is almost identical tothe Atlas with the exception that the theroofwalk is cast onto the roof. But forthe sake of this article, I will be workingwith two Atlas bobbers.)I’ll start by saying that you can makejust about any size woodcaboose out of these bobbersthat you might like.With this one, I decided thatI wanted a center cupolacaboose. This is the easiest of all theconversions. Start by taking all of thedetail off the roofs of both cars. Also,remove the smokejack from bothcabooses. There will be an extra one ofthese left over, so just toss that into thescrap box.Next remove the underframe witheverything on it. Don’t toss these as youwill be using the platforms once youhave the body shells together. Set all theundercarriage components to the sidefor the moment.Now the fun part. It’s time to startcutting the bodies up. Start by cuttingthe ends off one of the bodies. Be carefulwith what is left of this body shell.Make sure the cuts are straight andsmooth as this will be the center of thenew caboose. Sand the edges smoothand making sure the ends are square.The next cut is on the other bodyshell. Cut this one in half. Don’t be concernedabout the holes left after theremoval of the cupola. These will befilled in later. In the meantime, squareup the mating surfaces on the new endsand test fit them on the main portion ofthe body. Once this is done, you willthen attach them to the ends and createthe new body shell. The body is beginningto come together.Start working on the car details.Start by cutting the ends off one carbody30 • O Scale TrainsThen cut the other carbody in half.Glue the body pieces together. The joints arebacked up with scrap styrene strips. Thenew carbody begins to take shape.