Sometimes it takes times to come around and completed (or almost) a project. The GTR caboose was a novelty project of mine to try something old time, barely modelled and cool looking. Data was gathered from old car building encyclopedias, scale drawings in magazines and examining countless historical pictures. Several attempt were made, including many that failed. I try to over engineer the model as if it was plastic only to discover 3D printed resin isn't forgiving to structural stress during the printing process.
Then, I discussed the project with Pierre Oliver of Yarmouth Model Works, who prompted me to model different cupolas to replicate several other cabooses that were based on the GTR original drawings. After a while, I let the project sit on my shelf, forgot about until two months ago when it became quite obvious I should get some sense of closure.
I fired up the printer and produced the missing parts. I also printed the trucks in one part, which worked quite well. Some brass rods, phosphore bronze grabiron, a coat of paint and weathering and voilà. I even used my custom decals to letter it.
At the end of the day, it was a fun project. It's both original yet down to earth. A lot of thoughts were poured in it, but it was well worth the effort. It was a pleasure to see it take shape under my eyes and bring to life something that nobody still alive has probably ever seen. It's probably what I like the most about old time model railroading, it brings to the real world artefact of an other era that have long been gone.
They look great! Nice job.
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