TP&W Caboose #529: Part I

The Prototype
The TP&W purchased two cabooses from the Santa Fe in 1969. They were renumbered 529 and 530 and painted orange-red with a white stripe and the diamond-shaped TP&W herald. All of the TP&W's other cabooses were bay-window designs; the TP&W added "bay windows" to the 529 and 530 by installing locomotive-style all-weather cab windows on each side. The 529 survives today at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum.

1972 prototype photo
1975 prototype photo

My Model
The starting point for my model is an undecorated Athearn Blue Box cupola caboose kit that I picked up for a few bucks at a train show. I decided to live with the cast-on grab irons because I didn't think I could remove them cleanly without destroying the nearby rivet detail. I blanked out one window on each side of the car and removed the original double-hung window detail in the remaining windows. I enlarged one window opening on each side of the car and built up mounting pads for the all-weather windows with styrene strips. My original plan for the all-weather windows was to use the Detail Associates parts, but I could not find these available anywhere. In a stroke of good luck, I happened to already have two all-weather windows on hand in the parts bag from a Proto 2000 GP-7, so I used those.

At this point, the body is ready for painting. I don't have the necessary equipment to safely spray paint indoors, so the painting will have to wait until spring when it's warm enough to paint outside. Part II will come several months from now when I can finish this model.  

TP&W 40' Boxcar #60024

It had been several years since I had painted and lettered any models, so last fall I decided to find a simple project to serve as a refresher course. I found a set of old Herald King decals for a TP&W 40' boxcar on eBay, so that ended up being the project.

The car is a Model Die Casting 40' boxcar that had been in my collection for many years. It was originally decorated for the Rock Island in a 1950s-era paint scheme. I removed the factory paint with 91% isopropyl alcohol and repainted it with Scalecoat 2 CN Orange-Red. To me, this color looks appropriate for the TP&W orange-red. The car is not an exact match for the prototype, but it has the right size and style of door and is close enough for me.

The first post

Soon I will begin construction of a new model railroad layout that will represent the Toledo, Peoria & Western (TP&W) railroad in the 1970s. I'm starting this blog to document construction of the layout itself as well as the models I'm building for it. I guess I'll be shocked if anyone actually follows this blog, but other similar blogs have inspired me to create my own and share my hobby with others who may be interested.

I started building my first model railroad in 1998 when I was in junior high. It was designed to roll under a twin bed for storage and therefore measures in at a very compact 39" x 51". The track plan was a very simple loop with three spurs. With the addition of structures, streets, vehicles, and basic scenery, this layout was basically complete by the time I finished high school. I still have it and run trains on it, but I'm excited to finally have a good space available for a larger layout. While the new layout will still be quite modest in size when compared to the monstrous layouts that get featured in magazines, it will seem large to me.