CABEESE

Ok, it's a dumb old saying, "if the plural of goose is geese, then the plural of caboose is cabeese".  Well I like it, and it's my railroad.  

The Car Works SR&RL 552

This is a brass RTR factory painted caboose.  In the world of Maine 2-Footer modeling in HOn30, the term RTR (ready to run) is a rare thing.  Even when it is used, in reality, that's rarely the case, since the locos need fine-tuning, which takes some experience and skill, and items like these "RTR" cabooses need some work as well to get them to move without immediately getting hung up on the track.  

 The Car Works SR&RL 553

This is a brass RTR factory painted caboose.  It needs some work out of the box shimming the crap out of the trucks to keep it from catching on track, as the details and couplers are too low.  As you can see from the photos, the trip pins are bent up all the way and they're still touching the table top, and that's with the car sitting on its flanges.  The queen posts aren't touching, but will as soon as you put it on the track.  As with any brass piece of rolling stock, it's heavy, and heavy adds up quick in HOn30 consists, limiting the length of trains.  

Sango SR&RL 556-558

This is a brass kit.  Although I don't know for sure, comparing my RTR factory painted The Car Works brass cabeese  kits with the Sango kits, I'm assuming they both are made by the same manufacturer, with the kit being offered by the one company and the RTR by the other.  Both are out of production by the way, and you'll find them on Ebay.  The kit comes with decals for all three of the identical cabeese on the prototype, so you can decal it for whichever you want.  

Funaro & Camerlengo SR&RL 551-552

This is a resin kit.  The Funaro & Camerlengo cabeese are a good alternative to The Car Works locos when you want the same cabeese with less weight and more stability for operational reliability and performance.   I've started this one, as you can see in the photos with some of the initial painting done.  This has the usual high quality castings, and in addition to the castings, it has a sheet of styrene to make the curved roof sections, and some fine grit black sandpaper to make a 'tar paper' roof over the styrene.  

Funaro & Camerlengo SR&RL 556-558

This is also a resin kit.  The same comments for 551 apply to this one as well.

Railway Recollections 555

This is a resin kit.  This, at present, is my favorite caboose on my layout, although it had a short life as a caboose on the prototype.  It started out as a box car on the Bedford & Billerica RR.  Then it was sold to the Sandy River along with the rest of the railroad equipment after the B&B went bankrupt and the Sandy River started life and continued on as a box car.  As the fleet grew, it was used, I believe, for a time as a baggage car.  At some point it was converted to a caboose, for part of that time with a cupola, and part of that time without a cupola.  Then it disappears from the roster.  
  So anyway, this is one of three B&B/Sandy River kits that Railway Recollections came out with not long ago, and because they're so unique and attractive, I love them on my layout.  Annnnnnd....it's very light, so it's ideal as a working caboose on the end of a string of pulp racks.  

Mount Blue Models 556

This set of photos was sent to me by my friend John Randell.  As you can see, it's another Mount Blue Models quality kit with beautiful detailed instructions.  I might just have to get one myself! (or three!)

OTHER MAINE 2-FOOTER CABEESE

Wiscasset & Quebec Caboose

This is a C&D Model Engineering kit.  It is an out of production resin kit, and pretty rare.  I believe I have the only one I've seen show up on Ebay.