Alaska Railroad Pacific Car & Foundry Caboose

Page Created 01/09/2011

Page Updated 01/09/2011

New Additions to the page.

Updates to the page.

This page has been established to post photos of the Alaska Railroad Pacific Car & Foundry Caboose my dad and I are currently kitbashing in HO Scale.

This page is not affiliated with the Alaska Railroad or with the model manufactures mentioned in the making of this model. Click here to visit the official Alaska Railroad website

The Prototype

In 1949 the Alaska Railroad took delivery of 20 cupola cabooses from the Pacific Car and Foundry (PC&F) numbered 1065-1083. The cars operated on the Alaska Railroad in the late 1990s before being retired. Blow are photos of the cars in service on the Alaska Railroad.

Caboose 1072

Caboose 1075

Row of Cabeese 1072

The prototype photos were originally taken by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art and come courtesy of John's Alaska Railroad website.

The model

I began building my Alaska PC&F caboose by purchasing an Athearn Blue Box kit wide vision caboose similar to the one pictured below and a Bachmann caboose also like the one pictured below.

Athearn Caboose

Bachmann Caboose

The first steps in the project were to modify the Athearn caboose body. The ledges on each side that held the cupola were removed and filler pieces added to the sides were the cupola once sat. Then a section of the roof was removed and glued to the other side of the opening so the new cupola would be centered on the car. Next the roof ribs were cut off and filed smooth and all the holes for the roof walk were filled in. Last step was to remove the cupola from the Bachmann caboose.

Work begins

Work begins

Work continued on the body of the caboose. The windows on each side were plugged and then he gaps were filled in with putty. Putty was also applied to the gaps in the filler pieces where the cupola once sat. The weld lines on the sides of the car were removed along with the rails above the end windows. All of the putty work was sanded smooth and more work was done on the roof.

Green Putty works!

Green Putty works!

To Be Continued...

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Please email comments and questions to: rtd1121@yahoo.com