canadian national cabooses

cn nutbar

Member
hello everyone---i stopped by the LHS yesterday and picked up an early christmas present.True Line Trains has produced a run of cn wooden sheathed cabooses.As soon as i got home,i shot some pictures with some of my current caboose roster which includes a Sylvain kit which Doctor Wayne put together and custom painted and a brass model---here they are---can you tell which is which ????

cabeese2001.jpg


cabeese2008.jpg


cabeese2007.jpg


cabeese2006.jpg
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
I'm going with... Trueline, Brass, Sylvan.

How did I do? ;) :D

Nice collection!

I think I am going to get one of those Trueline cabooses with the earlier CN logo if they make it...

Andrew
 

spitfire

Active Member
Picked up the 6 I ordered on Saturday and I am very impressed with the quality. With the exception of the end ladders and details all the grab irons are metal, the paint is crisp and the detail is excellent! :thumb: TLT worked closely with the CN SIG on these models.

There has been a fair bit of discussion about these on the CN Lines listserve, specifically about the ends and ladders which are made of a different kind of plastic - Celcon, which is great for detailed molds but notoriously hard to paint (think Delrin). Because this is the one part of the model that has not been painted, but rather molded in a matching colour, it tends to look a little bright and shiny, as well as having some translucency of the thinner parts.

TLT reccommends using ModelFlex paint, which was designed to flex with the Celcon, and has a "CN Orange" which is a good match for the Morency Orange used on the prototype.

The paint must be applied so that it completely surrounds the part in question. That's because the paint doesn't actually stick to the plastic, but to itself, kind of like insulation on a wire.

I have some of the CN SIG-comissioned Scalecoat Morency orange and used that to paint one of my cabeese, but it's got a fairly high gloss to it and I'm not happy with the results. I was hoping to avoid Dullcoat as I've had less than stellar results with it, so I'll be getting some of the ModelFlex CN orange.

Nutbar, I assume from the photo's that you painted yours - what did you use?

Val
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Nutbar, I assume from the photo's that you painted yours - what did you use?

Val

Both the Sylvan and the brass caboose were painted with SMP Accupaint, while the Trueline is as it came from the manufacturer.

I've used Badger Accu-Flex paint on plastic handrails, and it seems to work okay. While I am suitably impressed by the diemakers' abilities, I am not a fan of plastic handrails or grabirons, though. ;):-D

Wayne
 

spitfire

Active Member
Here's some more info I gleaned about this "slippery" plastic from the CN SIG listserve.

From Jason Shron, owner of Rapido Trains: Celcon and Delrin are one and the same. Actually, these are brand names for something called Polyoxymethylene, or POM for short.

From Stafford Swain, a long-time contributor, CN Guru and primary consultant to True Line Trains on this project:

"The Chinese factory (one of the largest if not the largest) assigned to the CNR caboose decoration work has apparently ALWAYS refused to paint this particular plastic. Rather, they insisted on (and have again used) the "close color match in the plastic" approach to the decoration of the add-on Celcon parts.

So why use Celcon if you allegedly can not paint it? The answers are
(1) it is by far the better choice for for some key parts for at
least two two reasons, and 2), it can be easily painted by modelers.

The virtues of Celcon are;

1. The Celcon injection molded parts can be cast in far longer and
far narrower mold cavities than styrene. Thus the resultant parts are
more accurate as to cross-section and scale size than they can ever
be with styrene castings. This occurs because the Celcon molten
plastic is self-lubricating and travels well in narrower mold cavities.

2. The Celcon parts are extremely flexible parts and thus are ideal
for delicate (and vulnerable) platform detail required by this model
subject.

The bottom line is this caboose model would not have the great detail
that it has been executed using only styrene.

As for the "paint problem", it wholly was anticipated by "us" as we
had lobbied the factory to paint these Celcon parts but were refused.
Hence the enclosed instructions that outline how to hand-brush
matching "Model-flex" paint."


As for me, I will definitely be painting mine as suggested with ModelFlex paint to get rid of the shine. It's a very good colour match and I expect any slight variation in colour will be hidden by the weathering I plan to do.

I'm really pleased with the accuracy of this model, unlike every other mass produced caboose I have, and if using POM was the only way they could get these details, then I'm wiling to live with it.

Val
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Thanks for the additional info, Val. As far as plastics go, the POM is probably the best choice for these kind of detail parts, and it looks like the steps might be of the same material. At the price they're asking, though, if I needed CNR cabooses, I'd go with Sylvan - not only would I get the pleasure of building them, but the steps and ladders are all metal, making them as sturdy as the plastic ones, but with a more-to-scale cross-section.
The Trueline models are very nicely done, though, and with a little paint on those parts and some weathering, will look great on any CNR freight.

Wayne
 

cn nutbar

Member
hi everyone---thanks for all the great feedback---Val,to be honest,I didn't notice the difference in colour until you pointed it out---either my vision is getting worse with age or the lighting in my train room needs improvement.Mike,excellent photos highlighting all the details and the colour variation.Andrew---close but no cigar---you're guess on the brass caboose is actually the Sylvan kit that Doctor Wayne built for me,however i'm not surprised at your choice as I agree that this model looks as good or better than the brass one---kudos to the Doc !!!!
actually Wayne invited me over tomorrow night and suggested I bring the new cabooses for a bit of weathering---then it will be really tough to figure out which is which---you can be sure i'll be posting the weathered versions soon
thanks again everyone,nutbar

cabeese2004.jpg
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Andrew---close but no cigar---you're guess on the brass caboose is actually the Sylvan kit that Doctor Wayne built for me,however i'm not surprised at your choice as I agree that this model looks as good or better than the brass one---kudos to the Doc !!!!

Ahhh! I knew it! The reason I chose the second for the resin kit is the fleck of ??? in the 7th groove to the left of the left window. Very similar to "inclusions" in resin castings... Oh well - I don't smoke anyway, so no loss ;) :D

Andrew
 

cn nutbar

Member
hi all---here's a shot of the second caboose i purchased with a slightly different logo.i have always liked the cn green leaf logo but chose to go with the white leaf for a bit of variety

cabeese007.jpg
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
I am waiting until next month to pick up three of the CP wooden cabeeses (is it cabooses or cabeeses???) The only CP caboose I've been able to find are too modern for my layout, I bought one to tide me over though. I am really looking forward to these when they do come out. The unpainted prototype looks really good!
 

spitfire

Active Member
I am waiting until next month to pick up three of the CP wooden cabeeses (is it cabooses or cabeeses???) The only CP caboose I've been able to find are too modern for my layout, I bought one to tide me over though. I am really looking forward to these when they do come out. The unpainted prototype looks really good!

I plan to get several of those as well. :thumb:

Val
 

cn nutbar

Member
hello everyone---here's a shot from Doctor Wayne's of his Sylvan caboose---BTW,you can find a web-site for "True Line Trains" through Google with lots of pictures including the upcoming CPR cabooses

4100a_038.jpg
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
---you can be sure i'll be posting the weathered versions soon

Well, I don't wanna spoil the fun but...
Layout_views_etc_-_caboose_3.jpg


Some ready-to-run! :eek::twisted::p:p:p I removed the end railings and the steps for painting, and also removed the trucks so that I could brush paint the wheels and axles. That also left the underbody exposed for some airbrushed weathering. Since the paint was a bit too shiny for my tastes, I removed the floor from the body, then removed all of the "glass" from the body shell. I mixed up some paint for the steps and handrails, using Tamiya acrylic paints. I'm usually pretty good at getting a colour match, and a little of the mix applied to the caboose body seemed to be almost dead-on. I had to alter my brown mixture a bit to match the underbody colour, though. I used an X-Acto chisel blade to remove the small lettering from the end railing splashboards, then threw the railing assemblies and platforms in a container of methyl hydrate to clean them. Once dry, I airbrushed the orange onto the end railings and they looked good until I placed one on the caboose. Oops! Wrong shade of orange - too red and too orange, too!! :eek:ops::eek:ops: I added some white and a little brown, and finally got the colour to a point where it was acceptable to me. (Luckily, Mister Nutbar is unlikely to notice any discrepancy in the colours - he missed it on the original, didn't he?) ;) Unfortunately, I ran into the same problem with the "Mineral Red" colour for the platforms, and while I did adjust it, it's still not red enough to match the roof. (Quel domage!):rolleyes:
While the paint on the platforms and railings dried, I airbrushed the caboose bodies and cupolas with Dulcoat, the lightly weathered the outboard edges of the lower ends of the bodyshell, and heavily weathered the underbodies. I then replaced all of the window "glass" and added some styrene shades to give the impression of a more detailed interior. After the steps and railings were re-installed, along with the trucks, I touched-up the outer ends of the newly-painted handrails with some white Tamiya paint, using a brush. This made all of the other handrails look too dingy, so I gave them a swipe with the brush, too. Then, it was back to the spray booth for some more weathering. Here's the other half of the duo:
Layout_views_etc_-_caboose_5.jpg


And an end:
Layout_views_etc_-_caboose_2.jpg


And, after complaining about these cabooses earlier, here's a little something that I got for Christmas :rolleyes: :
Layout_views_etc_-_caboose_4.jpg


Layout_views_etc_-_caboose_1.jpg


Mine got pretty much the same treatment as Mister Nutbar's, although I scraped the car number off completely, and renumbered it using dry transfers. I also applied a "canvas" roof over the simulated tongue and groove of the model. To do this, I first removed the roofwalk and stovepipe, then lightly sanded the roof to rough-up the paint. After removing the sanding residue, I laid a single ply of a sheet of facial tissue over each side of the roof, then brushed it with lacquer thinner to make it adhere to the plastic roof. It took several applications of thinner to do the job. The next day, I used a sharp blade to trim away the excess tissue, then brush-painted the entire roof with Floquil Roof Brown paint. After the roofwalk was reinstalled, the roof was airbrushed with the Tamiya "sorta mineral red". :p
I must admit that these cars are well-engineered - the fit is excellent, as is the positive way that the various pieces go together, and the paint and lettering is very well done. Still, too bad about those POM handrails and platforms. ;):-D:-D

Wayne
 

cn nutbar

Member
hello everyone---Great job Doc---i thought the cabooses looked good when i got them---now they look REAL good and yes,even i see the difference---looking forward to seeing them in person
 

cntown

New Member
I have some of the roundhouse hoppers for the Great Slave railway and I was wondering if the TLT Caboose for that one is close to the real ones or would it need work?
 

tbrown

tilley2
Hi Folks,been waiting for a long time for a decent model of the CN wood sheathed caboose. These TLT models are great. Not to happy with the colour though. Is the roof red or should it be black?
 
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