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 Posted - June 09 2014 : 9:29:30 PM
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On my quest to rescue more HO-scale orphans, here is a Life-Like Family Lines caboose I found for $1 at the train show, at the bottom of one of those under-the-table junk boxes - missing a truck but with a look that caught my eye.
My last yard sale box had a lone Roundhouse metal chassis that was looking for a shell, and it fit perfectly in length. I added styrene shims fron/back to bring the shell to the proper height on the chassis and glued it down with CA (After adding glass to the windows).
The old Life-Like chassis contributed its brake wheels to the cause, and the wheels/trucks came from the box of Athearn trucks I got at the train show. Couplers will be added when I get a pair of EZ-Mates or McHenrys.
I was assuming that the result - even though I liked it - wouldn't be close to prototypical, but I found several examples online that are amazingly similar from 3 feet 
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - June 09 2014 : 9:40:17 PM
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| Nice.
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Posted - June 09 2014 : 9:43:44 PM
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looks great
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Posted - June 09 2014 : 9:44:22 PM
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| That caboose looks really great! It's nice to see old cars being fixed and running again. The lettering on the caboose looks very nice, especially for an old life-like. As for the couplers, I would stay away from the McHenry couplers because it seems like the springs on those always fall out. For some reason the Kadee or EZ-mate couplers don't appear to have the same problem.
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Posted - June 09 2014 : 10:14:23 PM
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quote:That caboose looks really great! It's nice to see old cars being fixed and running again. The lettering on the caboose looks very nice, especially for an old life-like. As for the couplers, I would stay away from the McHenry couplers because it seems like the springs on those always fall out. For some reason the Kadee or EZ-mate couplers don't appear to have the same problem.
Originally posted by ChessieRRÂ -Â June 09 2014Â :Â 9:44:22 PM
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Thanks guys for the kind words. In a perfect world I would put Kadees on everything, but my budget says use sparingly and where most needed I figure all the coupler has to do on the caboose is to be able to pull...the caboose
I'll keep that in mind on the McHenrys though!
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - June 09 2014 : 11:17:10 PM
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Nice work, Jerry... As always...
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 12:05:00 AM
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That's a nice looking caboose body, and I know first hand that the Roundhouse metal chassis works very well. That's a nice job of combining the two.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 12:09:55 AM
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Not bad, man. Not bad at all.I never thought a Life Like caboose could look that good.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
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 Posted - June 10 2014 : 12:12:40 AM
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very nice
But I think you forgot the ladder for access to the roof walk 
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 12:37:29 AM
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| Family Lines used to run behind my grandparents house in Belleville IL on the old L&N, I miss those days. Their trains would leave East St. Louis just a few miles away and by the time they hit Belleville they were up to about 60 mph or better !Did you paint the stripes or are they decals? If those are painted on that is one fantastic masking job!
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 01:05:54 AM
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| I'll add my 2 cents to the throng; that is real nice work Jerry.
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 06:43:11 AM
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metalsmith, Life-Like gets all the credit for the stripes - all I did was touch up some of the many nicks and scuffs it got banging around at the bottom of the junk box.
Micro-B - yeah I know about the ladders missing, but this one is after the date they outlawed the roof walks - they just haven't removed it yet
BTW, L&N grey plus a little black and a little Amtrak blue makes a close approximation of Family Lines grey 
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 12:07:16 PM
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quote:
Micro-B - yeah I know about the ladders missing, but this one is after the date they outlawed the roof walks - they just haven't removed it yet
Originally posted by JNXT 7707Â -Â June 10 2014Â :Â 06:43:11 AM
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true but all cabooses up untill they stopped making them had ladders to the roof
I believe the caboose was the exception to the no roofwalk law As were grain hoppers
Reason grain hoppers still are made with roofwalks is How else do yo go open the hatches on top?
Edited by - microbusss on June 10 2014 12:09:32 PM
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Posted - June 10 2014 : 4:04:52 PM
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Well Buss you have me on that one of course. When I get my hands on some brass ladder stock I will remedy that omission! The ONLY caboose I could find without a roof walk was transfer cabooses (cabeese?).
On the other hand, my one kitbashed transfer caboose HAS a roofwalk, so I guess there is balance on my railroad
http://tycodepot.com/
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