When I scratchbuild rolling stock, I do my best to follow a prototype. I typically select a subject from one of my favorite railroads, which happen to be the Soo Line, Chicago & North Western, and neighboring roads.
The Russell Car & Snow-Plow Co. of Ridgeway, Pa., built a number of cabin cars with wood bodies and steel frames. They sold the design to several smaller roads, including the Pittsburgh, Shawmut, & Northern and the Copper Range RR (COPR), around 1913. The Copper Range cabooses remained in service on the upper Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan into the early 1970s.
After passing through several private owners, COPR caboose no. 5 was sold to the Katy (Texas) Historical Society in 1986. The caboose was set on rails next to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas museum in Katy, Texas, and painted to resemble an MKT caboose. I found several photos of the caboose online, and comparing those to shots I have of COPR no. 5, I have no doubt it’s the same car.
Using the techniques in this article, I’ve built a number of other O scale cars. I realize there may not be a large number of upper Michigan railroad fans out there, much less those devoted to the Copper Range. However, the techniques I used to build COPR no. 5 are adaptable to all sorts of cars, not only cabooses but also boxcars and reefers. Even if you’re not a Copper Range fan or an O scaler, this article will give you a head start in scratchbuilding a styrene car for your favorite road.
I am going to scratch build this model thanks
Very precious plan indeed! For metric european G scalers, here it is : we simply replace ' & " by cm & mm (approx.) and there it goes!