San Juan Car Co. O narrow gauge short caboose

This excellent O scale model is a replica of a short narrow gauge caboose that was used by the Rio Grande Southern and the Denver & Rio Grande Western. It’s offered ready-to-run with eight different limited-run prototype paint schemes in both On3 and On2½. The models are part of the San Juan Car Co’s new line of ready-to-run O narrow gauge rolling stock.

Long service. The Denver & Rio Grande Western shop built the largest group of these cabooses (16) in the late 1880s. Many of them remained in use until the early 1950s, and 10 have been preserved at museums and tourist railroads, including one example on the Durango & Silverton.

The model is factory assembled from numerous highly detailed plastic parts and formed-wire grab irons, railings, and truss rods. The car has full underbody details with an air-brake system that includes the operating cylinder, air pipes, reservoir and valve, levers, and rodding. The actuating rods even have chains connecting them to the handbrake shafts underneath both end platforms.

The model rides on the proper 43″-wheelbase archbar trucks fitted with National Model Railroad Association RP-25 contour metal wheels. Models are available with wheelsets gauged for either On3 or On2½.

This car matches a prototype plan that was published in the book, Silver San Juan, the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, by Mallory Hope Ferrell.

Our sample came neatly painted with an appropriate dark brown body, black roofs, and tan floor and end platforms. The white lettering is sharp and opaque.

All of the windows are neatly glazed with clear styrene.

Kadee On3 magnetic couplers are mounted ½” above the rails, so they’re .063″ lower than the NMRA’s standard .563″ height for On3.

The clearance between the trucks and the car’s underbody details is extremely close. The manufacturer notes that some of these details may have to be removed for operation on tight-radius curves. Adding a washer or two between the truck and body bolsters should raise the carbody enough to take care of the coupler height and improve the truck clearances underneath.

The San Juan caboose weighs 4 ounces, so it’s 1¼ ounce under the NMRA’s recommendation for an On3 car of this size.

This new caboose certainly captures the accuracy and detail fidelity narrow gauge modelers have come to expect. All of the workmanship is first rate, and once the caboose is lightly weathered, few people will suspect it isn’t built from a craftsman kit.

O narrow gauge caboose

Price: $94.95 each

Manufacturer
San Juan Car Co.
P.O. Box 1028
Durango, CO 81302
www.sanjuancarco.com
Description
Ready-to-run plastic wood-body caboose
Road names (all models are sold in On3 and On2½ versions)
Rio Grande Southern
No. 0400, short lettering under the cupola
No. 0402, sunset herald
No. 0403, extended lettering on letter board
Durango & Silverton
No. 0500 in current lettering scheme
Denver & Rio Grande Western
No. 0501, round herald, circa 1940
No. 0573, Flying Rio Grande herald, circa 1950
No. 0576, round herald
No. 0579, Flying Rio Grande herald, circa 1949