Bobbing around

It’s been a busy month with the Railroad Prototype Modeler Naperville event and a full weekend with kids and grandkids. I slipped back into modeling with a small caboose project.

In my 1926 modeling focus, four-wheel bobber cabooses are pretty common on the B&O in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. State laws in Ohio and New York limited the usage of these short, four-wheel cabooses. B&O bobbers were featured previously on the blog, featuring Ed Bommer’s fine O scale models and prototype info.

B&O caboose listing from 1926 ORER

The B&O lists 535 four-wheel cabooses in the October 1926 ORER, numbered C510-C1394. These K class cars built between 1878 and 1913, as per details in a company freight car diagram book. There were an additional 14 short cabooses numbered C1700-C1716 that came from purchasing the Coal & Coke and the Morgantown & Kingwood railroads in the early 1920s.

These B&O K class cabooses were short cars. The company began adding longer, eight-wheel C class cabooses in the early Teens. As trains became longer, steel underframes were required on cabooses, especially on the B&O when pushers would assist a train up a long grade.

By 1926, the B&O listed 737 eight-wheel cabooses in the ORER. I suspect many of the bobber cabooses were relegated to branch line, local switching, and yard work service rather than mainline action. These jobs still needed a place for the crew and conductor to move along with the work.

My current layout and the next project both focus on local switching. I’ve picked up a few HO scale bobbers and each has had coupler height issues. Someone suggested using 36-inch diameter wheelsets in order to raise the coupler height. I installed the larger diameter wheelsets on these three models and that worked! I had to grind away some of a plastic pad on the underframe above each wheel for clearance to maximize the improvement. It was quick work using a cut off wheel in a motor tool on a low speed.

None of these models follow the B&O K class bobbers, although the two cabooses on each end come close with the side window locations. Those are both Bachmann products while the middle caboose might be an old Mantua model that follows a Reading prototype. While they look different, all three car bodies are 16-feet, 9-inches long with wheelbases of 10-feet, 6-inches. Both dimensions are within a few inches of the B&O bobber dimensions.

These three bobber cabooses are ready for service on the Wheeling Freight Terminal layout. I’ll probably add some upgraded details as time goes on. Somewhere in my stash is a fourth bobber to join the fleet.


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2 comments on “Bobbing around

  1. Michael Barrett on said:

    Was a “small caboose project” supposed to be a pun? Good one if so. Still have a Mantua bobber, good memories.

  2. You must be reading my mail! The caboose roster on my GM&D RR is 100% bobbers, all acquired from my favorite source… model train shows. I’ll look forward to further installments on this project!
    Jim

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