Author: Ralf Kramosch

I have been going through a lot of boxes of unfinished kits and finally finishing them and one of them was the Juneco CN caboose kit. This is a wood and white-metal 'craftsman' kit that builds up into a pretty good model of a CN wood caboose. It's not something I could put together in an evening, though.

Roundhouse makes a wood caboose and letters it for CN. I bought one to have something to put at the end of my trains while I was working on a Juneco kit. When I looked at the two kits together, they appeared to have similar proportions and styles. So, after I reading an article, I asked myself

"what are some modifications I can do to make the Roundhouse caboose look more like a CN caboose?"

I spent an afternoon adding details. The end ladders and railings were modified, the smokestack was moved, and some struts were added to the cupola. Leftover lettering from the Juneco kit was added. After some painting, glazing with muntins drawn on was added.

The result is a compromise that might not satisfy an expert, but it was fun to add the details without worrying how many microns wide the wood sheathing should be. The result has a certain charm because of the added details. I would definitely call it good enough. If I see any of these cabooses for sale for cheap I'll definitely get some.

Ralf Kramosch,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

P.S. After I took the photo I turned the roof around so that the cupola is over the herald, as it should be.