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The Bobber Caboose started out as a Mountain Car kit,
however due to the extreme lack of detail parts this was abandoned
rather quickly. The main components (floor, main body and roof)
are from the kit, all other detail parts are scratch built.
A view of the side of the car. This is as far as the
Mountain Car kit takes you. There are no windows or doors, these
all need to be scratch built.
I reinforced the interior of the car substantially.
These cars tend to get banged around quite a bit, so you can never
be strong enough.
Here is the roof. Unfortunately due to the poor quality
of the kit, the two sides didn't fit together very well. Lots
and lots and lots of putty was used as filler along with an equal
amount of sanding and finishing.
The roof section of the Cupola, the same difficulties
as the main roof section.
The roof is almost complete now. As can be seen, the
cupola has been constructed. The pieces supplied with the kit
did not fit correctly, so new ones needed to be fabricated out
of 1/2" ply. The groves were made with a table saw, a very
difficult and tedious task. The 2 large holes in the main roof
section within the cupola will allow light from the main body
to enter the upper section.
A closeup of the completed cupola
The underside of the roof was strengthened in the same
fashion as the caboose's body, using brackets. These, however
were custom made due to the odd angle of the roof.
The completed roof assembly
At this point, the main body and roof assembly have
been completed. The trucks used are standard Mountain Car Bobber
Caboose trucks. Now, on to detailing...
