Touch of Class
Custom Railroad Models

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History

The I-12‘s were built in 1941 and 1942 at the B&O‘s Keyser, W.Va. shops and numbered C–2400 to C–2499. The cars had 19 foot truck centers and rode on AAR trucks. They were 30 feet over the corner posts and 32 feet 5 inches over the strikers. A second group of caboose were constructed at Keyser in 1945. These cabooses were numbered in the C–2800 to C–2824 series.

The cabooses served many years and variations could be found in the trucks, grab irons and other details as the cars were rebuilt.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has two cabooses in its collection, C–2452 and C–2478.

Bibliography

Cabooses of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Robert Hubler, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Historical Society, © 1994.
Baltimore & Ohio Cabooses, Volume 1 – Photos & Diagrams, Dwight Jones, TLC Publishing, Inc., © 1998
Pacific Mountain Scale Shops Instruction Sheet

The Model

The caboose is a resin kit manufactured by Pacific Mountain Scale Shops. The kit contains the new stainless steel upgrade for these kits by the manufacturer. The body is nicely formed with the correct contours.

When this kit was introduced, I looked forward to having several for my modular layout. I am more than a little disappointed in the castings. The original castings for the ends were resin. I tried using a number 80 drill bit to assemble the grab irons to the posts. The posts broke easily and could not be repaired. So, I purchased the upgrade kit for the car. The parts bag contained stainless steel parts for the end railings, underframe, walkways and rails. The stainless steel is very difficult to drill. The appearance of the stainless steel does not represent the railings on the prototype. The replacement underframe and steps are made out of a different type of resin and are very fragile. The underframe I received was warped and broke. The brake parts were crudely cast and thrown away.

Changes

If you have one of the older kits with the cast parts, keep them. Using a number 80 drill bit, create a small indentation in the posts for the grab irons. Shorten the legs of the grab irons and carefully glue into the indentations.
On instruction x, do not glue part xx. Paint this part separately and apply when the underframe has been painted.
If you have the upgraded kits with the stainless steel parts, do not use the roofwalk handrails as they are too thick. I substituted .015 wire for sturdiness, but .012 wire would be better.