Model Railroading > New HO scale Caboose and Dairy Stand Kits from AMB!

American Model Builders, Inc. is proud to present the following new HO scale laser-cut kits, now available from hobby dealers or direct from www.laserkit.com:

HO Scale Cabooses
 
HO Scale Kit No. 887 NYC Lot 732 “Long” Wood Cupola Caboose
 
While the United States was fighting wars in Europe and the Pacific, railroads on the home front were doing their part to meet the additional shipments. 
With restrictions placed on materials such as steel, railroads across the county turned to rebuilding older pieces of rolling stock to meet rising traffic demands. In 1944, the New York Central rebuilt fifty boxcars into cabooses at their East Buffalo, New York shop. Entering the shop as 1910 era 36-foot steel framed wood bodied boxcars, they exited as essentially new cabooses numbered 20100-20149. These cabooses were given construction lot number 732.   
 
In outward appearance, the lot 732 cabooses resembled the NYC 19000 series “standard" caboose with their short off set cupola, but were more than five feet longer. The cabooses retained the steel fish belly frame as the boxcars they were rebuilt from, but a steel channel was added that ran along the bottom of the body of the cabooses giving them a unique appearance.
 
While NYC’s wood bodied steel frame cabooses were bumped from mainline trains with the addition of 300 all steel bay window cabooses between 1949 and 1952, they continued to serve in local and branchline trains. The introduction of the steel transfer type caboose in 1966 sent many more of NYC’s wood cabooses into retirement. At the time of the merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad to from Penn Central, however, there were still ten lot 732 cabooses on the roster.
 
HO Scale Kit No. 888 NYC “Pacemaker” Wood Cupola Caboose
 
In 1946, the New York Central introduced a new service — the fast and dependable Pacemaker Freight Service. Speeding less-than-carload packages between New York City and Buffalo and intermediate cities, with connections to fast freights to other online Midwestern cities, the service provided options to shippers who work on tight schedules and required precise timing. This allowed, for example, cloth mills in neighboring Utica, NY same-day loading on Pacemaker Freight cars with arrival in New York City's garment manufacturing centers the next morning.
 
To provide this service, 1000 specially equipped boxcars and five cabooses were rebuilt with distinctive colors to make up trains of harmonious design. The upper halves of the equipment were painted vermilion red and the lower halves dark gray. Roofs, under frames, and trucks were painted black with all white lettering. Special brake equipment known as AB-1-B type, which was designed for high-speed freight service, as well as Waughmat Twin-Cushion, double-acting, rubber draft gears were applied to all boxcars and cabooses. These additions reduced the shocks of starting and stopping, thus protecting the shipments and the crew.
 
The five cabooses selected for the Pacemaker Service came from Lot 732 and were numbered 20112, 20117, 20129, 20132 and 21033. These cabooses were originally built by NYC’s East Buffalo, New York shop on the frames of 1910 era 36-foot boxcars in 1944.  In outward appearance these cabooses resembled the NYC 19000 series “standard" caboose with short offset cupola, but were more than five feet longer than the standard caboose. In addition to the brake and draft gear modifications received when converted in 1946 for Pacemaker Service, the cars’ original tongue and groove siding was replaced with plywood sides giving them a smooth sided appearance.
 
Kits No. 887 and No. 888 feature 100% laser-cut components with custom laser-scribed side and end walls; Tab & Slot and Peel & Stick construction; laser-cut underframe, end platforms, end railing, and brake wheels; cast resin platform steps and brake gear; white metal smokejack; custom decals by Tichy Train Group; fully illustrated instructions that provide information on painting and decaling the assembled models; and several fixtures to aid the modeler in creating all the handholds and ladders appropriate for the prototypes.  In addition, the HO scale kits provide for optional details too, such as square or rounded body corner posts; side windows that can be modeled open or closed; cupola end window variation; and a complete set of screen doors and windows.
 
We recommend the purchase of Tahoe Model Works Barber-Bettendorf Swing Motion Caboose Trucks, Kadee No. 5 couplers with draft gear boxes, and the paint and glue of your choice for the completion of these kits.   MSRP $64.95 Each

 LASERKIT®
American Model Builders, Inc.
8229 Brentwood Industrial Drive
St. Louis, MO 63144
www.laserkit.com
laserkit@sbcglobal.net

 

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HO Scale Structure
 
HO Scale Kit No. 730 Dairy Transfer Stand
 
At one time the “milk train” was an important member of the food chain supplying those folks living in large cities with a supply of milk, butter, and cheese from the outlying farming communities.  Before World War II and the prevalence of electricity in rural areas, farmers would need to make daily runs to the railroad station in their local towns in order to transport the day’s fresh milk, which was carried in cans, to the creameries in the big urban areas for processing.  Often a group of farmers far removed from a township would setup collection points, whereby the milk cans would be gathered and taken to a dairy depot of sorts.  From here, wagons would be loaded up with the large group of milk cans and be taken to the train station, where the milk would be unloaded on one of the station’s trackside platforms. 
 
Upon the milk trains arrival at the station, railroad crews would first unload the previous day’s empty milk cans to be returned to the farmers and then take on the filled cans.  Depending on the length of the train ride, iced reefer cars were often employed to handle the milk loads to the city.  After electrically powered refrigeration became a possibility for the local farmer, milk was not as time sensitive of a commodity any longer, and while milk cans were still collected locally, transportation to the dairy by truck on a slower schedule would take the place of these daily milk trains by the early 1950s.  
 
Our new Dairy Transfer Stand kit is based on these rural milk can collection points and includes two platforms.  The smaller platform represents an individual farm’s milk can stand that may have been situated on its acreage nearest the county road.  From here, the milk cans would be picked up by a cooperative that would collect the milk cans from other area farmers and haul them by wagon to a main dairy hub, often controlled by the biggest dairy farm in the region.  This latter facility is represented by the second larger platform with office in Kit No. 730 and carries the sponsorship and signage of the Behrenwald Farms Dairy, a real Michigan based family owned dairy farm still in operation today.
 
Precision cut from quality milled basswoods and 3-ply aircraft grade birch plywood, the Dairy Transfer Stand Kit incorporates all the attributes customers are used to enjoying in an American Model Builders LaserKit:  tab and slotted wall and roof assembly; peel and stick windows, doors, and trim; simulated metal roofing; both “cracked” and solid office window glazing; platform side ladders; full color signage with large cow-shaped rooftop billboard; and an assortment of resin cast parts depicting milk cans, salt sacks, a hand truck, and other details for accessorizing the larger platform/office structure.  The finish structures measure:   1.375 inch square x 0.5 inch tall (small platform) and 2.625 inch long x 3.5 inch deep x 2.75 inch high to peek of roof (platform with office).  MSRP $39.95

 LASERKIT®
American Model Builders, Inc.
8229 Brentwood Industrial Drive
St. Louis, MO 63144
www.laserkit.com
laserkit@sbcglobal.net

 

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