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Product Review: AtlasO Trainman 2-Rail Bay Window<br />
Caboose<br />
MSRP: $49.95<br />
AtlasO, LLC 348 Florence Ave., Hillside, NJ 07205<br />
908-687-9590 • www.atlastrainman.com<br />
Reviewed by Greg Elems<br />
When AtlasO announced their bay window caboose<br />
with one of the road names being Southern Pacific, I<br />
was more than interested. Up to this point a nice plastic,<br />
reasonably priced, 2-Rail bay window caboose<br />
hadn’t been available. In the box, the caboose sure has<br />
the SP C-30-6 look. Out of the box, I was able to see<br />
more of the detail. The prototype was a riveted car and<br />
this caboose certainly had plenty of rivets. The window<br />
placement, different on both sides, matched my<br />
photographs. The end railing for the ladders had the SP<br />
style bend on the roof. This caboose is heavy enough<br />
to track well at 14.5 oz. While this caboose is an Espee<br />
prototype, it was painted in Missouri Pacific red with<br />
the buzz saw and eagle emblem. The red is opaque but<br />
not too thick. The lettering is well done. The striping<br />
was neat and lined up nicely. The caboose number is<br />
on the end of the roof, a nice touch.<br />
Operation wise, it is a stiff rolling caboose due to the<br />
wheel wipers for the interior lights. There is a switch on<br />
the bottom so you can run it lit or dark. With average<br />
track power, the light is dim; so you don’t have a glowing<br />
caboose. The AtlasO couplers are stiff but match<br />
my Kadee® coupler gage in height. The wheels were in<br />
gauge and tracked well through the switches I tested it<br />
on.<br />
Now remember, this is a Trainman line caboose.<br />
The price is roughly 40% less than the Premium line<br />
cabooses. I noticed some items in common with their<br />
Trainman line extended vision caboose. The end steps,<br />
railing and hand brake were the same. The frame looks<br />
to be the same also. The diagonal-panel roof from the<br />
EV caboose looks similar to this caboose. Cast-on grab<br />
irons for the side and ends are expected. The doors do<br />
not open. It does have a see through roofwalk. While it<br />
has an interior light, it has no marker lights for the end<br />
of train function. The trucks appear to be the same as<br />
their premium line though.<br />
What does this do for the overall caboose? Well<br />
it makes it a fat bay window. The Espee cabooses<br />
were 8’8” over the side sheets on the main body. The<br />
bay window is 10’7-3/4” over the outside. Atlas’s<br />
model is basically about a scale foot too wide in both<br />
dimensions. The EV frame makes the truck centers four<br />
inches too long but with the overall caboose body<br />
being three inches too short. Not bad for a marriage of<br />
two different cabooses.<br />
Anthony W. Thompson’s Southern Pacific Freight<br />
Cars Volume 2: Cabooses, was invaluable for information<br />
on pinpointing the measurements of Espee’s<br />
cabooses. The Portola RR museum has an example of<br />
this caboose. It was fun to compare the two.<br />
July/Aug ’08 - O <strong>Scale</strong> <strong>Trains</strong> • 51
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