(jeb@oscalemag.com). - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

Product News & Reviewsthem in the walls. I never did find the interiorladder rungs to the cupola. I don’t think that theyare needed anyway, and I’m going to put somelead weighting under the bunks as well.I’ll confess that there is something very satisfying about takingan entire interior sub-assembly and having multiple tabsaudibly snap into place. I may grow to like laser cut kits!Assembling the sides and ends together went smoothlyafter I went back and removed every scrap of excess glue atthe overlapping edges. The tolerances on the corner lap jointsfitting the sides and ends together was really nice and tight,and contributes to strong construction. The only real issue Ihad here was the section that goes under the door sill. This isa very, very delicate part of the ends that is attached by twovery small slivers of wood. After I broke one off three times, Ijust took both off and glued them into place later after the floorwas installed.Now I was supposed to assemble the cupola, anotherthree-layer lamination exercise that went very smoothly. Thelap fitting assembly really makes it next to foolproof to get thissquare, and the assembled cupola dropped right into its restingplace between the two sides of the assembled body; anotherprecision fit!Painting the sashes and door pieces was next. The glazingfor the door is the full size of the door, and gets sandwichedbetween two layers to make the panels in the lower sectionsand “glass” for the upper part. I could not locate any informationin the kit pertaining to color schemes and not being aCB&Q expert, I won’t even take a guessThe roof is designed to be removable, and there are 14 roofribs on one end and three on the other side of the cupola.They all have to fit into their respective slots on the wall sidesfor this to work, along with the cupola. I pre-curled both roofsections, sanded them slightly to align the slots in the roofwith those in the walls, and installed the ribs (two at time asrecommended), finding it increasingly difficult to snap theroof into place. By the time I got all of the ribs installed theroof snapped nicely into place. Ultimately, both roof sectionsjoined up nicely with the cupola as a single removable unit.The glazed sashes were installed along with the doors anddoor trim. The adjustable side sashes actually drop down intoa gap in the wall left by virtue of the lamination construction.Assembling the etched brass underbody was more troublesome.A few alignment or soldering tabs for the center sill boxwould have been useful. The bolster crossmembers also do notseem to be wide enough to either form the bolster and to alsoset down onto the underbody floor. After some consideration,were these parts not foldedon the fold lines as instructed,they may actually be correctlydimensioned. Everything elseseemed to fit as designed correctlyinto the wood bracing.The final finishing touchesare really left to the modeler;grab irons, creating the endrailings (supplying a templatefor that would be nice!), locationfor a smoke jack, brakecomponent(s) and their locations,etc. Overall, a fun kit tobuild with a bit of a challengeto it. Though perhaps not akit for a beginning kit builder,it’s definitely one for a moreexperience builder, particularlyso if you have any interest inthe road names that are offered or if you’d just like a reallyneat wooden caboose for your own private line. The neatnessand precision cutting of the components was quite a novelty,as compared to having to cut every stick, and the neatnessof fit was quite gratifying. So there were a few glitches, and acouple of errors by both kit and builder; nothing that would beconsidered compromising.Mar/Apr ’07 - O Scale Trains • 55