Scale Model Railways Megow 31′ 3″ C&O Steel Caboose Kit 3D Printed (Minus Trucks) PN#3620ANK

Description

For Sale: Scale Model Railways Megow 31′ 3″ C&O Steel Caboose Kit 3D Printed (Minus Trucks) PN#3620ANK

Note: photos of completed model are for example only.  This purchase is a kit as described in the parts list below.

Originally manufactured in O Scale by Megow and later sold by Scale Model Railways, Bob Colson brought this kit back to market as #3620 in our past All Nation catalogs. Faithfully reproduced from our Megow reference model components, the original castings did not have rivets. Later aluminum castings did sport rivets on the castings for better detail.

The original kits had wood infrastructure and the castings were mounted so little to no gluing was needed. Just a few nails and screws. The type of trucks found under these caboose models were the swing motion C&O prototype caboose trucks.

We are offering this as a minimalist beginners kit that can be kit bashed and highly detailed. The entire kit is 3D printed in ABS and can be assembled with a small tube of CA glue. Some parts may require the removal of build plate support materials and cleanup of threads with a file.

Assembly is very intuitive, however instructions and recommendations follow below:

Assembly Steps:

1. Note, the cupola is not centered on the car body, it is offset.
2. The top of box shell mates with the roof rafters for positioning.
3. The 2 roof pieces can be glued or the aligned pilot holes can be tapped for a 2-56 screw if that is preferable.
4. The ends can be glued onto the ends of the box shell. Acetate windows can be installed first, but one must think through how it will be painted.
5. The car sides can be glued onto the box shell.
6. The underframe can be glued to the bottom of the box shell and may need to be fitted. It can also be simply mounted with 2 screws.
7. Determine what trucks will be used to drill and tap the bolster for properly mounting the trucks. Typically 4-40 screws are used to mount the truck bolster to the underframe bolster.
8. Last, glue up the cupola on the roof using the guide grooves for alignment and keeping it square.

Parts List:

1 Roof PN4201

1 Roof Walk with Laterals

4 Steps PN700AN

1 Cupola Roof PN4204

2 Cupola sides PN4203A

2 Cupola ends PN4203b

2 Ends with doorway PN4200

1 Box Shell (roof, floor, subends)

2 Car sides (No Rivets) PN4210Left PN4211 Right

1 Underframe – center sill with braces and bolsters PN4202

Note: As mentioned, this kit is a starter kit.  Suggested additional items would be a Detail Kit (PN4220), Trucks (PN3863 or PN3863K), Couplers and Decals that can be purchased under separate cover.  Parts may print in different colors depending on available filament.  Modeler may need to clean up some printing build.

A Little History:

This kit was originally put out by Megow around 1941 as Kit No. R61 see page 96 in the 1941 Megow catalog on our site (may take a few minutes to open).

https://allnationline.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Megow%201941%20Catalog.pdf

I have many of the original blueprints that Bill Lenoir and Fred Tuxworth did as these fellows worked for Fred Megow back in the 30s and 40s. See our drawing at the following link.

https://allnationline.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/All-Nation-CO-Caboose-Drawings-1.pdf

Megow eventually became Scale Model Railways and so went alot of the blueprints for the NYC, GN & CN&W cabooses that Lenoir and Tuxworth did. See the Scale Model Railways catalog link below:

https://allnationline.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Scale-Model-Railways-Catalog.pdf

The prototype measured 31′ 3″ in length.

This caboose was a 1937 – 1949 era caboose for the C&O which pre-dates the Chessie System. The early C&O caboose manufacturers were Magor Car Co., St. Louis Car Co. and ACF. The Chessie-era caboose came about in 1968 built by ICC and I believe Chessie did do a few of the shorter extended vision cars.  Bob Colson had the Scale Model Railway Megow kits in the All Nation catalog as a Chessie System caboose which would have been right around the 1968 – 1973 time frame however Bob lettered and photographed the caboose with North Shore lettering. So the lettering does not make sense because the North Shore was out of business by 1963 and may have only had wood cabooses on the roster, not these steel cabooses on the roster to my recollection.

Historically Accurate Paint Scheme (Early / As‑Delivered)
The 1937 C&O steel cabooses (series 90000–90049) were delivered in:

• Boxcar Red (Freight Car Red) body
• Black roof
• Black underframe
• White “C&O” lettering in the early block style
• Road number centered on the body side
• Cupola also in boxcar red
This matched the standard C&O caboose scheme of the 1930s and 1940s.

This kit has the potential of being kit bashed into a Missouri Pacific caboose version as Mopac had similar cabooses that came out of the Magor Car Company shops.