Drover's caboose plans

The Nov. 2003 issue of the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette had plans for a "Combine" Caboose, whould that be similar?

Here are some references gleaned from my library and from old Model Railroader indexes:

1947 (5th Edition) Model Railroader Cyclopedia - San Luis Central combination caboose (reprint of plans originally published in the Jan 1936 Model Railroader)

Oct 1947 Model Railroader - D&RGW combination caboose (std gauge)

Jul 1948 and May 1960 Model Railroader - StL-SW combination caboose

Aug 1957 Model Railroader - IC drovers caboose ca. 1900 (may be the same IC caboose whose plans - including framing details - are in the 1906 Car Builders Dictionary.)

May 1968 Model Railroader - Sierra RR combination caboose

Silver Streak made a nice wood kit (#107) for a MoPac drovers caboose. Unfortunately, it came with generic assembly plans for all of their cabooses and does not have a scale drawing of the car.

And in looking for the above plans, I was reminded that Model Railroaded provided a nice all time list of its caboose plans (to that date) in the Aug

1966 issue, together with several columns of good info on the history types, and uses of cabooses.

Other posters imply that drovers cabooses and combination cabooses are the same thing. This is not my understanding. While they do look similar from the outside, combination cabooses are typically intended for use in a mixed train to provide passenger space for paying customers, perhaps a small baggage compartment, and workspace and facilities for the conductor and rear brakeman. A drovers caboose also provides workspace for the conductor and brakeman, but frequently included some kind of arrangement for the cowboys to sleep on the car, and almost always had much more extensive food storage and food preparation facilities than on a regular caboose or combination caboose, as the several drovers might be living on the car for multiple days at a time. Note too that a short line RR probably would not have a stock train on its property long enough to merit owning a drovers caboose. GQ

Rest assured... it ain't gonna be done by May!!

-Gerry

There are at 5 Drover Caboose drawings in the index:

jeff (author of the index :-)

That's Rio Grande " standard gauge" drovers caboose plans. Bruce

Geez, I sure would appreciate it, thanks, Bruce!

-Gerry

Ya... I'm sorry. I wasn't very clear. I couldn't find anything in the index in the magazines I own. Sorry...

-Gerry