Elvas Tower: Rio Grande Southern Caboose 0403 - Elvas Tower

The 0403 was originally built for the Rio Grande Southern by the Denver & Rio Grande in 1990 with three windows on a side and windows in the ends on either side of the doors. The cupola windows were hung on the outside of the cupola sides. In the 1910’s this car and her sisters were rebuilt with the three window configuration – one on the stove side and two on the other – with cupola windows inside of the cupola.

There are three versions of this car in the download, each representing a different era of its existence: 1937, 1943 and 1947.

The 1937 version represents the 1915-1940 era. It has black handrails and ladders and a top mounted signal light, corresponding with the signal requirements of the D&RGW in use prior to the issuance of the 1938 rule book. This includes red-to-the-rear, green-to-the-sides-and-front marker lights. The car features the short Railroad Roman “Rio Grande Southern” lettering on the fascia and numbers low on the car sides. Although this car will operate in MSTS, the top light is a second ORTS Static FreightAnim and it will only load in ORTS, as the MSTS FreightAnim line is taken by the marker lamps.

The 1943 version, which represents the 1942 to post WWII era, features silver paint on handrails, ladders, grabs and steps. It has the simplified, nearly sanserif “Rio Grande Southern” on the fascia and hand painted numbers. The top light is gone and the side and front lenses on the marker lamps are yellow now. A yellow “Defense Supplies Corporation” ownership plaque is on the car sides – a wartime loan program.

The 1947 version, 1947-1948 era. This car was painted by the Rocky Mountain RR Club for its 1947 Memorial Day excursion. The club members couldn’t find a proper stencil so it has “Rio” in one font, “Grande” in another and “Southern” in a third. It still has its hand painted numbr and the “Defense Supplies Corporation” plaque remains on the car, one of the last pieces of RGS equipment to be so labeled.

Notice on this car that holes have been cut in the steps to allow for lubricating the journals – no two holes the same! Typical RGS.

Sadly, 0403 was wrecked in 1948, when a loaded runaway flatcar crashed into it. It was subsequently scrapped.

Each version is offered in two models, one with the stove end forward and the other with the stove end to the rear. Each has the marker lights on the appropriate (rear) end. The lights will illuminate at dusk.

This model was built from plans drawn by Ken Pruitt, supplemented by pictures of the series in Vol XII of the RGS Story, and by many pictures of the series furnished by Herb Kelsey. This model is the fourth of a series of RGS cabooses being modeled, with 0404 to be released in the near future.

This model was built by a team of several people. I did the actual construction, but Herb Kelsey inspected it at every stage to make suggestions and point out errors, and did all testing. Herb applied all lettering and the cupola light box, and packaged the model for uploading. The marker lights were made by Tim Muir, applied and illuminated by Herb Kelsey.

To install, unzip this file to a neutral location and copy the “Trains” folder to your root directory. Use your preferred consist editor to tack one of these on your train.

Enjoy!