Rebuilding a GN 25 foot wood caboose. Does not have a flat roof. Will a TPO type material work on a slightly curved roof.?

Ok, what's "TPO"? I do know that rubber membrane material ("EPDM") in .060" thickness, is excellent for curved or straight wood deck caboose roofs.

And, it has the appearance of the original canvas.

Howard P.

EPDM/rolled rubber is awesome stuff, and it just needs a smooth surface as a base to be glued onto. We use plywood, as we end up having to do a lot of subroof repair on most of our roofing jobs.

The rubber will last for decades, and can be used on any shape of roof.

DO NOT use canvas and tar. It won't last. If you don't re-tar it regularly it will let water in. We have an otherwise structurally sound car that has been condemned due to mold because of this.

The tar is probably the problem. Elastomeric and canvas has worked well for me, and nothing will last if it isn't applied to a good substrate and maintained.

Thermoplastic Polyolefin. Single ply with an embedded scrim. Never used it. It seems to be all the rage for commercial re-roofing. I wonder how flexible it is?

here's another question for anyone.

the Caboose has letters -# words just wonder where I could get stencils to repaint them .The caboose needs a new paint job

Not even sure if the leak is coming through the windows


John

Use tracing paper and then cut the stencils yourself by pouncing, etc onto heavy stencil friendly stock.

Unless you're a sign painter - a dying breed - you'll have to make stencils or free-hand it. You can make stencils by hand with paper and low-tack spray adhesive, or buy adhesive stencil paper if you can find it big enough, or use cut vinyl stencil masks from a sign shop if you have the vector artwork. I think that normally comes 2' wide. I wouldn't recommend vinyl adhesive lettering, aka decals, on a wood sided car.

My suggestion for a wood sided car would be to use stencils and carefully paint by hand since you'd typically have a not-so-smooth surface and gaps between the boards. Sign painters will draw things out on the substrate and then use special brushes and techniques to do the actual painting free-hand.

If you can find a copy of the painting & lettering drawing for the car that the railroad used, that will help a lot with the sizes and spacing of the letters. The lettering drawing will likely reference standard sets of lettering - you might say "typeface" - on other drawings. Those are most valuable to have as every railroad's lettering is different and the it changed over time.

The flip side of all that is if historical accuracy isn't important, just wing it.

[Edit] Like Dave said, a pounce pattern in lieu of a formal stencil will work well to transfer the lettering outline to the car side and then paint freehand. You can look online on how to do pounce patterns and purchase the wheel and powder.

If you have an email account and a credit card, you can get some great info on GN wood cabooses from the Great Northern Historical Society for $29. You can print it out, if you have a printer.
https://gnrhs.myshopify.com/collections ... ucts/g9017

You may be able to find a photo of your caboose at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive.
https://atom.pnrarchive.org/index.php/i ... ortDir=asc