Good morning all,

I am building a Bar Mills kit, Jebediah's wagon repair, and thought it might be interesting if Jeb had a contract with the National Park Service to restore artillery pieces to be displayed on a local battlefield; thus creating a somewhat unique flatcar load. So, I am looking for O scale caissons, limbres, etc., that will fit on a Bachmann On30 scale 26' flat car. I have done some scanning on the net but most offerings seem to be complete kits with horses, soldiers, etc. which I don't need. So I am turning to my favorite source for info on possible solutions. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Old Pilot

Here's one source:

https://alkemscalemodels.biz/field-artillery

There are others if you look around.

Len

The park service uses iron carriages for outdoor displays, not wood, as only a fool would place a wood carriage outdoors for a prolonged timeframe.
Prior to the 1950s or so, you wouldn't find many carriages on any battlefield. They made a big deal about getting representations of carriages on the battlefields before the Centennial in the 1960s. A few went in before WW2 but I can't find photos of carriages in place before after WW2.
I have a "war of Nothern Aggression" memorial on my own layout in O scale, made by my late Father.
This is the last representation of an artillery piece my Dad ever made, a Napoleon (M1857 12-pdr) barrel in O scale. I made the pedestal.

He's made amazing guns of various scales since the 1960s, up to full scale.

His 1/6 scale James Rifle sits atop the counters in our kitchen right now. I took this as par of a series of photos soon after he made it, one of which made it in Finescale Modeler magazine.

Good morning, Len and P51, thank you for your info.

P51, after receiving your reply, I sent an email to the National Park Service at Gettysburg inquiring as to when the battlefield park was established, when artillery pieces were first displayed, their construction at that time, and when they were rebuilt with all metal parts for longevity. I am still waiting for a reply. Until then, and their reply contradicts my "poetic license" (I try to be close to accurate for my fictional layout history), since Gettysburg was created circa 1895 and my layout time frame is the late 1890s, I am going to have Jeb rebuilding the caissons to their original composition of mostly wood with some metal parts.

Len, the company you advised to check has a caisson which I believe suits my purpose.

Again, I will apologize for straying from the exact purpose of this forum. Also, forum monitor, you are going to have to make the verification letters larger and plainer for my old eyes.

Pilot, glad to help.  I came across them looking for cannon for the plank on frame ship models I build. O scale's too large for that, but I bookmarked them in case I decide to do a larger "gun deck" diorama one day.

Len

Quote from: old pilot on June 28, 2025, 06:17:55 AM...since Gettysburg was created circa 1895 and my layout time frame is the late 1890s, I am going to have Jeb rebuilding the caissons to their original composition of mostly wood with some metal parts.

You're talking about 30 years after the war was over. While I'm certain there were no guns sitting out there on their carriages, there were still plenty of original carriages outside, but they'd be starting to deteriorate badly by then in that severe climate.
That said, you could model them with complete carriages and just weather the living heck out of them and be very historically plausible for your concept. I'd have fun with that if it were me, I'd model the carriages starting to collapse and a few with the wheels collapsed and the axles and trails lying on the ground.
In Bainbridge, GA, not far from where I grew up, there was an original civil war 6-pounder on the remains of what might have been an original carriage as late as the 70s still outside in the town square. The wheels were long gone and the axle sat on pillars. It's been since rebuilt with some original parts and new wood and sits where I saw it back then, today.

Good morning, P51 and others,

Still no word from Gettysburg, must be busy preparing for the anniversary. I do like your idea of rebuilding "memorials" from local town squares; I'm going to change my concept for Jeb rebuilding the two caissons I ordered for the flatcar load.

A small unrelated sidebar, my wife and I judged a BBQ competition in Bainbridge.

Old Pilot.

Good morning all,

P51, you are more correct than I am. I just heard from Ranger Karlton D. Smith at Gettysburg Battlefield. Keeping his explanation brief, cannons were placed on the battlefield prior to 1887 by the Memorial Assoc., first on rocks, then on metal carriages made by Gilbert & Smith in the 1890s. Many of these metal carriages are still in use on today's battlefield. There are only 4 pairs of limbers and caissons on the battlefield, all in one grouping.

So, I will change my flat car load plans to repairing artillery pieces from local town squares.

Old Pilot 

So, did you ever complete your project?

Good morning all,

P51, no I have not, too many summertime activities. Hopefully this winter as here in the north, the cold winter months are for working on my train layout.

I have 2 Bachmann 26' flatcars for the project; one for the 2 caissons I originally ordered in my early concept idea, the 2nd is the one Bachmann produced with the Confederate cannons for the load. As of now I plan to have one flatcar inbound with the artillery pieces (one caisson and cannon) needing restoration, the second flatcar will be outbound with the pieces restored (the other caisson and one cannon).

Old Pilot