This scratch-built “Bobber” caboose trails at the back end of one of Rudy Kouhoupt’s scale model steam locomotives. In the photo below, you can see that the inside of the caboose is also fully detailed. Rudy made dozens of scratch-built wooden rail cars to pull behind his trains.
One of the first large donations to the Miniature Engineering Craftsmanship Museum was the collection of famed model engine builder Rudy Kouhoupt. After retiring as a chemist, Rudy had a second career building engines and writing magazine articles documenting the process. Many people have built his models, but we have the honor of displaying all of his original prototypes. Rudy’s collection includes scale model engines, locomotives, tractors and more. Additionally, thirteen of Rudy’s model steam engines are hooked up to run on compressed air to demonstrate their function.
