This month we are announcing a new group of road names on our N scale International Car Bay Window Cabooses including the half-bay window design and phases 1, 2, 3 and 4. Ladders and running boards will be included on appropriate paint schemes for each version. The ready-to-run models will feature magnetically operating knuckle couplers, metal wheels, wire grab irons, window “glass”, and plenty of weight. MSRP: $42.95 each.
In 1999 Conrail was divided with Norfolk Southern receiving 60% of the system and CSX receiving 40%. Dividing certain high traffic
terminal areas was impractical so these became Conrail Shared Assets on which both NS and CSX would have access. Just after the split,
two former Conrail half-bay window cabooses that were inherited by Norfolk Southern were in need of repainting. They rolled out of
Juniata Shops in NS caboose red but with a full set of Conrail logos and lettering. This was a classy gesture especially since NS
initially assigned them to operate on Conrail Shared Assets lines.
40150 Conrail Shared Assets red #CR 21280 $42.95
40151 Conrail Shared Assets red #CR 21303 $42.95
New York Central first applied this New York CentrALERT paint scheme to selected bay window cabooses in 1956. The special logo included
an image of the GM Aerotrain which was in service that year on the NYC along with the motto “Safety Wherever.” The cars were painted
“safety green” not to be confused with Century green that would be adopted by NYC three years later.
40160 New York CentrALERT Safety
Wherever #NYC 20284 $42.95
40161 New York CentrALERT Safety Wherever #NYC 20414 $42.95
The Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis built their NE-5 class cabooses in their own West Nashville Shops in 1940. This marked the
first appearance of the Phase 1 bay window design that would later be adopted in large numbers by Southern Railway and Erie. These
cars utilized underframes from retired stock cars. NC&StL merged into Louisville & Nashville in 1957.
41130 Nashville Chattanooga
& St. Louis #NC&StL 90 $42.95
41131 Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis #NC&StL 95 $42.95
This Southern Railway phase 1 transition era version pre-dates our previous run by virtue of having Roman style lettering for theSOUTHERN name and road number. Cars in this paint scheme began to arrive in 1941. This remained the standard for about 11 or 12 years
before gothic style lettering was introduced for cabooses.
41140 Southern transition era Roman lettering #X3301 $42.95
41141 Southern transition era Roman lettering #X3309 $42.95
In 1967, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois was split between the Louisville & Nashville and the Missouri Pacific. L&N took
the eastern fork to Evansville, MoPac took the two western forks to Cairo and St. Louis and the northern end to Chicago was shared.
The MoPac portion continued to operate under the Chicago & Eastern Illinois name for the next nine years but with a new logo based
on the MoPac buzzsaw. This run represents two of C&EI’s International Car phase 2 bay window cabooses in this buzzsaw paint scheme.
42140
Chicago & Eastern Illinois buzzsaw #13512 $42.95
42141 Chicago & Eastern Illinois buzzsaw #13514 $42.95
Louisville & Nashville also inherited cabooses from the C&EI in 1967 including some of the International Car phase 2 bay window
cabooses seen here. During this period, L&N was still using a fine black outline around their lettering and road numbers.
42150
Louisville & Nashville #987 $42.95
42151 Louisville & Nashville #989 $42.95
Rock Island took delivery of this group of 20 phase 3 bay window cabooses from International Car in 1965. We present them in this
run as they appeared at delivery, with block style lettering and red ends.
43050 Rock Island Ph.3 as delivered #17072 $42.95
43051 Rock Island Ph.3 as delivered #17065 $42.95
Norfolk & Western inherited 100 bay window cabooses in their 1964 acquisition of the Nickel Plate Road. At first these cars received
the N&W “hamburger” logo but in 1971 the company adopted the conjoined gothic NW logo and most of the fleet would receive this
scheme prior to the Norfolk Southern consolidation.
43060 Norfolk & Western post-'71 #557522 $42.95
43061 Norfolk & Western post-'71 #557560 $42.95
Chicago & North Western received this group of 50 International Car phase 3 bay window cabooses in 1967. By this time, C&NW
had shifted to yellow lettering and the “Chicago and North Western Railway” version of the logo as they were not yet Employee Owned.
It’s unclear if the roofs were galvanized or painted silver but the crews would have appreciated it either way.
43070 Chicago &
North Western red w/ylw lettering #11164 $42.95
43071 Chicago & North Western red w/ylw lettering #11180 $42.95
Burlington Northern phase 4 caboose number 11702 was a bit of an oddball. Unlike BN’s 1977 order for phase 4 cars and most of the
repainted Frisco fleet, this former Frisco car had its BN logo, lettering and road number painted to the left of the bay window. This
left plenty of room to put the con-stencil on the right (where most railroads put them.)
44250 Burlington Northern left logo #11702 $42.95
This Burlington Northern paint scheme is actually from the BNSF era. Caboose BN 12610 rolled out of the paint shop with this lettering
arrangement in January of 2007 – 11 years after the operations of BN and Santa Fe were combined. Even the BN reporting marks are in
the post-merger BNSF style.
44260 Burlington Northern in the BNSF era #BN 12610 $42.95
Soo Line’s 1985 acquisition of Milwaukee Road brought the term “bandit” to the table as MILW lettering on locomotives was wiped out
with large black rectangles. Cabooses also received the bandit treatment as illustrated here with two of the phase 4 bay window cabooses
delivered to the MILW in 1973. On these cars, the side face of the bay windows was painted black.
44270 Soo Line bandit #SOO 150 $42.95
44271 Soo Line bandit #SOO 157 $42.95
Southern Pacific ordered 200 phase 4 bay window cabooses from Pacific Car & Foundry for delivery in 1961. They were assigned class
C-40-4. This was the only class delivered with the bay windows painted orange (although repainted cars from earlier classes had been
receiving orange bays for a few years.) We know at least one of these cars survived well into the 1980s with its solid orange bays
intact.
44280 Southern Pacific orange bay window #1406 $42.95
44281 Southern Pacific orange bay window #1490 $42.95
44285 Southern Pacific orange bay window #1583 $42.95