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Bluford Shops - N Scale - International Car Company (ICC) Bay Window Caboose - Conrail (CR) #24527 - Early - Blue/Black With White Lettering & Logo (SKU 188-40111)

Available On: December 1, 2021

 

Bluford Shops Logo

 

N Scale

 

Over the years the design of the bay windows evolved and Bluford Shops is presenting four phases of these designs plus the iconic half-bay window edition. All five will be represented in this announcement. Ladders and running boards will be included on appropriate paint schemes for each version.

Erie was an early adopter of the all-steel bay window caboose, receiving their first phase 1 example in 1952. Erie was also the first Class One railroad to be completely “radio equipped” with radios in all road service locomotives, cabooses, dispatcher offices, towers and operator locations. This innovation was proudly proclaimed on their latest cabooses. Erie’s phase 1 caboose fleet passed intact to successor Erie-Lackawanna in 1960.


The ready-to-run models will feature:

  • Magnetically operating knuckle couplers 
  • Fox Valley Models metal wheels
  • Wire grab irons
  • Window “glass”
  • Plenty of weight

 

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Shortly after their April, 1976 startup, Conrail began repainting their former PC N12 class half-bay window cabooses in this paint scheme. The CONRAIL name was painted up near the roofline while the road number was near the floor below the con-stencil. These cars also had a pair of marker lights on each end (a single light would later become the standard.) ACI tags also adorned these cars. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

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New York Central had several variations of their Century Green paint scheme on their half-bay window caboose. This version included the “Road To The Future” slogan (in a different lettering style than used on subsidiary Peoria & Eastern.) In addition, the roof of the bay windows was now painted white. This road name will be available in 3 road numbers.

 

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Like its predecessor, Penn Central was awash in caboose paint scheme variations. Its possible that this version with a very large “worms” logo and large billboard name was due to the use of boxcar stencils instead of the smaller caboose stencils which were missing, damaged or simply not yet made. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

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Toledo Peoria & Western was unrelated to NYC but also adopted the half-bay window design for some of their cabooses. Two of these are represented in this run. Both wear TP&W’s red/orange used on their locomotives with white racing stripes. The 508’s road number uses the speed-block lettering style while the 509 has a larger gothic road number plus ACI tags.

 

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Kansas City Southern had sampled International Car’s Phase 1 design in the early 60’s but in 1964 they turned to Kansas City based ship and barge builder Darby Corporation for a fleet of stainless steel bay window cabooses using the Phase 1 design as a starting point. There will be 3 road numbers in the run, one of which 323 has the original road number style. The other two, 344 and 357 have larger road numbers. In prototype photos taken from some angles, it appears the larger road numbers were applied to replace the original lettering, perhaps due to adhesion problems on the stainless steel. Note the prototype cars were delivered with rare Rockwell trucks – a style that is not mass produced in any scale. We are substituting roller bearing caboose trucks for this run.

 

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This Southern Railway paint scheme combining boxcar brown and yellow with block style lettering replaced the red and black transition era paint scheme. It was applied to a large majority of the caboose fleet during the 1960s and could be found in service for another decade. This road name will be available in 3 road numbers.

 

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Chicago Great Western switched from somber maroon to bright red for their locomotive and caboose fleets in 1963. Perhaps they were putting their best foot forward as they shopped around for a merger partner (including a proposed CGW-KCS-C&EI combination.) The railroad was making money thanks in part to running fewer but stupendously long trains. 200-250 car monsters were not rare. CGW did find their dance partner with the 1968 merger with Chicago & North Western. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

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Missouri-Kansas-Texas adopted the Whitman green paint scheme in 1972 and named the color after Reginald Whitman who had led the company to profitability the year before. This group of cabooses was the result of an extensive rebuild program in Katy’s Denison, Texas shops in 1959 converting ancient wood sheathed cupola cabooses into modern steel bay window cars. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

 

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In 1980, Frisco was merged into Burlington Northern. While this may seem an odd combination at first, Frisco actually fit nicely onto the southern frontier of the old Burlington Route and provided a northeastern outlet for BN’s old Fort Worth & Denver route. However, it was Frisco’s talented management team that the BN board of directors really coveted so buying the railroad was a means to bring them aboard. Frisco cabooses were renumbered with whatever stencils were on hand or could be picked up at the local hardware store. BN 11704 had its original road number blotted out with Frisco boxcar brown with the new road number applied in Railroad Roman. BN 11709 was patched with Frisco’s Mandarin orange with new gothic stencils applied.

 

 

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Chesapeake & Ohio had always favored cupola cabooses but the influence of Chessie System satblemate Baltimore & Ohio, who was an unabashed bay-window enthusiast, won out for this group of cars. The green cross over track logo is a nod to Chessie System’s safety program. Note the lettering to the left of the bay window differs on each side of the car. C&O also opted for yellow stairs and white grab irons among other details that separate these cars from the Chessie B&O cars released by Bluford Shops in 2019. This road name will be available in 3 road numbers.

 

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This group of Delaware & Hudson cabooses had been built by International Car wearing yellow paint, blue lettering and a silver roof but as they came due for repainting, D&H switched to a deep red with yellow lettering and a black roof. The placement of the lettering to the right of the bay window differed on each side of the car. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

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Family Lines was not a railroad company. There was no Family Lines merger. Instead it was a joint marketing brand used by 6 railroads with various levels of interlocking ownership. Seaboard Coast Line owned a controlling interest in Louisville & Nashville. SCL predecessor Atlantic Coast Line and L&N jointly leased the Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio and established the Clinchfield Railroad to operate it. Likewise, ACL and L&N had formed the Georgia Railroad to operate the leased Georgia Railroad & Banking Company. Georgia had a controlling interest in the Atlanta & West Point and the Western Railway of Alabama. In 1974, the 6 companies adopted the Family Lines image which began to appear on freight cars that year (locomotives followed 3 years later.) Equipment painted for Family Lines wore the reporting marks of the owning railroad. In this case, these cabooses belonged to Louisville & Nashville. Note the red and yellow stripes wrap around one end of the caboose and are different lengths on each side. This road name will be available in 2 road numbers.

 

 

During Union Pacific’s long courtship of Rock Island as a merger partner, RI needed cabooses so UP paid for new cars from International Car and leased them to Rock Island. The merger never happened but the leases remained until Rock Island closed in 1980 and the leases were canceled. Most of the returned cabooses received a new coat of Armour yellow paint and new UP lettering including one of the safety slogans. The three road numbers in this new run had the “Safety is an Equal Opportunity For All” slogan suggested by UP employee Ben Martinez. This road name will be available in 3 road numbers.

 

Order Due Date: July 17, 2020

Anticipated Delivery Date: March 2021

 

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$39.95 US