Bay Window Cabooses

 

 

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 

• Fox Valley Models metal wheels

• Wire grab irons

• Window “glass”

• Plenty of weight

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

This Southern Railway phase 1 transition era version pre-dates our previous run by virtue of having Roman style lettering for the SOUTHERN 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

Norfolk & Western inherted 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.)

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Order Due Date: March 30, 2021

Anticipated Delivery Date: December 2021

 

Looking for more Bluford Shops N Scale Cabooses? Click here!

Looking for more Bluford Shops N Scale Items? Click here!

 

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