Former American Model Builders Kit

While the United States was fighting wars in Europe and the Pacific, railroads on the home front were doing their part to meet the additional shipments. With restrictions placed on materials such as steel, railroads across the county turned to rebuilding older pieces of rolling stock to meet rising traffic demands. In 1944, the New York Central rebuilt fifty boxcars into cabooses at their East Buffalo, New York shop. Entering the shop as 1910 era 36-foot steel framed wood bodied boxcars, they exited as essentially new cabooses numbered 20100-20149. These cabooses were given construction lot number 732.

In outward appearance, the lot 732 cabooses resembled the NYC 19000 series “standard" caboose with their short off set cupola, but were more than five feet longer. The cabooses retained the steel fish belly frame as the boxcars they were rebuilt from, but a steel channel was added that ran along the bottom of the body of the cabooses giving them a unique appearance.

While NYC’s wood bodied steel frame cabooses were bumped from mainline trains with the addition of 300 all steel bay window cabooses between 1949 and 1952, they continued to serve in local and branchline trains. The introduction of the steel transfer type caboose in 1966 sent many more of NYC’s wood cabooses into retirement. However at the time of the merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad to from Penn Central, there were still ten lot 732 cabooses on the roster.

Kit No. 887 features 100% laser-cut components with custom laser-scribed side and end walls; Tab & Slot and Peel & Stick construction; laser-cut underframe, end platforms, end railing, and brake wheels; cast resin platform steps and brake gear; white metal smokejack; custom decals by Tichy Train Group; fully illustrated instructions that provide information on painting and decaling the assembled models; and several fixtures to aid the modeler in creating all the handholds and ladders appropriate for the prototypes. In addition, the HO scale kit provides for optional details too, such as square or rounded body corner posts, side windows that can be modeled open or closed, cupola end window variation, and a complete set of screen doors and windows. We recommend the purchase of Tahoe Model Works Barger-Bettendorf Swing Motion Caboose Trucks, Kadee No. 5 couplers with draft gear boxes, and the paint and glue of your choice for the completion of this kit.

HO Scale 887 $64.95

Key words:  New York Central NYC Penn  Central PC Caboose Way Car