Bay Window Caboose
 
Click photo to see large view

In 1968, Southern Pacific subsidiary Cotton Belt (officially the St. Louis Southwestern Railway) received 20 cabooses from International Car Company.  These were the first SP cabooses to use 50 ton trucks, starting the C-50 series of cabooses.   In 1970, 1972, and 1974 SP returned to International Car for 181 cabooses, plus 16 for Cotton Belt in three groups.   For the next four years, SP did not acquire any new cabooses. Instead, 207 older cabooses were rebuilt by the Sacramento Shops.  In 1978, SP, again, bought cabooses. By then, International Car was a division of PACCAR (formerly Pacific Car & Foundry).  The 50 cars of the C-50-7 class were built at the same Kenton, Ohio plant as the previous C-50 series cars.  In design, they were similar to the previous C-50 cars with only a few changes.   Their paint differed by having the roof painted the car body color and the road name was moved to the right of the bay window, and they featured an axle-end generator connection.  They were also the first new cars in the 4000 series. In 1979, 50 cars of the C-50-8 class were delivered, with some minor detail differences when compared to the earlier C-50-7 cars.   In 1980, the C-50-9 class of 75 cars was delivered.   The C-50-9 class was unique in that they were delivered without any windows in the car sides, in order to increase crew safety and reduce repair costs.  They were also the last group of new cabooses delivered to SP.

Prototype Era: 1960s to present (depending on road name)

Model Features:

• Body mounted McHenry® knuckle spring couplers
• Weighted for optimum performance
• Partial interior
• Separately applied wire grab irons
• New truck tooling including axle mounted generator
• End walkway tread
• Etched window screens included
• Finely detailed end railing and brake wheel
• Fully detailed underbody
• Window glazing
• Three bodies available - C-50-7 . . . C-50-8 . . . C-50-9
• Plastic/etched roof detail (antenna, marker light, smoke jack and vent) when appropriate per prototype

Prototype Era: 1978 to present (depending on road name)

Model Features:

• Fully assembled
• Packed in jewel box
• Detailed underbody
• New truck tooling including axle mounted generator
• Details such as antenna, smoke jack and vent
• End walkway tread
• Clear window glazing
• McHenry® N scale knuckle spring couplers
• *Union Pacific Licensed Product

  Please Note:  Two paint schemes included in Release Seven were recommended by Wig-Wag.  You too may influence manufacturer decisions.  Please be prepared to document your recommendation with info of where color pictures can be located, time frame applicable to the scheme, the road numbers painted in that scheme, and if possible offer to supply any detail shots needed of dimensional data or other unusual features of the paint scheme.  Additional support can be provided by indicating how many modelers you know for a fact will purchase the product.