These are the first six road names on our brand new Transfer Cabooses in HO scale. Unlike our last announcement which featured the “short, bay window caboose” this group consists of genuine “Transfer” cabooses. Transfer cabooses were used for cross-town hops between yards. In the post-caboose era they have been used as “shoving platforms” providing a place for the brakeman or conductor to ride and be the engineer’s eyes during long backup moves. They did not have cupolas or bay windows, cots or amenities. In fact many didn’t have electricity. Most were built in the railroad’s own shops. Details will include wire grab irons and cut levers, Kadee #5 couplers, stairway light fixture castings, prototypical variation in marker light placement and free rolling trucks of various designs. Artwork shown here is preliminary and subject to improvement by our crack development staff.

Conrail Transfer Cabooses. Conrail inherited most of their transfer cabooses from Penn Central who (along with predecessor New York Central) had built them by the hundreds in their own shops, largely from old boxcar components. Conrail had the largest fleet of transfer cabooses in the nation. The two road numbers in this release received this paint sometime in 1978 (two years after the creation of Conrail itself) and received the twobox format consolidated stencils and, since they had 33” wheels, the black and yellow “U-1 inspection dot.” The two road numbers will be sold separately.