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.

Great Northern Transfer Caboose. Great Northern built four all-steel transfer cabooses in their St. Cloud Shops in 1967 (just before the shift to Sky Blue paint.) The four cars were built on the frames of old VO-1000 switchers and as a result were the heaviest cabooses on the GN roster! Each received a safety slogan with #X177 “Your Safety Is Up To You” and #X178 “What’s Your Safety Score Today?” represented in this run. While not visible in the above views, the “Safety First” version of the round Rocky The Goat logo does appear on the end splash guards (adjacent to the brake wheel stands.) While the prototype cars wore Type-A switcher trucks, for practical reasons, these models will come with friction bearing leaf spring caboose trucks. 34060 Great Northern #X177 “Your Safety Is Up To You”; 34061 Great Northern #178 “What’s Your Safety Score Today?”