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.

Chicago & Eastern Illinois Transfer Cabooses. C&EI built six transfer cabooses beginning in 1966 using the frames from old gondolas as a base. C&EI ran south out of Chicago, then split into a trio of mainlines, The eastern-most ran to Evansville, Indiana and a major connection with the L&N and points south. This route hosted a number of important Chicago-to-Florida passenger trains. The western-most route headed southwest to St. Louis. Much of that route was shared with NYC’s Big Four line. The third mainline ran down the middle of Illinois  to points on the southern tip of the state. This route generated C&EI’s considerable coal traffic. When the C&EI was later split between Missouri Pacific and Louisville & Nashville (in a deal not unlike the splitting of Conrail between NS and CSX decades later) four of these cars (517-520) went to L&N and two (515-516) went to Missouri Pacific.

33050 Chicago & Eastern Illinois #515 $49.95
33051 Chicago & Eastern Illinois #520 $49.95.

All Bluford Shops cabooses come ready-to-run with Kadee #5 couplers, metal wheels, wire grab irons and cut levers and appropriate trucks for the road name. Each road number is sold separately. We are still in the process of cutting the tooling on all five caboose variations.

Delivery of this group is expected in 2013. First draft artwork is shown here and is subject to improvement by our crack development team.