Tangent Scale Models seventh caboose model is the HO Scale Southern Railway Gantt Manufacturing Company Bay Window Caboose System. This Southern Railway system covers the 1969-1974 deliveries of cabooses from Gantt Manufacturing. These 253 bay window cabooses served the SOU, and later NS, into the mid-1990s. After railroads purged large portions of caboose fleets, some SOU survivors made it into the 2000s and beyond, including one 2014 repaint into the NS/SOU Heritage scheme! Some are still used in today’s world of NS shoving platforms. These Southern cabooses were built by Gantt Manufacturing in Greenville, South Carolina and are easily recognizable with welded construction, terminating Stanray diagonal-panel roof edge, large windows, and bright “Fire Protection Red” paint. This Tangent caboose marks the first “high-detail” RTR Southern Railway caboose replica in HO scale, and is being released today.

By 1969, the Southern Railway and its subsidiaries served 13 states, with over 10,000 miles of track. With the slogan “The Southern Serves the South,” freight schedules cris-crossed the southeast. The railroad modernized its locomotive fleet with second generation EMD and GE power through the 1960s and 1970s. New cabooses were part of this modernization program, since the 1940s-early-1950s SOU Hayne Car Shops-built steel bay window cabooses were showing their age and needed replacement. To that end, Southern turned to Gantt Manufacturing to build several orders of new and “modern” steel bay window cabooses in both road service and local service configurations.

These cabooses were all delivered in Southern’s iconic red paint and proudly ran system wide from the hottest manifest trains down to the meandering local trains. While the first group of Gantt cabooses were built with running boards in 1969, these fixtures were soon removed. By 1970, new caboose deliveries were showing up with a modern, no-roof-walkway look. Local service cabooses stood out with yellow bay windows, while the road cabooses were solid red. The Local Service cabooses would be rebuilt in the late 1970s with roof-top solar panels to provide marker light power. The road cabooses were equipped with truck axle-mounted generators to charge the battery system.

Tangent Southern Railway Caboose System covers the 1970- through today era, and includes the following Gantt-built series:

• SOU X200-X250 (1971-1972) Local Service
• SOU X260-X271 (1973-1974) Local Service
• SOU X403-X429 (1969) Road Service
• SOU X430-X485 (1970) Road Service
• SOU X486-X592 (1970-1971) Road Service

Through the 1970s and 1980s, these Gantt cabooses would receive various versions of Southern’s red paint and make up the “core” of the Southern caboose fleet! If you see a red Southern caboose, it almost always is one of these! The cabooses served widely on Southern Railway rails, as well as offline in many instances either via run through operations or trackage rights. In addition to the bright “Southern” lettering, some of these cabooses were stenciled for Southern’s subsidiary Central of Georgia, carrying small “CG” or “C of G” initials.

So, if you model St. Louis, Danville, Birmingham, New Orleans, Macon, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Alexandria, Asheville, or somewhere else in the many places the 10,000+ mile Southern Railway served, Tangent Scale Models have a caboose for you! Oh, and don’t forget that these cabooses have been documented offline in places where you would not expect them, either in a “normal” run-through arrangement or an unplanned situation – so if you model a Southern interchange railroad or just love classic Southern/NS power, now is your chance!

It’s difficult to understate the importance of these Southern-design Gantt cabooses, as they were the primary road cabooses for the last 14 years of the Southern and first decade-plus of Norfolk Southern. This era is an incredible period of change for railroads like the SOU, and it is easy to see why Tangent has planted its Southern caboose flag here.

And now, on to the models! The Southern Railway Gantt Manufacturing Company Bay Window Caboose System is a state of the art, dimensionally-accurate group of scale replicas with highly accurate “true-to-life” colors and precise letter stencils. Tangent Scale Models SOU cabooses were designed from meticulous field dimensions, and include incredible levels of detail such as multiple era-specific bodies, roofs, ends, two different underframe assembly options, brake wheel options, caboose truck options, generator options, solar panel installation options, toilet air tank, rooftop antenna, multiple smoke stacks, accurately scaled window treatments, plus beautiful steps and end platforms with accurate tread detail. Inside the model is an accurate SOU Gantt-applied interior. Tangent Scale Models Southern cabooses include interior lighting, plus FRA End Light (SOU-style, i.e. non-flashing!) options that are appropriate for the paint scheme era of each replica. These “no fuss” track-powered interior and exterior lights are compatible with DC or DCC setups right out of the box (a simple wand included in the box activates the lights). Finally, Tangent Scale Models ready-to-operate replicas include “near-scale” draft gear box including side “key” detail, coupler lift bars accompanying Kadee scale couplers, sufficient hidden weights, and CNC-machined wheels to ensure the model operates as good as it looks.

Tangent Scale Models want to be very clear. The Southern Railway Gantt Manufacturing Company Bay Window System is not a generic model painted red, like what you may “already have.” This is Tangent-Level execution of bay window caboose details, covering Southern’s Gantt 1969-1974 production. These different body and build options cover multiple eras, paint schemes and modernization programs, all with accurate lighting options plus era and road number specific details.

These cabooses are shipping today! Features for these replicas include:

• Dimensional accuracy – designed from meticulous field dimensions using real tape measures on four real SOU Gantt cabooses – see “thank you” section below for more details for Tangent Scale Models project field research
• Highly correct “true to life” colors
• “Hyper-Accurate” lettering including exact fonts and lettering placement
• Genuine Kadee scale couplers
• “Near-scale” draft gear box
• Multiple road numbers for each scheme, as appropriate
• Road and Era-specific details for each RTR scheme, including multiple body, roof, underframe detail and truck combinations
• A beautiful Stanray “terminating” diagonal panel roof with accurate huck bolt details everywhere!
• Accurate step and end tread patterns
• Underframe details to match as-built Gantt configurations
• Multiple roof configurations for different roof walkway bracket, antenna and solar panel mounting locations
• Underframe and truck axle drive generator options
• Different end railing/marker light options, based on Gantt build date and era
• Two different wire “coupler lift bar” detail options, per prototype application
• Accurate SOU-specific interior, including iconic angled-back notched bay window seating, conductor desk and stationery equipment locker, tall lockers, coal stove, coal bin, open toilet area with retention tank, sink, water storage tank, ice chest and more. The interior is accurately painted in Southern’s Silver Gray Enamel.
• Full underbody details – brake system with brake rods and piping, release rod, and even the toilet air flush tank for the inside retention tank – all based on the prototype!
• Beautiful side wire curved grab irons and intricate Gantt end railings in plastic
• LED illuminated FRA end lights with a proper SOU “solid on” (i.e. no flash) that can be controlled on or off – on each end – independently, where appropriate by paint scheme
• LED illuminated interior lighting “warm” lights to replicate Aladdin lamps or incandescent bulbs of the prototypes that can be controlled on or off
• No complicated decoder. No complicated programming. No complicated electronics. DC/DCC compatible track-powered “no fuss” interior and marker light lighting – simple and easy to operate with included wand
• CNC-machined standard RP25 .110” tread 33” wheels (Yes, semi-scale .088” wheels are available separately!)
• Two Southern Railway truck options: “Road” cabooses are equipped with all-new 70-Ton Barber Roller Bearing Generator Caboose Trucks, and “Local” cabooses are equipped with all-new 50-Ton Plain Bearing/Leaf Spring Caboose Trucks.
• Recommended age 14 years and older

In order to bring you this project with the level of research required for prototype perfection, Tangent Scale Models needed to measure and photograph five examples of these cabooses! Tangent Scale Models would like to give a big “thank you” to:

• – The Southern Appalachia Railway Museum in Oak Ridge TN, for allowing us to spend an entire day measuring SOU X261, one of the 1971-built local cabooses. X261 is likely the only Southern Railway solar-equipped caboose with the “solar system” still intact), and as a bonus also still wearing multiple layers of original SOU paint. Tangent Scale Models had cooperative weather to measure things right. The only “sin” with this caboose? It was retrucked at some point. But keep reading…
• – The Old Fort Railroad Museum in Old Fort, NC for maintaining a beautifully restored SOU X581, a 1971-built road caboose. Sometimes you just have to pause and appreciate a restoration and an intact, perfect interior that looked just like the day it was released from Gantt in Greenville, South Carolina.
• – The Knox County Tennessee Public Library in Corryton TN for keeping an eye on the SOU X571, a 1971-built road caboose. Why is this one important? Because somewhere along the way to being stuffed and mounted on the library’s lawn, it got a pair of the original “Local Service” plain bearing trucks installed underneath. Accurate caboose truck measurements road trip!
• – The Craggy Mountain Line in Asheville, NC for giving us access to measure truck details of their restored and operating SOU X488 and X582 cabooses.

Southern (SOU) Local Service “Repaint 1979 w/ Solar” Southern Railway Gantt Manufacturing Company Bay Window Caboose

• Product: Southern Railway Gantt Manufacturing Company Bay Window Caboose
• Scale: HO Scale 1:87.1
• Truck: All-New 50-Ton Plain Bearing Caboose Trucks w/ Leaf Springs
• Wheels: CNC-machined standard RP25 .110” tread 33” wheels
• DC/DCC Lighting Features: Interior Lighting and FRA End Lights with a Proper SOU “Solid On” (i.e. no flash)
• Eras: 1979-1991

– Southern Railway (SOU) Local Service “Repaint 1979 with Solar” w/ FRA End Light & Interior Lights shows off one of those paint schemes and configurations that is the very definition for many of a Southern Railway caboose. SOU refurbished their “Local Service” Gantt-built cabooses in the late 1970s, as radio use became more prevalent and electric red marker lights needed to be added to the ends. SOU’s innovative approach resulted in Solar panels being added to the top of the roof to charge a battery system on the prototypes. These Tangent caboose models stand out with a carefully replicated (non-working!) solar panel rack, clear “Lexan” covers, battery box and wire conduit setup. There are actually two prototype placements for the Solar panels. Tangent Scale Models chose the mounting brackets that line up with the end of the carbody for these car numbers, all refurbished and repainted in 1979. The models feature a repaint version of the Southern red scheme, including COTS panels and U-1 inspection dots as shown in the prototype photos. In this era, Southern was applying various safety slogans at the steps of each caboose. Tangent Scale Models have applied “GET A GOOD GRIP ON SAFETY” at the steps, accurate for the September of 1979 repaint/refurbish date of the models. The smokejack has been replaced in this era, with a distinctive flaring style. The ends have been modified. Notice the centered, lower round reflective end paddle is gone, and replaced with a red FRA marker light. This light is “solid on,” i.e. it doesn’t flash, matching SOU practice. The underframe features things like a red-painted air reservoir, ABD valve and brake cylinder, accurate for Southern painting practices. Underneath, the model is equipped with 50-Ton Plain Bearing Caboose Trucks with Leaf Springs. For lighting, this Tangent SOU model is equipped with “golden” interior lights and FRA red end lights. A wand is included to operate the lights – easy with no fuss! Tangent Scale Models are offering their SOU Local Service “Repaint 1979 with Solar” scheme in 4 numbers. The COTS data and Cobra Shoe stencils change slightly to match photos of each car number.

Looking for more Tangent Scale Models Cabooses? Click here!