Now at your favorite hobby dealers from Rapido Trains are highly detailed and lighted replicas of steel riveted cabooses with end cupolas for the Denver & Rio Grande Western in multiple versions and liveries addressing every modeling period from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Over a period of two decades from 1940 to 1959, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad built 91 steel cabooses to replace its aging wooden caboose fleet. Numbered from 01400 to 01490, these cabooses were built in batches of about ten cars every few years at the railroad’s own Burnham shops in Denver, Colorado. Most had riveted bodies, with the final 21 cabooses having welded construction. Outshopped with offset cupolas, wooden window sashes and an arched roof, many of the cabooses were modernized first with single paned windows, updated once more in the late 1960s with sealed Thermopane windows, and finally with side windows completely blanked out other than on the cupola during the early 1980s.
Four different body styles are offered for these cabooses:
“As-built” (with four-pane window sashes), Early Mods, Post-War Mods (sealed windows) and “Late Mods”(blanked side windows). Liveries include black, “Switch Caboose” (black with orange cupola), single-stripe yellow and silver, and orange “Action Road” schemes where appropriate. Multiple road numbers per scheme where appropriate.
Each of these Rio Grande Riveted Cabooses from Rapido Trains feature full end and underbody details, see-through etched metal steps, running boards and walkways, metal wheels, all-wheel electrical pickup, and even etched metal “hardware store” style caboose numbers included in a polybag. $129.95 each while supplies last.
Rapido Trains, www.rapidotrains.com
Finished in black, Rio Grande 01427 represents the “As-Built” cars with wooden multi-pane window sashes and wand-activated LED interior lighting.
Resplendent in the Prospector-inspired “Single Stripe” scheme, D&RGW 01415 models the “Post-War Mods” version with sealed “Thermopane” side windows and wand-activated LED interior lighting. Marker lights are provided separately in a poly bag. The “Post-War Mods” version is also offered in black, or orange with the “Action Road” logo. Multiple road numbers available per scheme.
Rapido’s replica of D&RGW 01420 represents the “Late” version suitable for 1981 and beyond with plated-over side windows and wand-activated illuminated red end marker lights and interior lighting. Additional details on this version include modified cupola windows, a Sinclair radio antenna atop the cupola and roller bearing trucks with an axle-mounted generator.
