By Railroad Model Craftsman Staff

Now available from Tangent Scale Models is their second all-new HO scale caboose offering – a postwar steel bay window caboose based on similar designs manufactured both by Despatch Shops Inc. and the St. Louis Car Company.

Shortly after World War II, NYC began looking to replace its wooden cabooses with newer steel designs. In 1949, the New York Central turned to its subsidiary Despatch Shops Inc., in East Rochester, New York, to build a fleet of 100 bay window cabooses — 95 for NYC and five for subsidiary Boston & Albany. These cabooses were first known as Lot 782. In 1952, NYC turned to St. Louis Car Company to build another 200 cabooses for the railroad. These cabooses, built under Lot 827, followed the Despatch design and had riveted steel construction and offset bay windows. Many of these cars would later end up on NYC successors Penn Central and Conrail and redesignated as class N7 and N7A cabooses.

One of the New York Central bay window cabooses from Tangent Scale Models. 

A year after NYC turned to St. Louis Car for new cabooses, Illinois Terminal did the same and ordered ten cabooses of their own based on the Lot 827 design. Some of these cars would end up on the Norfolk & Western when that railroad took over Illinois Terminal. 

This distinctive bay window caboose model is offered in ten different paint schemes and six different road names, including New York Central, Boston & Albany, Penn Central, Conrail, Illinois Terminal and Alton & Southern. All models feature era-specific details, paint and lettering. Each caboose includes metal wheels, Kadee scale-head couplers, a fully detailed, illuminated interior, illuminated marker lights where appropriate and more.  Each version is also available as an undecorated kit.  RTR cabooses are $114.95 each, and undecorated kits are $69.95 each, all available now from Tangent Scale Models. 

The interior of Tangent Scale Models new bay window caboose.