Northeastern Style Steel Caboose

Prototype Information

The so-called Northeastern Design Caboose was one of the first mass-produced all-steel construction cabooses. Originally designed by the Reading Company in the early 1920s, it was based in a proposed USRA design car, although the USRA design called for wood sheathing. The Reading built 285 cars, spread through several classes. The earliest cars had solid underframes, but later cars were equipped with Duryea cushion underframes.

The Reading had such success with these cars that quickly other roads in the Northeast bought copies as well, including the Central Railroad of New Jersey, Lehigh & New England, Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh & West Virginia and the Western Maryland. The Reading built some of these cars while others were built in the various railroad’s shops. With production spread out between so many locations and roads, variations were bound to be made to the original design. Different groups of cars were equipped with different trucks, running boards, steps, grabs and end wall windows (or lack thereof).

 

The cars soldiered on into Conrail and Chessie and saw service right up until the end of caboose operations on those roads. Many were sold second-hand to other railroads – Class 1 and shortlines alike.