The Lackawanna’s all-American caboose
black lettering. The position of the let- tering varied when the eight-wheeled cars were first built, but by the repaint- ings of the 1930’s the lettering became standardized, with the name spelled out on both sides under the window line and the number centered below it. Non- revenue cabooses had a similar letter- ing scheme with 95000-series numbers but were dark-colored, likely brown with white lettering. Later in the 1930’s some of the ca-
booses were getting a red paint. Inter- views with those who remembered them called it a fire-engine red, with white lettering. No clean color photos have yet surfaced of this color, but the tonality of black and white negatives show some 1930’s cars had white letter- ing suggesting these are the red caboos- es. Chips of paint taken from DL&W No. 619 at the Western New York Rail- way Museum show a layer of red be- tween layers of yellow, suggesting it could have been one of the red ones. During World War II many railroads toned down caboose colors, which is
when the Lackawanna went to its Box- car Brown with the standard white let- tering. Later in the 1950’s some color pictures showing freshly painted com- pany equipment look as if maroon paint was used, similar to that on the diesels. Color photos show that the interiors were painted maroon in the 1950’s.
The next generation This caboose design was so success- ful that during May of 1948 the Keyser Valley shops produced from the frame up an all-steel copy of the wooden ca- boose, No. 850. The frame itself was a cast tender bed from a 2100-class 2-8- 2. This experimental design was put into service. Comments were collected from the trainmen who used it and the design was liked by the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen union. In 1950 an all-steel production caboose was de- signed. Just in time for the Lackawan- na’s 100th anniversary celebration in Scranton during October 1951, a brand new caboose, No. 851, was on public display. Between the Centennial and
1954, a total of 60 all-steel cabooses were built on the cast tender frames of scrapped steam locomotives, making them very distinctive.
Production
changes included welded sides after the first ten, and a change from U.S. Gypsum to Morton running boards in 1953. Steam ended in 1953 with almost no steam on road freights in 1952, so there was very little overlap between steam power and the steel cabooses. By the 1960 merger with the Erie, all 61 steel and 53 of the wooden eight-wheel cabooses were still in service, and a handful more in non-revenue use. At least three, the 849, 838 and 818, were known to have been painted Erie Lack- awanna. A service life of more than 40 years is a pretty incredible record, and a credit to the designers and employees at the Keyser Valley shops.
Next month: modeling
Be sure to join us next month when Scott Lupia describes how he modeled one of the Lackawanna’s eight-wheel wood cabooses in HO scale.
6′-0″ Passenger-style truck 6′-0″ 16′-8″
25′-0⁷₈″ 29′-6″
Side view A
DL&W eight-wheeled wood caboose
Drawn by Chuck Yungkurth Full size for HO scale: 3.5mm=1′-0″; 1:87.1
A Underframe view 2′-2³₄″ 9′-4³₄″ End view
5′-6″ Bettendorf T-section truck Magor Car Co. frame
58
5′-6″
A-A Cross section JULY 2013
11′-0⁷₈″ 13′-9⁷₈″
10′-3¹₂″
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100