YOU ARE LOOKING AT ONE

BRAND NEW

ATHEARN

N SCALE

ERIE BAY WINDOW CABOOSE

ROAD #C310

PART #24324

PICTURES ARE ONLY FOR REFERENCE OF PAINT SCHEME!!!

Like most major railroads in the middle of the 20th century, the Erie Railroad had a large fleet of several dozen wooden cabooses. At the end of World War II, with steel more readily available, the railroad decided to design and build its own steel “Dunmore” cabooses. These cars maintained the classic caboose look, but were unique due to their in-house design and construction at the Erie’s shop in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.

For decades, traditional cabooses (such as the "Dunmore" cars) had a cupola on top, which served as a perch where the conductor could view their train. As freight cars developed, especially through the 1940s, they became taller, and eventually it became impossible to see the length of a train from the cupola. This created the need for the bay window design. Rather than a projection out of the roof, bay window cabooses had projections out of either side of the car body. From a seat in the middle of the caboose, conductors could see their whole train because their view extended wider than the width of the train’s freight cars.

The Erie’s prototype bay window caboose, like the earlier “Dunmore” cars, was shop-built in Dunmore, PA in 1952. The new No. C300 toured around the whole Erie system as the railroad took input and suggestions from the crew members who used it.  In 1953, the Erie took their revised design to be mass-produced by the International Car Company in Kenton, Ohio, rather than in the Erie's own Dunmore shops. With some additional design changes and standardizations made by International Car, fifty more cabooses were ordered and dispersed across the system.