MTH Premier Offset Steel Caboose – Elgin Joliet & Eastern “Chicago Outer Belt”

$89.99

Authorized Retailer Berwyn’s Toys & Trains in Berwyn, Illinois.

  • Road Name: Elgin Joliet and Eastern
  • Road Number: 503, 510 and 529
  • Product Line: Premier
  • Scale: O Scale
  • High Rail Wheels
  • Delivered: August, 2026
SKU: N/A Category:

Description

  MTH Custom Run / MTH Special Run

The most common caboose form in American railroad practice has a small windowed projection on the roof, called the cupola. The crew sat in elevated seats to inspect the train from this perch.

The position of the cupola varied. In most eastern railroad cabooses, the cupola was in the center of the car, but most western railroads preferred to put it toward the end of the car. Some conductors preferred to have the cupola toward the front, others liked it toward the rear of the train, and some just did not care. ATSF conductors could refuse to be assigned to a train if they did not have their cabooses turned to face the way they preferred. However, this would be a rare union agreement clause that could be used, but was not a regular issue.

The classic idea of the “little red caboose” at the end of every train came about when cabooses were painted a reddish brown; however, some railroads (UP, and NKP, for example) painted their cabooses yellow or red and white. The most notable was the Santa Fe which in the 1960s started a rebuild program for their cabooses in which the cars were painted bright red with an eight-foot-diameter Santa Fe cross herald emblazoned on each side in yellow. Some railroads, chiefly the Wabash Railway, Norfolk and Western and Illinois Central Gulf, also built or upgraded cabooses with streamlined cupolas for better aerodynamics and to project a more modern image.

The MTH paint scheme will match caboose 510 in a lighter orange with white lettering, similar to caboose 547. Caboose 529 is at Illinois Railway Museum in Union IL,  Number 510 is at Hoosier Valley Railway Museum, and 503 is in Griffith, at the Griffith Historical Park. The models will have “Chicago Outer Belt” on the sides.

FEATURES

  • Intricately Detailed, Durable ABS Body
  • Stamped Metal Floors
  • Metal Wheels and Axles
  • Die-Cast 4-Wheel Trucks
  • Fast-Angle Wheel Sets
  • Needle-Point Axles
  • (2) Operating Die-Cast Metal Couplers
  • Caboose Interiors With Overhead Lighting
  • Detailed Brake Wheel
  • Separate Metal Handrails
  • Near-Scale Proportions
  • Unit Measures:10 1/4″ x 2 1/2″ x 4 1/4″
  • Operates On O-31 Curves

Additional information

Car

Any Road Number, 20-91881, Car No. 503, 20-91882, Car No. 510, 20-91883, Car. No. 529

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