Model Railroading > Bowser Cabooses

What do you all think of the latest runs of Bowser Pennsy Cabooses? I am not a Pennsy modeler, but they seem to be better than some brass versions I've seen and much more reasonable at $37.50 each. Pictured are the N8, N5C and N5. I will be swapping out the top and bottom cabooses as the shaded keystone is too late for my era. Bowser also offers other paint schemes including Penn Central, Conrail, IC for the N8 and the details are very fine. They are also offering them in N scale. I remember these cabooses in the Penn Central era and sure miss them on the end of a freight. One fond memory was seeing an N5C one late night at a country crossing with the "portholes" lit up.

I am not affiliated with Bowser but it appears that they have run out of some paint schemes.  And some paint schemes are no longer available on eBay. If you want them, hopefully your pusher or hobby shop can provide them.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/21 07:27 by wabash2800.

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I haven't seen them up close and being an SP and Rio Grande fan am not buying any.

Posted from Android

Great news for Conrail modelers as well.

The N8s were painted in the round Keystone scheme with the PRR lettering.  The scheme shown on the Bowser appears to be the shadow keystone, which came later

-Sean

Thanks for the info. That was part of the reason I posted this. As I wrote, I am not a Pennsy modeler.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

bigmc83 Wrote:
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> The N8s were painted in the round Keystone scheme
> with the PRR lettering.  The scheme shown on the
> Bowser appears to be the shadow keystone, which
> came later
>
> -Sean

Honestly, what was the point of repsonding to this thread?

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't seen them up close and being an SP and
> Rio Grande fan am not buying any.
>
> Posted from Android

nydepot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Honestly, what was the point of repsonding to this
> thread?
>
> SPDRGWfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I haven't seen them up close and being an SP
> and
> > Rio Grande fan am not buying any.
> >

Honestly, what is the point of trolling me?

They look really sharp and have produced some for non-Pennsy heritage roads that had them in this run as well, including Illinois Central Gulf, Boston and Maine, and Reading and Northern.

Rich

Maybe if someone here purchases the other roads, they will post photos.

A side note:  What is the story with the N8 style cabooses on the Illinois Central? Were they identical? Were they built by the same manufacturer? Are they former PRR cars or did PRR build them for the IC?

Victor A. Baird


PasadenaSub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They look really sharp and have produced some for
> non-Pennsy heritage roads that had them in this
> run as well, including Illinois Central Gulf,
> Boston and Maine, and Reading and Northern.
>
> Rich



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 10:56 by wabash2800.

> Maybe if someone here purchases the other roads they will post a photo.

> A side note:  What is the story with the N8 style cabooses on the Illinois Central? Were they identical? Were they built by the same manufacturer? Are they former PRR cars or did PRR build them for the IC?

> Victor A. Baird

ICG purchased them as excess from PC about 1973, shortly after the GM&O merger.  My understanding is that the IC heritage had safety concerns with handing up orders to conductors on cabooses with conventional end platforms, with the possibility of the conductor falling off.  For decades IC had addressed this concern by using side door cabooses (except in Iowa), but in the early 70s began replacing the aging side door cabooses with Darby built/Centralia clone "veranda" style end platform cabooses similar to the PC's N8 cabooses. The end platform side railings of the N8s were a good fit for ICG.  They were originally numbered in the 91xx series, with the IC heritage cabooses, but as IC and GM&O rolling stock number systems were consolidated the N8s were renumbered into the 1991xx series.
 

Thanks for the information inrr1066.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/21 17:38 by wabash2800.