Can anyone tell me what type of caboose and paint scheme Southern Pacific used during the F-7 Black Widow era ?. I recently bought a Black Widow set and am wondering what caboose would be correct to run with it.
Thanks,
TL [:)]
the cupola and the c-30 bay window cabooses were used on the SP during the F-7 days…more so the cupola because the bay window was introduced in the mid 50’s …they were both box car brown with the ends painted daylight orange…chuck
You can use the Walther’s SP cupola caboose easily behind an F-7 set. It’s an earlier SP wood style, but I remember seeing quite a few of them running over Donner Pass when I was a kid. For the F-7 consist, you can go with either the original SP “Roman” lettering, or if you choose, the newer SP “Gothic–radio controlled” lettering. I could be mistaken (memory doesn’t always serve me well, LOL) but It seems to me that the bay-window style was used more on the Central Valley and the Pacific Coast routes, so it might pretty much depend on what area of the SP route you’re modeling.
Tom
they can be used if you are modeling the valentine, sunset, sunbeam, and / or the cotton belt routes …i remember seeing both kinds down here in Texas when i was a kid …the cupola disappeared in the late 60’s and C-30’s were the only caboose seen after then…chuck
Kinda going off the original topic, but i remeber reading some where that both athearns bay window caboose and their cupula caboose are either very close or exact SP prototypes. If so what models of cabosses (or would it be cabeese?) would they be? and what time period would they have been run in?
thanks,
Matt
When did SP start using the Railroad Police cabooses and how long did they run them?
Athearn’s steel cupola caboose is a Santa Fe prototype. The bay window is SP
I remember driving between Phoenix and San Diego in 1990 and saw one on the end of an SP freight.
Prior to the Police caboose, ex lightweight passenger equiptment was modified for the role, I observed one converted from a former Sunset limited lounge in the mid-seventies at various locations in California and on the Rio Grande in Colorado and a review of my slides show others, some stainless, Pullman Green and dark gray all used by the rairoad police. They were equipped with small bay windows, CCT systems, communication systems in addition to office and living quarters.
Dave
Why did the Railroad Police need to have traveling accommodations anyways?
Great question.
Ever wonder why pig trailers started being set on the flats rear-to-rear rather than the time-honored rear-to-front elephant style we came to know and love?
The two answers are related.
The SP has several stretches of track where “problems” existed. The worst was and still is on the Sunset Route main line for about 10-15 miles west of El Paso, where the tracks are literally a few yards from a completely unprotected border and the trains move very slowly because of the grade and curvature. This is a desolate area on the US side that is out of the way and thus hard to access except by rail or helicopter. Very well organized Mexican gangs (sort of a southwestern “Los Chicos Conrail”) would cross the border, jump the trains, break the seals on the trailers and, as they went by their favorite barrio or out of the way hideaway that was accessible from the Mexican side, they would toss off literally trailer loads of TVs, stereos, washers, dryers, auto parts, etc., to their amigos waiting with trucks, who took the goods and resold them in Mexico. They got brazen enough to do this in broad daylight, and the poor train crews could do nothing to stop it. By the time the cops and border patrol got there, los hermanos had, as we say down here, vamoosed.
This sort of stuff was also happening in Arizona and CA, as well as occasionally in parts of HOU and NOL, although the El Paso bunch was the best organized.
The SP RRPD cars were rebuilt with a holding cell and the idea was that a carload of special agents could bust the gangs out on the road when they jumped the train. I recall seeing info published that indicated that this arrangement actually helped SP cut its losses during that period.
Police caboose:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/sp/sp-c4709k.jpg