I bought this beautiful center-cupola caboose on ebay. It did not have a box, and was just described as an undecorated red caboose.
I thought it was a BALTIMORE AND OHIO caboose, but all the pictures I have found of their center cupola cabooses have slanted sides on the cupola.
Can someone help me out?
It caught my eye because it looks a lot like this caboose at the North Carolina Museum Of Transportation. This caboose is different because the carbody sides extend up and become the cupola sides.
It’s got very B&O style ladders, but more so than slanted sides, all the B&O caboose pictures I can fidn have the two cuploa windows together in the center of the cupola, not 2 individual windows per side like that. The awnings over the windows are also very B&O.
I tried a bunch of Eastern/Southeastern roads - no matches.
The B&O did have early classes of an I-1 or I-1a caboose with straight coupola sides and slightly inset from the roof. Built in 1913 to 1918 and 1922 and '23 respectively. A total of 438 cars in both classes.
As Randy points out the additional end ladder to roof handrails are somewhat distinctive to the B&O.
I probably spent as much time digging as you - it just screamed B&O to me but I couldn’t find the picture to prove it. I supposed it’s marked on the bottom by whomever they had make it? Might have found it that way quicker [:D]
The underframe looks like it was painted with a whole can of flat black spray paint. If there is a tag, it is fully covered.
I am more frustrated with the BrassTrains site. The pictures I posted are of a B&O I1 they sold previously, but when searching their brass archive for B&O I1, there are no matches. Glitch.
I found the pictures with Google.
Thank you again for the effort. It is going to look quite handsome in SGRR paint one day.
