Description
Features: • Newly upgraded tooling • DCC-ready • Interior and directional lighting, including operating classlights, steplights and inspection lights • Separately applied grab irons and other details • Underbody and interior detail • Accurate paint schemes
Prior to the invention of “End of Train Devices” in the early 1970s, the familiar caboose served not only as an indicator of the rear of a train, but also as a mobile office and home for the conductor and train crew during layovers. On many roads, including the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, cabooses (or “vans”) were assigned to specific crews, requiring them to be switched out at division or crew change points. During the 1960s, however, CN and CP began to replace using “assigned” caboose operations with “run-through” vans, requiring the crew to change out and layover in bunkhouses or other lodging while the van remained with the train. To meet the needs of run-through operation, CN embarked on a building program for a more modern van at their Pointe Ste. Charles shops. These vans were built from existing boxcar underframes and side panels and were outfitted with axle generators and batteries for electricity, with some eventually receiving diesel generators. Over their years of operation, these CN vans were found not only in domestic, but in international service as well, where their distinctive yellow cupolas stood out. By 1991, however, vans were phased out on Canadian railroads in favor of the “sense and braking unit”, or SBU, however many of these vans had by then found new life on provincial rails and even on US short lines. There are several still in existence in both museums and personal collections across Canada and the US, as well as in operation on industrial and short lines.