Description: RAPIDOHO Scale Ready-To-Run Transcona Yard Wide-Vision Caboose - Lighted & Assembled -- Great Northern #X111 (red, black roof) Out-Of-Production DISCONTINUED By the Manufacturer the HIGHLY DETAILED Version -Comes with INTERIOR DETAILING / INTERIOR LIGHTS / MARKER LIGHTS Manufacturer Background InformationRapido Trains is a Canadian manufacturer of North American HO and N Scale model trains. They produce a highly detailed " MUSEUM QUALITY MODEL " check out the photos. Prototype History A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles.Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars, they later became purpose-built, with projections above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train. The caboose also served as the conductor's office, and on long routes, included sleeping accommodations and cooking facilities. Cabooses were used on every freight train in the United States and Canada until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. A major purpose of the caboose was for observing problems at the rear of the train before they caused trouble. Lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices eliminated much of this need. Older freight cars had plain bearings with hot boxes for crews to spot overheating – as freight cars replaced these with roller bearings, there was also less need for cabooses to monitor them. Nowadays, they are generally only used on rail maintenance or hazardous materials trains, as a platform for crew on industrial spur lines when it is required to make long reverse movements, or on heritage and tourist railroads. HistoryUse of cabooses began in the 1830s, when railroads housed trainmen in shanties built onto boxcars or flatcars. The caboose provided the train crew with a shelter at the rear of the train. The crew could exit the train for switching or to protect the rear of the train when stopped. They also inspected the train for problems such as shifting loads, broken or dragging equipment, and hot boxes (overheated axle bearings, a serious fire and derailment threat). The conductor kept records and handled business from a table or desk in the caboose. For longer trips, the caboose provided minimal living quarters, and was frequently personalized and decorated with pictures and posters.Early cabooses were nothing more than flat cars with small cabins erected on them, or modified box cars. The standard form of the American caboose had a platform at either end with curved grab rails to facilitate train crew members' ascent onto a moving train. A caboose was fitted with red lights called markers to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase "bringing up the markers" to describe the last car on a train. These lights were officially what made a train a "train", and were originally lit with oil lamps. With the advent of electricity, later caboose versions incorporated an electrical generator driven by belts coupled to one of the axles, which charged a lead-acid storage battery when the train was in motion. The addition of the cupola, a lookout post atop the car, was introduced in 1863. Coal or wood was originally used to fire a cast-iron stove for heat and cooking, later giving way to a kerosene heater. Now rare, the old stoves can be identified by several essential features. They were without legs, bolted directly to the floor, and featured a lip on the top surface to keep pans and coffee pots from sliding off. They also had a double-latching door, to prevent accidental discharge of hot coals caused by the rocking motion of the caboose. Cabooses are non-revenue equipment and were often improvised or retained well beyond the normal lifetime of a freight car. Tradition on many lines held that the caboose should be painted a bright red, though on many lines it eventually became the practice to paint them in the same corporate colors as locomotives. The Kansas City Southern Railway was unique in that it bought cabooses with a stainless steel car body, and so was not obliged to paint them. Decline Until the 1980s, laws in the United States and Canada required all freight trains to have a caboose and a full crew, for safety. Technology eventually advanced to a point where the railroads, in an effort to save money by reducing crew members, stated that cabooses were unnecessary.New diesel locomotives had large cabs that could house entire crews. Distant dispatchers controlled switches, eliminating the need to manually throw switches after trains had passed. Improved signaling eliminated the need to protect the rear of a stopped train. Bearings were improved and lineside detectors were used to detect hot boxes, which themselves were becoming rarer with more and more freight cars gaining roller bearings. Better-designed cars avoided problems with the loads which helped as well. The railroads also claimed a caboose was a dangerous place, as slack run-ins could hurl the crew from their places and even dislodge weighty equipment.Railroads proposed the end-of-train device (EOT or ETD), commonly called a FRED (flashing rear-end device), as an alternative. An ETD could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train's air brake pressure and report any problems to the locomotive by telemetry. The ETD also detects movement of the train upon start-up and radios this information to the engineers so they know all of the slack is out of the couplings and additional power could be applied. The machines also have blinking red lights to warn following trains that a train is ahead. With the introduction of the ETD, the conductor moved up to the front of the train with the engineer.A 1982 Presidential Emergency Board convened under the Railway Labor Act directed United States railroads to begin eliminating caboose cars where possible to do so. A legal exception was the state of Virginia, which had a 1911 law mandating cabooses on the ends of trains, until the law's final repeal in 1988. With this exception aside, year by year, cabooses started to fade away. Very few cabooses remain in operation today, though they are still used for some local trains where it is convenient to have a brakeman at the end of the train to operate switches, on long reverse movements, and are also used on trains carrying hazardous materials. CSX Transportation is one of the few Class 1 railroads that still maintains a fleet of modified cabooses for regular use. Employed as "shoving platforms" at the rear of local freight trains which must perform long reverse moves or heavy switching, these are generally rebuilt bay-window cabooses with their cabin doors welded shut (leaving their crews to work from the rear platform). BNSF also maintains a fleet of former wide-vision cabooses for a similar purpose, and in 2013 began repainting some of them in heritage paint schemes of BNSF's predecessor railroads. Extended-visionIn the extended-vision or wide-vision caboose, the sides of the cupola project beyond the side of the car body. Rock Island created some of these by rebuilding some standard cupola cabooses with windowed extensions applied to the sides of the cupola itself, but by far, the greatest number have the entire cupola compartment enlarged. This model was introduced by the International Car Company and saw service on most U.S. railroads. The expanded cupola allowed the crew to see past the top of the taller cars that began to appear after World War II, and also increased the roominess of the cupola area. CAR FEATURES:The HO car is built primarily of plastic and features an exceptional amount of separately applied parts, including a fully detailed underbody. All the printing is crisp and straight. There’s sharp color separation between the stripes, and all the warning stencils match prototype photos.These fully assembled HO Scale cars feature scale dimensions and rivet details, factory-installed side door handrails, complete end, underbody and roof detail, scale set-back windows, working diaphragms, car name and number decals, correct trucks with RP-25 metal wheels for each car, factory-installed electrical pickups, and working knuckle couplers. Car Features:Highly Detailed interiorCupola seating detailingSafety rail inside cupolaSliding open / close cupola windowsSEE-THRU Etched end platforms & StepsInterior lightingEnd Marker LightingSuper Detailed Underbody Piping Runs Accurately scaled from engineering drawings Scaled Dimensions & Rivet DetailComplete End, Roof & Underbody DetailingFactory - Installed Hand RailsScale set-back windowsCorrect Trucks with RP-25 Metal Wheels Light pick ups installed Crisp detailed, realistic lettering, matched to prototype photographsRealistic satin paint finish, great for weatheringDetailed truck side frames Low-friction, nonmagnetic, needlepoint metal axles, no lubrication required THIS IS NEW item in the ORIGINAL Box VERY HARD TO FIND ITEM We do combine shipping on multiple purchases. If you do a Buy It Now the transaction requires immediate payment for each item separately. What you need to do is put it in the shopping cart and then when you go to checkout it will recalculate the shipping and combine the items for you. If you pay first I am unable to make any adjustment because ebay has then taken its fees on the shipping as well. If you have a concern message me and I can work something out for you. THIS IS AN ASSEMBLED Item The item is NEW in the original box from old stock PERSONAL INVENTORY: Many of these unique items are from my personal inventory which was accumulated over the years. They are hard to part with but due to downsizing in retirement they too are looking for a good home which can appreciate and enjoy them. STORE INVENTORY: Having discontinued my Hobby Store and left frigid “Minne-Snow-Da” I have relocated and retired to the warmer part of the country, Down to Sunny TEXAS. I will be Liquidating the remaining stock. I will be listing items over the next year or so clearing them out. Please see the photos we take actual photos of each item Most of these items are New in the box removed only to take photos of them.
Price: 179.89 USD
Location: Van, Texas
End Time: 2025-01-03T18:22:00.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Assembly Status: Ready to Go/Pre-built
Color: Multicolor
Replica of: WIDE - VISION CABOOSE
Material: Plastic
Scale: 1:87
Grade: C-10 Mint-Brand New
Year Manufactured: 2012
MPN: 110037
Age Level: 17 Years & Up
Control System: DC / DCC
Franchise: HIGHLY DETAILED
Gauge: HO
Vintage: Yes
Brand: Rapido Trains
Type: Caboose
Rail System: Two-Rail System
Corporate Roadname: GREAT NORTHERN
Theme: RAILROADING
Features: Light Function, Limited Edition, Painted, HIGHLY DETAILED INTERIOR, HIGHLY DETAILED UNDERCARRIAGE, SEE-THRU ETCHED platforms, LIGHTED MARKER LIGHTS
Country/Region of Manufacture: China
