Brown Caboose Era

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What years did Southern paint cabooses brown? I know they were red up to the late 1950s and again in the 1970s. In the Southern passenger and freight color book are two pictures of brown cabooses in the mid 1960s, but no timeline is listed. Also, did the Southern plate over the two inside windows when repainted in the second red scheme or before? I have a brass 4 window caboose painted in the modern scheme with all windows open and need to know if this is correct. The brown color did have the large lettering, and all 4 windows based on a photograph in the book.

-- Larry K. Neal, Jr. (lkneal@ncsl.dcr.state.nc.us), January 26, 2001

Answers

I haven't been able to tie down actual dates yet but the brown scheme came in about 1962 and was out by 1969. Of course cabs painted brown would not have been painted red again until they needed it. I'm sure that the window modifications came at various times on different cabs. Best get a photo of a cab from the time period you model and work from that.

-- Larry (ljpuckett@starpower.net), March 09, 2001.

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