The Prototype - Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad N5c class of cabin cars (as the PRR called their cabooses) were built during 1942 and made of steel. What distinguished the "c" subclass from the previous "b" subclass was the change to round windows and a streamlined cupola. They were numbered from 477820 through 478019 for a total of 200 cars. These cabin cars used 2A-F5 (Barrett-Whitehead, cast sideframe) trucks. Most survived well into the Conrail era. The photo below shows the car as it was pre-1953 era, which didn't use a herald (no circle keystone).
(#477830, source: Kohs & Company, Inc. web site)
The Model
The model is a kit produced by Kaslo Shops Distributing, part number SK-5 (web site is gone, so I guess the company doesn't exist anymore). The kit is not actively sold any more, but you may be able to pick one up on eBay. I bought mine on eBay from the owner of Kaslo Shops; I guess he was clearing out his inventory before closing up shop). The kit is well packaged. It comes with all the parts needed to detail the interior as well as the exterior of the cabin car. It does not come with decals, couplers, trucks, or wheels. I have received e-mail from people complaining about how the parts had warped. Mine had none of these problems and it was a nice, clean kit to build.
(completed model, with light weathering applied)
Articles
- 11-20-2010 - Building the Kit
- 01-29-2012 - Installing Interior Lights
References
- PRR Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Vol. 2, page 99+.
- PRR Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Vol. 3, page 97+.
- Pennsylvania Railroad, page 88.
- N5 classes and its sub-classes.
- Side profile diagram.
- Floor plan diagram.
- Restoring a PRR N5c Cabin Car.
- Restoring PRR N5c #477823.
- Kohs O-scale N5c Cabin Car Details and Project Home Page.
- Cabin car code.
- Bill Lane's S-scale cabin cars.