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Bluford Shops - 24081 - Caboose, Transfer - Alton & Southern - 13937

Collectors value this item at an average of 25.4125.41Collectors value this item at an average of 25.41
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N Scale - Bluford Shops - 24081 - Caboose, Transfer - Alton & Southern - 13937 Image Courtesy of Bluford Shops
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Stock Number24081
BrandBluford Shops
ManufacturerBluford
Body StyleBluford Caboose Transfer
Image Provider's WebsiteLink
Prototype VehicleCaboose, Transfer (Details)
Road or Company NameAlton & Southern (Details)
Road or Reporting Number13937
Paint Color(s)Red with Black Roof
Print Color(s)White
Coupler TypeGeneric Magnetic Knuckle
Coupler MountBody-Mount
Wheel TypeChemically Blackened Metal
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeCaboose
Model SubtypeTransfer
Model VarietyTransfer
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era II: Late Steam (1901 - 1938)
Scale1/160
Track GaugeN standard



Model Information: This model features: Fox Valley Metal wheels and Wire grabs and cut levers.

This short body bay window caboose design was developed by International Car and MoPac in the 1970s. Several other railroads used very similar cars. These were assigned to road service and were NOT transfer cabooses.
Prototype History:
A transfer caboose looks more like a flat car with a shed bolted to the middle of it than it does a standard caboose. It is used in transfer service between rail yards or short switching runs, and as such, lacks sleeping, cooking or restroom facilities. The ends of a transfer caboose are left open, with safety railings surrounding the area between the crew compartment and the end of the car.

A recent variation on the transfer caboose is the "pushing" or "shoving" platform. It can be any railcar where a brakeman can safely ride for some distance to help the engineer with visibility at the other end of the train. Flatcars and covered hoppers have been used for this purpose, but often the pushing platform is a caboose that has had its windows covered and welded shut and permanently locked doors. CSX uses former Louisville & Nashville short bay window cabooses and former Conrail waycars as pushing platforms.

From Wikipedia
Road Name History:
The 32 mile Alton & Southern is the second large belt and terminal line in the St. Louis area, concentrating on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

This line was assembled in 1913 by a predecessor of Alcoa. Power in the steam era was provided by Mikados, 0-8-0’s and a rare 0-10-0 heavy switcher. Dieselization began in 1947 when the first Alco RS-2’s arrived. The fleet would remain all-Alco until 1969. Because ALS was free of EMD diesels, they did not benefit from the EMD design department in developing paint schemes. That is why their green and yellow paint schemes appear a bit odd compared to their neighbors. These paint schemes were also used on other shortlines owned by Alcoa during the Alco years. In 1966, Alcoa closed their large facility in the area and put the railroad up for sale. Missouri Pacific and Chicago & North Western each bought a 50% stake. Since the sale by Alcoa, the locomotives have been painted in a combination of MoPac "Jenks Blue" and C&NW harvest yellow. The logo has the shape of C&NW's "circle and bar" logo but the circle is an MP style "buzzsaw."

Just 5 years later, C&NW faced a cash crunch sold their half to Cotton Belt although that has not been reason enough to change the logo or the paint scheme. Now the ALS is owned entirely by Union Pacific but given its position as a terminal railroad, it is operated independently of the UP system. Alton & Southern now has 16 EMD locomotives (14 of which are switchers), and typically calls 10 crews per shift, 3 shifts per day. Their Gateway Yard sorts around 5,600 cars per day.
Brand/Importer Information:
Bluford Shops began in 2007 as a side project of two model railroad industry veterans, Craig Ross and Steve Rodgers. They saw a gap between road names available on N scale locomotives but not available on cabooses. They commissioned special runs of Atlas cabooses in Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Georgia, Monon, Boston & Maine and Southern plus runs on Grand Trunk Western and Central Vermont on the MDC wooden cabooses. While these were in process, they began to develop their first all new tooling project, 86' Auto Parts Boxcars in double door and quad door editions in N scale. By January of 2008, Bluford Shops became a full time venture. Along with additional N scale freight cars and their own tooling for new cabooses, they have brought their own caboose line to HO scale. They also have their popular Cornfields in both HO and N. The future looks bright as they continue to develop new products for your railroad.

The town of Bluford in southern Illinois featured a small yard on Illinois Central's Edgewood Cutoff (currently part of CN.) The yard included a roundhouse, concrete coaling tower (which still stands) and large ice house. Reefer trains running between the Gulf Coast and Chicago were re-iced in Bluford. Things are more quiet now in Bluford with the remaining tracks in the yard used to stage hoppers for mines to the south and store covered hoppers. Intersecting the IC line in Bluford is Southern Railway's (currently NS) line between Louisville and St. Louis. Traffic on this single track line remains relatively heavy.
Item created by: gdm on 2018-12-19 05:06:03. Last edited by Alain LM on 2020-08-17 07:00:35

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