Red Caboose - RN-17426-06 - Boxcar, 55 Foot, Thrall All-Door - Green Bay & Western - 55

Prototype History: Lumber has always been difficult to ship by rail. Box cars provide protection but are hard to load and unload. Flat cars eliminate those problems, but loads have to be tarped to protect them from the weather.

In 1967, Thrall took the best of both ideas and created a unique car that would solve these problems. The All-Door Box Car had no true sidewalls, but was equipped with four large doors which could be opened in pairs. This provided a 25' wide opening that made loading and unloading a breeze! And since it was a box car, the loads were completely enclosed for the entire trip. As the housing boom began in the 1970s, the cars became a common sight at lumber mills and yards across America.

Thrall Door boxcars arrived in Detroit in the early 70s. They were used to carry hardboard products to Ford plants in the Detroit area.

Road Name History: The GB&W was the result of the 1896 reorganization of earlier companies connecting Green Bay, Wisconsin with the Mississippi River port of Winona, Minnesota. The line east from Green Bay to the car ferry port at Kewaunee was built as the affiliated Kewaunee Green Bay & Western. It wasn’t completely merged into GB&W until 1969. The 277 mile combined line bisected the state of Wisconsin. Railroad car ferries connected Kewaunee with the Ann Arbor, GTW, and C&O in Michigan’s lower peninsula. For a number of years, another subsidiary the Ahnapee & Western was operated as part of the GB&W but was sold to new owners in 1947.

Light rails and bridges put the GB&W about 20 years behind other railroads in steam technology. For instance, they were still receiving new 2-8-0’s in the late 20s. The biggest engines in the fleet were a half dozen light Mikados which arrived in 1937 and ’39.

In 1929, they established the Western Refrigerator Line to manage a 500 car fleet of reefers (presumably to serve the many packers of Green Bay.) Passenger service was always a low priority and ended entirely in 1941.

By 1950, they had completely dieselized, entirely with Alcos. For the second generation of diesels, GB&W concentrated on C424’s. Typically, there were 18-20 units on the roster at any one time. They would remain all-Alco to the end with first generation units set up to run long hood forward and second generation running short hood forward.

The bridge traffic created by the car ferry link to Michigan included high value auto parts. However, in the late 70’s, the car ferry traffic plummeted and GB&W began relying on paper industry traffic generated on line. In 1978 the line was purchased by Itel (yes, the per diem boxcar people.) Finally in 1993, the Green Bay & Western was merged into a subsidiary of Wisconsin Central.

Brand/Importer Information: Originally Red Caboose was a manufacturer of HO and N Scale model railroading items. It was located in Mead, Colorado, and was founded in 1990 by Leon Fairbanks. Red Caboose manufactured highly accurate, well detailed N, HO, and O Scale freight cars and locomotives.

Red Caboose closed its doors in January of 2015. Red Caboose N Scale has been sold to Fox Valley Models and HO was sold to InterMountain Railway. Many of the Red Caboose toolings have seen re-releases from Fox Valley since the acquisition. We just wish they would clean up the underframes. Red Caboose always went light on the details where they thought people wouldn't look.

Manufacturer Information: While they were in business, Red Caboose split its production runs between the US and China. Which models were produced where was a function of which body style and which run. Furthermore, which Chinese company was used for production is something we would love to find out.