Bowser - 37886 - Caboose, Cupola, Steel, N5/N5C - Long Island Rail Road - 1

Prototype History: The PRR had a long tradition of designing its own distinctive "Cabin Cars"... as "P" Company men referred to their cabooses... much the same way the railroad designed and built its own locomotives. Many Pennsy cabin cars were built at its sprawling shops in Altoona, PA, or nearby Hollidaysburg. The Pennsylvania's first mass-produced steel cabin car was the "N5", a type first built in 1914 (later models would be identified with a letter suffix). The basic structure of the N5 of 1914 remained essentially unchanged over the years until 1942.

PRR's most distinctive caboose design was the N5c. This style of cabin was similar to its N5 cousin, but it incorporated streamlined elements that had become popular during the Great Depression.

Road Name History: The LIRR was established in 1834 as part of a ferry-rail-ferry-rail route linking New York City with Boston. Within a few years, an all-rail route (later becoming the New Haven) was completed and LIRR’s through traffic evaporated. In the 1880s, the LIRR absorbed all of the other railroads on the island and settled in to a life of dependable local service. This included what may have been the first WOFC (wagon on flat car) service.

In 1900, Pennsylvania Railroad bought control of the LIRR and began incorporating it into their plans for Penn Station in Manhattan. This included electrifying certain routes on the west end of the LIRR with 600 volt DC third rail. The steam locomotive fleet began to take on a distinctly Pennsy look. Over the next 20 years, Long Island began to develop into a bedroom community for New York City and the LIRR stepped in to become the transport of choice for tens of thousands of daily commuters.

However, running commuter trains is an inherently dodgy business. It requires large investments in equipment and facilities that are used for two brief windows of time during the day, then sit idle for the rest of the time. The problem was made worse by the state of New York who froze ticket prices at the end of the First World War and left them there until after the Second World War. The LIRR slipped into bankruptcy. Parent PRR and the state came to an agreement. New York’s onerous property taxes were relaxed, ticket fares were allowed to rise and PRR began modernizing the LIRR. Steam was replaced with diesels primarily from Alco and Fairbanks-Morse. EMD’s joined the party in 1976.

In 1966, a state agency (later called the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) bought control of the LIRR from the Pennsylvania Railroad. Under state control, the LIRR gradually lost interest in their freight service and in 1997 freight operations were turned over to the New York & Atlantic Railway. The LIRR remains today America’s largest passenger hauler, moving over a third of a million passengers on a typical weekday.

Brand/Importer Information: On May 1, 1961, Bowser was purchased by Lewis and Shirlee English and moved from Redlands, CA to their basement in Muncy, PA. The original Bowser Manufacturing Co first advertised in the model railroad magazines in November 1948. At that time, the company had only one (HO Scale) engine, the Mountain, which had a cast brass boiler that is no longer available. It was sometime later that Bowser (Redlands) developed the NYC K-11 and the UP Challenger. The molds were made by K. Wenzlaff who introduced himself at the MRIA Show in Pasadena, CA in 1985 These two locomotives are still current production.

Bowser entered into N Scale in 1998 with their acquisition of the Delaware Valley Car Company, a manufacturer of N scale freight cars.