Squeak N Products - 0024 - Caboose, Cupola, Steel, NE - Jersey Central - 91501

Model Information: Life-Like first introduced this body style in the 90's. They have metal wheels and truck-mounted Rapido couplers. The caboose design is based on a common prototype used by many Northeastern roads.

Prototype History: The Northeast or NE style caboose was introduced by the Reading Railroad in 1924. The design was an all-steel version of a USRA design. The acquisition of these new cabooses was prompted by proposed Pennsylvania legislation requiring larger, more structurally sound caboose for use in through freight consists. The original set of cabooses was ordered from AC&F, but other manufacturers also adopted similar designs.

The Reading selection was made after the consideration of several designs. The original purchase was for 10 cars in 1924, but the design was so effective that it became the de-facto Reading standard and they continued purchasing new cabooses of this type through 1948. The design soon became popular with other Northeastern railroads such as the WM, L&NE, LV, CNJ and others.

Road Name History: The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines (reporting mark CNJ), was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the northeastern United States.

The Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad was chartered on February 9, 1831, to build from Elizabeth on the Newark Bay (with a steamboat transfer to New York City) west to Somerville. The line to Plainfield was completed in March 1839, connecting to the New Jersey Rail Road in Elizabeth. Extensions took it west to Dunellen in 1840, just east of Bound Brook in 1841 and to Somerville in 1842.

The Somerville and Easton Railroad was chartered on February 26, 1847, to continue the line west to Easton, Pennsylvania. The first extension, to Whitehouse, opened in 1848 and was leased to the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad. On February 11, 1849, the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad bought the Somerville and Easton Railroad, and on February 26 the two companies were consolidated as the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

Brand/Importer Information: Squeak N Products was started in 1989. The company specializes in N scale models and concentrates on Northeast roadnames, especially the "Squeak" or NYS & W.

Squeak N Products assigns an incremental stock number to its models, preceded by two letters representing the road letters. As a convention, in this database, we will use the number as the main stock number and will indicate the full stock number as secondary number.
Note: There was not a product #0013.