Red Caboose - RN-17687-1 - Gondola, Steel Coil, Evans 48 Foot - Chicago South Shore & South Bend - 3-Pack

Model Information: These models are both wonderful and awful at the same time. They have wonderful detail and printing, but the "RTR" versions are not.

They model an Evans 100-Ton Type-4 Steel Coil gondola car, and they do a pretty nice job. They show better underframe detailing than most Red Caboose models and the flexibility to run them with or without covers is nice, as long as you get the kit form.

Unfortunately if you get the Ready-To-Run (RTR) version, you don't get coils. And they are not truly Ready-to-Run because since they come with the covers glued to the Gondola, you are required to glue on the roof details or they will look wrong. Furthermore the roof details come on tiny sprues that need to be carefully cut apart. Then the attachment points where the details come away from the sprues need to be shaved. Then trying to glue these parts onto the coil covers is a feat worthy of neurosurgeon level dexterity or glue will get all over the covers.

Get the kit version if you can. You get the coils. You have to do the hardest part of the assembly job either way, and if you run them with the coils exposed, then you do not need to bother gluing the ding-dang roof details on the covers anyway.

Prototype History: The increased volume of coiled steel transportation gave rise to a new purpose-built freight car. Previously rolls of coiled-steel had generally traveled in specially equipped gondola cars. In the 1960s a lighter type of car emerged specifically for hauling coils of steel in an integral trough. The car type gained popularity and eventually over 17,000 cars were built. One common model was the 48 foot design from Evans.

The new commodity-specific coil-steel car were built with a 100-ton capacity using a trough frame and body. The early designs were refined during the 1960s and eventually Evans adopted a 48-foot length as standard. Production lasted well into the 1970s.

Road Name History: The CSS&SB was born in 1925 when traction and utility magnate Samuel Insull acquired and reorganized the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend. The CLS&S was a robustly built electric interurban line connecting South Bend, Indiana with Michigan City, Gary, East Chicago, Hammond and finally Illinois Central’s suburban line at Kensington, Illinois, just south of Chicago. The line was already blessed with broad curves and slight grades so it was not difficult for Insull to convert the line into a heavy electric in a style that would be familiar to fans of PRR, DL&W or Reading. Insull also secured trackage rights on the IC into Chicago. The overhead wire is a mix of catenary and trolley wire (the latter used on some of the low speed street trackage.)

Like many railroads, CSS&SB fell into bankruptcy in 1932 and Samuel Insull lost control. The Golden Age of Traction was over and the new management began to place more emphasis on freight service.

In addition to some boxcab electrics, the South Shore was one of two American roads to own “Little Joe” electrics. These had been built in the 1950s for the Soviet Union but Cold War tensions killed the deal. They were re-gauged (Russia is 5’ gauge) and sold to South Shore and Milwaukee Road instead. The “Little Joe” name was a reference to Joseph Stalin.

In 1967, Chesapeake & Ohio gained control of the South Shore and the occasional C&O diesel could be found switching the South Shore. In 1981, the Little Joe’s were retired and freight operations were dieselized with yellow and blue (like Chessie without the vermilion) GP38-2’s. Passenger operations remained electrified. Passenger losses were subsidized by the state of Indiana through this period. In 1982, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District paid for a fleet of new passenger cars that replaced the heavy steel cars that first went into service in the Insull era.

In 1989, the South Shore fell into bankruptcy, bringing an end to CSX (formerly C&O) control of the line. Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District took over operation of the money losing passenger operations. The following year, the Anacostia & Pacific short line group established a new Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad to provide freight service on the line. It was this group that brought back the orange and maroon paint scheme last used on the Little Joes. They currently operate 182 miles of line, much of it on trackage rights.

Traffic on the South Shore is primarily a pair of power stations that receive unit coal trains and mills that ship pig iron and finished steel. They also carry grain, manufactured goods, paper, and roofing materials.

Major customers include: Alexander Chemical, ArcelorMittal-Burns Harbor, Criterion Catylst & Technologies, GAF Corporation, Five Star Sheets, Foodliner, Maryland Pig Services, Northern Indiana Public Service, NAMASCO/Primary Steel, PSC Metals, Reserve Marine/Transfer Logistics, Rollcoater, Sims Metal Management, U.S. Steel - Midwest, USALCO, and Windy City Warehouse.

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.