Story and Photo by Harry K. Wong
Over a period of two decades from 1940 to 1959, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad built 91 steel cabooses to replace its aging wooden caboose fleet. Numbered from 01400 to 01490, these cabooses were built in batches of about ten cars every few years at the railroad’s Burnham Shops in Denver. Most had riveted bodies, while the final 21 cabooses were welded. Outshopped with offset cupolas, wooden window sashes, and an arched roof, many of the cabooses were modernized first with single-paned windows, updated once more beginning in the mid-1950s with sealed Thermopane windows, and finally with side windows completely blanked out other than on the cupola during the early 1980s.
Now available from Rapido Trains are highly detailed lighted replicas of Denver & Rio Grande Western’s steel riveted cabooses with end cupolas. These cabooses are available in multiple versions and liveries addressing every modeling period from the 1940s to the late 1980s.
Each of these Rio Grande Riveted Cabooses comes with a full suite of finely executed details inside and out, beginning with separately applied wire grab irons, smokejack with wire support, see-through etched metal steps, etched metal Apex running boards, flush window glass and more. Underbody details include fully plumbed multilayer ABD brake rigging and details consistent with the Duryea cushioned underframe that the prototype cars were built with…