Atlas 'Transfer' caboose with road names applied..

[learmoia]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Photo from Ebay listing..

Back in the day.. someone was pad printing railroads on the transfer cabooses..
I think I have an NYC brown one with a Cigar band logo.. (I hadn't seen others and I dont have a box for mine.. so I thought it was a Trix or AHM product..)

Who did these?.. Bev-Bel?  Atlas?

~Ian

[JMaurer1]

I'd like to buy a vowel...

[randgust]

OK, I had to look it up....

The original 'transfer' caboose by Atlas just had a number on it, no roadname....right?

So are we looking at a Reading caboose in the wrong box or a custom print over-top or around an original transfer caboose model?   The yellow transfer caboose had that number on it, and the Reading lettering is a different color than the number.   However, they also did a "Reading" version of the caboose in red, not yellow.

It might be a Bev-Bel or something, but didn't they at least change the box insert?

I never did  know where Atlas got the 'transfer' thing from, that's just another ATSF-style caboose.   

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Transferred from Santa Fe to Reading? 

[learmoia]

Har har har.. apart from the foobieness of the whole thing..

Atlas transfer = solid color and number only..
I think this goes back to the A1G days.. and expands out to other mfgs as well..

The body and black number matched the transfer caboose..  Then someone pad printed green Reading lettering. 

I figured it was a bev bel thing but the label has me puzzled..

~Ian

[learmoia]

A bit more detail found.. There are Brown, Red and Yellow Transfer Cabooses..
And I have found
Reading yellow
Western Maryland brown
CNJ red
Edit.. Add PRR Red to the list..
Southern brown
And NYC brown
All #1885

The ones I can find with boxes have Atlas labels..

There is also an A1G transfer caboose in brown.. and maybe an A1.5g in Brown and Red..

[central.vermont]

Wow I just picked one up last Sunday in a collection of cars and engines. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[learmoia]

There are a few other number variations as well.. I've seen 3101 also... and the A1G model is 47### but trovestar lists the car number as various.

~Ian

[Doug G.]

The stock number was always 2274, regardless of color or number. I believe Atlas offered transfer cabooses partly to include in sets where they had no caboose with a road name to match the locomotive. The bay window series had a transfer version too.

My set with the GM demo SD45 has a transfer caboose in it.

Doug

[wm3798]

I've got 3101 on a Santa Fe type in brown.  No markings on the bottom as to origin, though.  Could be Atlas, could be Trix, could be ANYTHING!  Same font as 6798 shown above, though.

Lee

[learmoia]

I guess I need to keep an eye out on these number variations and I can use them to do my NYC cabooses for my vintage fleet..

Then no need to save the undecs ect that I have to custom paint them..

~Ian

[randgust]

Man, if you want an NYC transfer caboose, there are options.   If you really want one, the etched brass N9E kit from Traincat is outstanding, but harder to find than an honest politician and a just plain super-difficult kit.

If you're willing to Foobie just a bit the Bluford Shops one is a real transfer caboose, and they painted it in NYC.... not current production though.
https://lombardhobby.com/bluford-shops-n-25010-ready-to-run-steel-transfer-caboose-w-running-board-new-york-central-nyc-18060/   At least it looks the part.

You can call a Santa Fe standard steel caboose a transfer, but that doesn't make it one.   They only had a handful of actual transfer cabooses, the only 'transfer' cabooses with the same ones that never got upgraded to pool service, painted in the red scheme, had the windows plated, and stayed in the oxide red till the bitter end.  Locally-assigned cabooses were the ones with yellow-painted cupolas.   I think IHB may have had a couple of that design, but I'll risk saying NYC never did.

[learmoia]

... No.. I dont want an actual "Transfer" caboose.. I want the vintage 'dim data' cupola cabooses to letter NYC to fill out my vintage N scale caboose fleet.

~Ian

[ncbqguy]

The ATSF commisioned Model Railroader to do a plan package in the late 1940s which made it into the MR Cyclopedia and inspired many HO models which served as the inspiration for N Scale later.
The Atlas ATSF transfer caboose was a simplified US tooled version of the Roco MiniTrix and AHM versions.   It has truck mount couplers vs the Roco body mounts and a simplified cupola.  It may have been originally intended for the kit line.
All the models of the ATSF car have been painted for railroads that didn't have them....originally.  While a few roads had near copies of the design (GM&O, CRR, Wabash.
, others) towards the end of the caboose era some were scattered across the country making the bogus paint jobs legit...GTW, C&S/BN. IHB name a few.
"Transfer" was a way of describing a number only random color car with a single stock number.
Charlie Vlk
PS- Interestingly, the Atlas Roco caboose was a Grand Trunk Western prototype shortened to fit on the standard Roco caboose underframe.  It was copied by Bachmann.

[cjm413]

... No.. I dont want an actual "Transfer" caboose.. I want the vintage 'dim data' cupola cabooses to letter NYC to fill out my vintage N scale caboose fleet.

~Ian

Model Power offered their bay window caboose with a road number, but no roadname.

The one I know of is red with white stripes, but I'm not sure of what they called it or if they were offered in any other colors.