Modeling SP cabooses, Part 3

 In my previous post, I wrapped up discussion of Southern Pacific’s wood cupola cabooses. These remained numerically dominant in the SP caboose fleet for decades. But in 1937, SP began to build steel cupola cars to modernize the fleet, and that is the subject of today’s post. To read the previous post, you may use this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/02/modeling-sp-cabooses-part-2.html .  

I should also mention that the background on today’s post is an entire book about cabooses, Volume 2 in the series Southern Pacific Freight Cars (Signature Press, 2002). The two classes of steel cupola cabooses are described in Chapter 6. 

The first class, Class C-40-1, comprised 50 cars built in 1937 at Los Angeles General Shops, numbered 1000–1049, the first SP cabooses with four-digit numbers. A good photo of one is shown below, taken at Eugene on July 18, 1954. It has the post-1952 lettering, when stripes above the road name and below the car number were discontinued. It still has its original vertical-staff handbrake at each end — not a spotting feature, as some cars got geared hand brakes in later years. (George Sisk photo, courtesy Charles Winters)

In December, 1940, SP resumed construction of steel cupola cars, now identified as Class C-40-3. In the following three months, 50 cars were built, again at LAGS, cars 1050-1099. Then in 1942, 50 more cars were built in the spring (cars 1100–1149) and 115 cars in the fall (SP 1150–1234, and T&NO 400–429). 

Below is a good photo of one of these cars (taken by R.H. McFarland, Arnold Menke collection). It was taken at Bayshore in late 1948, with freshly painted white side handrails. Also visible is the most obvious difference in the C-40-3 cars, the horizontal-shaft, geared Equipco hand brakes, but as mentioned, many C-40-1 cars got them in later years too. 

The cupolas of these cars are fairly different from the wood cupolas on older cars. They had vertical sides, a peaked roof, and roof handrails at corners only. Most cars also had a short segment of running board atop the cupola. This was presumably to offer secure footing for a trainman moving the length of the car’s roof, replacing the outside walkways alongside older wood cupolas. 

Roof views of SP cabooses are not common. One good roof view is below, repeating a Stan Kistler photo from the previous post, taken at Taylor Yard in 1954. The first and fourth cars in the further caboose track are steel cars, the nearest being SP 1232

In model form, several brass importers have offered these cabooses. The old Balboa version was the standard for years, when the only alternative was scratchbuilding. I have one of these cars, as you see below.

In later years, Precision Scale, PFM, and Challenger have all done these cars, and a nice resin version was offered by WrightTrak a few years ago. There are persistent rumors of an injection-molded styrene SP steel cupola caboose, but nothing has yet materialized. I show below my Precision Scale Class C-40-3 car, in morning sunlight in front of the Shumala depot on my layout.

So the steel cupola cars, though some 215 cars in total, were a small fraction of SP’s more than 620 wood cupola cars. Still, with steel wheels and other modern features, they tended to be used on fast freights and other premium services. They are certainly a “must have” for transition-era SP modelers.

Tony Thompson