Great Northern 30 foot Steel Cabooses (X199, X229, X250 to X270, X271 to X294) The Great Northern Railway built almost all of its cabooses in-house at the St. Cloud shops just west of St. Cloud, Minnesota. This series of cabooses was built between August 1941 and October 1951. They were constructed completely of steel and measured 30 feet long, 11' 5" to the roof, 14' 6 3/4" to the cupola roof, 10'2" wide, and weighed 57,1000 lbs. The majority of these cars were built after 1945 once world war II was over and steel rationing was over. The cars were equipped with Bettendorf swing motion trucks, 33" wheels, and an underside mounted tool box. The ends of the cars were outfitted with steel handrails, brakes, and handrails. GN X252 in Caboose tracks at Hillyard, WA. Photo by Jerry Quinn The modern cars were painted Scarlet Red with red and black end platforms and under bodies. The entire body, including the underside of the roof extensions and end fas
A blog dedicated to preserving history through informative posts about the history and modeling of western railroads. My primairy interests are the Great Northern Railway and the Santa Fe, but I am always finding little tidbits of information about other railroads that I will write about.