American Model Builders 888 NYC Pacemaker Wood Cupola Caboose – LASERkit — Laser-Cut Wood Kit – Unpainted, Includes Decals, HO Scale

This HO Scale NYC Pacemaker Wood Cupola Caboose from American Model Builders is based on five cars rebuilt from boxcars circa 1944 and modified for Pacemaker service. In 1946, the New York Central introduced a new service – the fast and dependable Pacemaker Freight Service. Speeding less-than-carload packages between New York City and Buffalo and intermediate cities, with connections to fast freights to other online Midwestern cities, the service provided options to shippers who work on tight schedules and required precise timing. This allowed, for example, cloth mills in neighboring Utica, NY same-day loading on Pacemaker Freight cars with arrival in New York City’s garment manufacturing centers the next morning. To provide this service, 1000 specially equipped boxcars and five cabooses were rebuilt with distinctive colors to make up trains of harmonious design. The upper halves of the equipment were painted vermilion red and the lower halves dark gray. Roofs, under frames, and trucks were painted black with all white lettering. Special brake equipment known as AB-1-B type, which was designed for high-speed freight service, as well as Waughmat Twin-Cushion, double-acting, rubber draft gears were applied to all boxcars and cabooses. These additions reduced the shocks of starting and stopping, thus protecting the shipments and the crew. The five cabooses selected for the Pacemaker Service came from Lot 732 and were numbered 20112, 20117, 20129, 20132 and 21033. These cabooses were originally built by NYC’s East Buffalo, New York shop on the frames of 1910 era 36-foot boxcars in 1944. In outward appearance these cabooses resembled the NYC 19000 series standard caboose with short offset cupola, but were more than five feet longer than the standard caboose. In addition to the brake and draft gear modifications received when converted in 1946 for Pacemaker Service, the cars’ original tongue and groove siding was replaced with plywood sides giving them a smooth sided appearance. This NYC Pacemaker Wood Cupola Caboose kit features precision laser-cut parts with peel-and-stick backing on door and window pieces. Details are made of cast-resin and cast metal. The kit includes custom decals from Tichy Train Group. The undecorated kit does not include trucks (Tahoe Model Works Barber-Bettendorf Swing Motion Caboose Trucks are recommended) or couplers.