To kids of the 50's and 60's who had Lionel Trains, a chugging freight train had to be topped off by a shiny red caboose - or in many cases - a tuscan caboose. At that point in time cabooses were still pretty common on real railroads and we were all brought up on the concept that every train needs a caboose.

As kids we used to sneak under the wooden bridge and barrel down to the railroad tracks and watch the work freights go by. We didn't see much of the caboose however, as we would "jump" the slow moving freights under the King George Road bridge and ride up towards Perth Amboy. Plenty of skinned knees and bruises jumping off, but it was a summer day highlight to ride the ladders on the freight cars.

As it relates to Lionel trains, I never paid much attention to the caboose, other than the fact the train had to have one. All of the caboose models we had were tuscan in color and they all looked alike to me. They all had lights and they cast these cool patterns against the wall when you ran the trains with the lights out. You are easily amused when you are ten, but personally, I still think it's cool.

When I got back into the hobby a few years ago, I scoured through all of the material my Dad had accumulated and found a few bright red ones as well - one a neat tinplate model, which my Dad really liked.

Having determined that my model railroad would be situated in the northeast, I combed through the post-war reference guides for models in the New York Central, New Haven, Pennsylvania and Jersey Central road names. Surprisingly there were very few to be found. Although Lionel produced a wide range of caboose styles and models in the post-war years, the road name choices seemed sparse. Although there are many versions which include the name "Lionel" on the caboose, only a small percentage of these feature the name "Lionel Lines". Most of the models which do use the name "Lionel Lines" are very low end models, probably distributed with Scout sets and other entry level sets. The one I own (not pictured here) is a model 6017. It has no plastic window insert, no smokestack, brakewheels, ladders, battery boxes or illumination. While many cabooses have couplers at each end, these very basic models had only one coupler.

Back to roadnames, Lionel, Pennsylvania and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western are the dominant roadnames. I have seen photos of Boston & Maine, Alaska, Chesapeake & Ohio, AT&SF, Minneapolis & St Louis, Rio Grande and some rescue work cabooses.

Most post-war Lionel cabooses were molded plastic on metal frames with metal trim features, such as hand rails, brake wheels and ladders. There were however, a few tinplate items, such as the 2457 shown at right. This is something my Dad acquired from a neighbor and I suspect it is a very early post-war model. It is illuminated with a window insert (which I need to take apart and fix) metal brakewheels, a smokestack, metal ladders and a full rivet pattern along the sides. Although I am not a fan of tin plate, I find this particular model to be intriguing, perhaps for no other reason than its history. The fellow who owned this lived next to my Dad for years, and I remember going to his house to see his trains when I was a kid. Soon after, I took to mowing his lawn and washing his cars for a dollar or two. After he passed away and his wife was moving, she gave all of the trains to my Dad - this caboose among them.

Two other caboose models made by Lionel were "Bay Window Cabooses" and "Work Cabooses". While I do not own any "Bay Window" models, they appear to be premium models - dual couplers, metal ladders, brake wheels and the like and they are illuminated.

"Work Cabooses", such as this DL&W model were made in many colors and configurations, mostly bearing the DL&W road name. These appear to be inexpensively manufactured and have only one coupler, no illumination and no plastic insert housing to simulate windows. I have seen photos of "Work Cabooses" named as "Rescue Unit", AT&SF and Santa Fe. These were novel and different and when I recently found a somewhat hard to find orange model in a junk bin for $10.00, I bought it.

Today's train importers offer cabooses in a wide variety of road names, which would work on my northeastern layout. However, I'm sticking to the nostalgic appeal of the post-war varieties.