In 1969 Penn Central inherited many NE-5 and NE-6 cabooses from the New Haven Railroad. Many of these cars were in questionable condition and were fixed up for use as transfer cabooses. 40 of the NE-6 cars were rebuilt for road service. Their cupola windows were sealed up and bay windows were added. Water tanks were installed in the former cupolas. Interior redesign also necessitated closing up other windows on the car sides. Roller bearing caboose trucks were installed to make these cars roadworthy. These rebuilt NE-6 cars were given the designation N8A by PC. Similar NE-5 cars were also rebuilt into N8B class cabooses. these cars looked similar, but had crash post on the ends of the cars. Many of these cars survived in Conrail service until the end of cabooses on freight trains. I know of one that is preserved in the Danbury Railway Museum, in Danbury, Connecticut.
I remember seeing a N8A for the first time. Even as a pre-teen my reaction was "What the heck?" It looked like somebody built the thing in their back yard. I thought they were the most ugly thing ever to ride the rails. Like many things Penn Central, I never appreciated what I saw on a day to day basis. After I started to model the PC I found that many of the unique cars and locomotives that they owned were not available commercially, nor would they likely ever be. I decided that if I wanted these unique cars, I would have to build them myself. My first undertaking was a N9 transfer caboose. After Atlas O re-released their NE-6 model, I decided to use it for the basis of a N8A caboose.
I purchased an un-decorated NE-6 to use as my project car. I discovered that there were two window arrangements on these cars. New Haven cabooses had the windows close to the center of the car bodies. My un-decorated caboose had the windows placed towards the ends of the car body. This necessitated filling in all of the windows and cutting new windows in the proper locations. Bay windows were constructed from styrene sheet. Clear plastic was installed in the windows. The interior was modified to place a crew member in the bay window. Building the bay window was the biggest challenge I faced with this project. I contacted the Danbury Railway Museum requesting assistance. Mr. Stan Madyda came to my rescue. He measured the windows on their caboose and provided the dimensions for me to work from. Malcolm (Brother Love) also provided assistance with this project. Thanks Stan and Malcolm!
While I think I have captured the essence of the real N8a's, I know I have more than a few inaccuracies. There are a couple of things I am going to change such as installing roller bearing trucks when they become available and a PRR style smoke stack. I also need to add wipers to the bay windows.
I still think they are ugly cabooses, but I still wanted to own one.
Tom
