All About Aurora Postage Stamp Trains
4887: 8-Wheel Cabooses

Prototype Information

Much like passenger cars, cabooses were almost always railroad-specific: rarely would the same caboose be seen on more than one or two railroads. Roco's model is based on a plain-vanilla Santa Fe steel end-cupola design, circa 1929. It's often referred to generically as a "western caboose" since the design was prevalent on western railroads, although some eastern lines had vaguely similar cabooses.

Bottom line, the Santa Fe model is the only "correct" one of the bunch. However, the economics of the early days of N Scale prohibited releasing a different caboose for each line; plus, modelers at the time weren't as prototypically-minded as they are today, so it's no surprise to see every popular road name slapped on the same Santa Fe caboose. Incidentally, the trucks on these models are a standard 70-ton solid-journal coil-spring Bettendorf-type that were used on steam-era freight cars, but not on cabooses.