Lima (Italy) Bay Window Caboose


These old Lima bay window cabooses came out back in the early days of N scale (late 60's / early 70's) and had a variety of importers over the years (AHM, PMI, et al). The tooling was eventually shipped over to China (probably sometime during the 1980s) where, at least as of this writing (2008), production continues on. They (the Chinese-made models) are currently imported by Model Power. The Lima tooling was modified during this transition to China, as the bays are now quite different. The bays on the Lima models are actually separate parts, whereas the bays on the newer Chinese-made models are part of the shell casting itself.

This model is also quite similar to Rivarossi's bay window caboose, although they do have their minor differences (both in terms of detailing and actual shell). Presumably they are based on the same (SP C-40-4) prototype, though

The wheels are plastic and the couplers are truck-mounted Rapidos. The chassis is stamped "Lima Italy".

In addition to the AHM and PMI packaging, these models also came in straight Lima packaging (not sure who was doing the importing at that point - maybe ATI) -

200 C-40-4 Bay Window Cabooses were built in 1961 for the SP by PC&F, and 129 of those were rebuilt to 4000-series cabooses between 1973-75, serving until the demise of the caboose in the mid 1980s.


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