Q: I am a fan of the Penn Central RR. While visiting my local hobby shop, I saw a model of a PC caboose with a white stripe down the middle. Is it prototypical? And why the white stripe? – Mark Kroll
A: Yes. Although it was uncommon, that was a prototypical scheme. I’ve seen it on a few steel cabooses originally built to Pennsylvania RR designs, including the N5A and N8. In fact, there’s a picture of an N5 wearing the white stripe scheme on the cover of Robert Yanosey’s book, Penn Central Caboose Color Portfolio (Morning Sun Books). Bowser and Atlas Trainman have both sold HO scale models of them in the past, and several manufacturers offer decals appropriate for decorating your own. As for why? The white stripe might have been intended to make the caboose more visible in the headlights of cars at grade crossings. Or maybe the designer just thought it looked good.
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