In the 1930’s the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began experimenting with new car designs in an effort to save money and keep their own employees employed. One of the more successful designs, and one that became a signature design for the B&O, was the wagontop design.

In 1935 and 1936, the B&O applied this design to about 7 cabooses and each had its unique traits. These first designs were classified as I-5. In 1941 the B&O applied an improved wagontop design to a new, all steel caboose and it became known as the I-12 wagontop caboose. In all, the B&O had 125 of these cabooses constructed in two separate batches. In 1941 the Keyser, WV shops built 100 I-12s and numbered them 2400 – 2499 and in 1945 the last 25 were built in the same shops and numbered
2800 – 2824.

Throughout the life of this fabulous caboose several changes were made to improve or enhance its function on the railroad. The caboose, in 1941, was constructed with a wooden roof walk, wood sash windows, a slack adjuster, an early style smoke stack, “C” style grab irons on the corners and lanterns. Later in its service it would see the grab irons change to a more “J” shape, the roof walk change to metal, the disappearance of the slack adjuster, the wood sash windows were replaced with sealed windows, the stove changed to an oil burning stove so the addition of an oil fill pipe and the replacement of the smoke stack, the introduction of a toilet vent, toilet tank, battery box, the lanterns changed to an electrical “peep” light and then later in the Chessie years to a more square shaped light, the addition of stimsonite reflectors and lastly vandal screens. Some cabooses were also fitted with a red light added just under the end of the roof running board.

Spring Mills Depot is proud to be able to offer all of these variations on its cabooses and specific to the era and paint scheme as per the prototype.