"PEN" caboose (was Re: PC: Bowser N8 paint schemes)

[Jerry Jordak <jer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stephen Vargo wrote:

> Maybe the PEN crummy is a misprint from "Pennsy." Or maybe someone 
> boobed up the ad budget and didn't set enough aside to buy 
> "Pennsylvania" or even "Pennsy."

Here's the answer, from the magnificent George Elwood photo website:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/prr/prr478078ava.jpg

The credit on that photo: "Jim Thorpe PA - 3/91 - {V.G. Aylward Photo}"

By doing a little more Googling I found that the caboose is privately owned 
and parked on display in Jim Thorpe amongst the other privately owned 
cabeese that surround the ex-CNJ station there. Here is another picture of 
the same caboose from the Railroading in the North East web site:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_prr478078.jpg

I need to go through my slides and see if I shot that caboose or not. I've 
only been to Jim Thorpe a half dozen times, and I know I've shot the LV 
caboose, the two CNJ cabooses, and the Reading cabooses, but who knows if I 
actually took 30 more seconds to shoot the PRR one...

According to a private e-mail that Patrick Harris sent me earlier today, he 
got a response from Bowser saying the "PEN" caboose was sent to Bowser by a 
customer. (Patrick, hope you don't mind me sharing that tidbit.)

So I might be wrong, but from what I can tell, Bowser has just released a 
model of a caboose from 1991 that was under restoration and partially 
repainted. If so, that doesn't say much about Bowser's prototype research 
department. I found all of the above info using Google in less than 10 
minutes. For Bowser's sake, I would love to have someone produce a photo of 
the same caboose in the same scheme from the 1960s and prove me wrong, but 
I don't have much hope of that happening. Otherwise, Craig Hatter will be 
able to pick up a bunch of those "PEN" cabooses *real* cheap to strip and 
repaint with official PCRRHS green a couple years from now. :-)

-JWJ