QUICK FACTS

Model: bay window caboose
Built: November 1970
Builder: International Car Company, Kenton, OH
Past Railroad Owners: Erie Lackawanna, Delaware & Hudson, NJ Transit, Middletown & New Jersey
Current Owner: TOYX, Inc.

Caboose No. 380 was built in November 1970 by the International Car Company in Kenton, Ohio. The car was originally Erie Lackawanna Railway No. C380, one of 30 such cars built in 1969-1970 and the very last caboose ever built for the EL. It was delivered in the EL’s “Spartan Red” scheme, but was repainted sometime after the spring of 1973 into the EL’s new gray/maroon/yellow caboose paint scheme. The car saw service throughout the EL system between Croxton, N.J. and Chicago.

On April 1, 1976, thirteen EL cabooses (Nos. C348-C350 and Nos. C371-C380) were conveyed to the Delaware & Hudson Railway. The No. C380 became D&H No. 35817 and was patched with its new number. It was repainted D&H red with yellow D&H “Bridge Line” lettering in November 1976, and it was repainted again in February 1980 with white D&H lettering. The car continued in service on the D&H between Sunbury, Pa. and Montreal, Quebec throughout the 1980s.

On May 26, 1990, the No. 35817 was one of four cabooses sold to NJ Transit for work train service. It was rebuilt by the D&H’s shops in Oneonta, N.Y. and emerged as NJTR No. 906. The car served throughout the NJ Transit system in the 1990s and was eventually assigned to Campbell Hall, N.Y., where it was used to serve the NJT Main Line throughout Orange County.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the local Middletown & New Jersey Railroad began borrowing the caboose for its own work trains as it rehabilitated a series of freight lines surrounding Campbell Hall. In 2013, the M&NJ acquired the caboose outright, and it was repainted late that year into the M&NJ’s corporate blue and yellow. It emerged as M&NJ No. 380, restoring its original Erie Lackawanna number. Its new paint was debuted on Operation Toy Train’s annual Toys for Tots collection train that December.

With over a decade of longstanding partnership, the M&NJ donated historic caboose No. 380 to TOYX, Inc. in July 2025. The car, which spent more than half of its career in and around Orange County, will eventually be restored to its Erie Lackawanna gray/maroon/yellow scheme and will be displayed in Port Jervis as an authentic artifact of the city’s railroading heritage. The caboose will also be used on Operation Toy Train’s annual Toys for Tots collection trains for additional volunteer capacity.