Anybody know what voltage the lights in B&O C3800-series bay window cabooses operated on? This was the first batch of hacks delivered in Chessie yellow. SCRM is using the 903878, formerly C3878, in our train this season and I'd like to get the lights working in it. The car still has its truck-mounted generator but I can't find anything on it saying what voltage it produces. There's an 8 volt battery in the car, but I'm not confident enough that it's original to trust that the car had an 8 volt system.

If it's an 8 volt system, I'll probably replace it with a 12 volt system. The NKP 465 uses a 12 volt system. I can get most anything I need for that at the local auto parts house.

According to the diagrams in Robert Hubler's "Cabooses of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad", page 104, your car is a Class C-26A, built between January and June 1975. According to the diagram dated 2-17-74, the cars were built with a 12 volt 140 amp alternator, with a 300 amp-hour battery. At the time these were built, the Chessie System was upgrading the radios on the cabooses and upgrading the electrical systems in older cabooses with these larger systems. The immediate class predecessor C-26 (1971 vintage) were electrified with 1500 watt generators run by a Spicer drive shaft linked to one axle of the caboose through a special journal box.

These C-26A's were also the first new cabooses delivered in the new Chessie System colors and logo. I hope you like cats.

The car was repainted into Chessie colors shortly after it arrived. We knew it was the first class delivered in the kittycat scheme.

Two years ago, we had it on display at the extreme end of the Rockton Yard on SC Route 34. I was forever answering questions from the locals about what the logo was. I finally got tired of telling people it's a cat and made it the subject of my weekly column -- that ended the questions.

I'm glad to hear it's a 12VDC system. That makes my life a LOT easier.