Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Archive

Cabooses of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad

The first four images are by Joe (Tuch) Santucci, the well-known CN engineer and a former Harbor employee (see below for his comments about
IHB cabooses). The next five are by Jack Persoon, who has an extensive photo collection of IHB rolling stock. Following those is a photo
by Charlie Stricker and two by Bill Gustason. The last image was cropped from a Paul Meyer photo.

Tuch says: "IHB 12 and 13 are two of the typical Penn Central-style transfer or doghouse cabooses. These are NYC/PC
style N9 cabooses that were built by NYC/PC's Despatch Shops in East Rochester, NY, on the frames of old boxcars. The only
difference between those of IHB and NYC/PC is oil heat. Many of the NYC/PC cars fired their stoves using bottled gas that
was stored in removable tanks, whereas IHB had a permanently mounted oil storage tank on one of the porches. Like all
other IHB cabooses, these cabooses were quite spartan with no electricity or toilets, only a couple of seats, four windows,
one each side and one on each end, the stove, a small desktop at one end, an air gauge and a conductor's valve."