[2] The 15-minute series, sponsored by Lionel Trains, was broadcast on ABC television on Fridays at 7:30 to 7:45pm ET from October 29, 1948 to January 14, 1949.
As they all watched the boy's model train go around the tracks Magee told stories he remembered from his railroading days.
[4] The series was popular enough for a December 1948 Emerson TV advertisement to state that children entertained by television were "thrilled to the Tales of the Red Caboose.
"[5] A Variety review from October 27, 1948 considered the series' train sequences to be dull and repetitious, and the commentary by "a mythical vet railroad character" to be "brutal."
The review did say the show could be rehabilitated into a "sure fire item" for juvenile railroad enthusiasts if the series used some imagination.