Caboose No. 896 was constructed in May of 1954 at the Lackawanna Railroad's Keyser Valley shops in Scranton, PA on the frame of a retired steam locomotive's tender. This design, patterned after an earlier wooden caboose design, was unique to the Lackawanna Railroad.

DL&W No. 896 became Erie Lackawanna No. C896 in October of 1960, and was passed to Conrail in 1976, becoming CR class N8D caboose No. 22016. The car was later renumbered along with most of the N8D fleet, and became Conrail No. 19909. By June 6, 1981, it was one of only nine former DL&W cabooses left on the Conrail roster, and its future was being watched carefully by preservationists from Tri-State. It was retired in 1984 and stored at Conrail's Rutherford, PA yard, where Tri-State volunteers John Sobotka and Bob Bahrs hand-picked the caboose and obtained it from Conrail in 1986, along with L&NE No. 580 and RRRR No. 10. 

Today, No. 896 is owned and operated by the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, and was restored inside and out in 1999 by a team of Tri-State volunteers led by the late Don Oberding. Lackawanna No. 896 is maintained in operational condition, and is currently stored at the United Railroad Historical Society of NJ's restoration facility in Boonton, NJ.