Cabooses


35tac said:
Is not a caboose or something like one required when pushing rolling stock any large distance.
Wayne
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Some railroads use them in transfer service, but I don't think it is for pushing rolling stock any major distance. BTW, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy called them "way cars". I have to agree: a train without a caboose or way car is agin' the laws of nature! (Note: I have made up a short train in modern BNSF configuration for my grandchild and other kids who don't relate well to the 1950's. I have (gasp, choke, sob) installed an EOT device on the last car of a cabooseless train! :( ]
 
It depends on the RR and the use as for when cabooses were discontinued. On the D&RGW, they began cabooseless operations in 1985 on some lines. Some particular operations were still using a caboose around 1989/90. I've seen photo's of SP trains with SP bay window cabooses as late as 1989 also.

I model 70's and 80's and most trains I plan on running will have cabooses.
 
35tac said:
Is not a caboose or something like one required when pushing rolling stock any large distance.
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Yes, in that service they are called "Shoving Platforms". What is really required is a crew member at the "front" of the cars being shoved. It does not have to be a special car. BNSF and CSX maintain a few caboose for this purpose. I don't know if other railroads use special cars for this or not.
 
In Knoxville CSX still has an old Family Lines caboose in their small yard that I have seen from time to time out on the main. And in Roanoke and parts of VA there are still NS cabooses in service.
 
Here in Fargo-Moorhead there is one operation that requires a caboose. The train, a local to the sugar factory on the north edge of Moorhead, backs out from Dilworth Yard to the switch on the main line for what used to be the GN's P line branch. After working the sugar factory, the train usually backs down the branch to let the loco lead the train back to the yard.

Since I model the anthracite roads from the late 1960s to midnight, March 31, 1976, cabooses are still used!

Photoman475
 
Even to this day, trains still look incomplete to me without a caboose!

Being a railfan since I was knee-high to a gresshopper, I had a unique situation living here in Cibolo, TX on the NE side of San Antonio. My house was within 1.5 miles of three separate lines ... Southern Pacific was less than a half mile to the South, M-K-T was about a mile to the North, and Missouri Pacific was a half mile past that. Of course all three lines are now Union Pacific. Kinda monotonous to what I was used to seeing.

Seems that I never saw anything other than the Brown and Orange bay-window cabooses on the SP trains. Can't remember what type the M-K-T trains used, but if I'm not mistaken, I think the MP trains used cupola cabooses.

SP Bay Window Caboose.jpg
 
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Iron Horseman said:
Yes, in that service they are called "Shoving Platforms". What is really required is a crew member at the "front" of the cars being shoved. It does not have to be a special car. BNSF and CSX maintain a few caboose for this purpose. I don't know if other railroads use special cars for this or not.
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There is still one ex-SOU bay window, now in NS colors, used as a shoving platform in Selma, Al. The RR serves the paper mill about 12 miles outside of the city, and since there are no turning facilities anywhere near the mill, the locomotives will push the cars destined for the mill. There are several unprotected grade crossings between the mill and the yard, so the caboose will have someone riding the platform, with his hand on a air powered whistle to signal for the grade crossings. When the train gets to the mill, the caboose is set aside while the switching gets done.

After the switching is finished, the engine picks up the caboose, and leaves for the yard, engine first. I have seen this train leave Selma several times, but I've unfortunately, not been there for its return.
 
JimT said:
I for one miss cabeese... which is the plural right? I was a train watcher / photographer when they dissappeared. It was almost like the end of steam, almost.
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I was just browsing through some older threads when I came across your post. Your question about the plural of caboose had me rolling on the floor. I know funny and that, my friend, is funny.
 
BobB said:
I was just browsing through some older threads when I came across your post. Your question about the plural of caboose had me rolling on the floor. I know funny and that, my friend, is funny.
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I presume this is the first time you have heard someone use that term. There was a big debate on this about a decade ago. While I was cheering for cabeese, it turns out a linguistic study shows the origin of the word caboose is closer to moose than it is to goose or noose, so the plural is simply caboose.
 
Iron Horseman said:
I presume this is the first time you have heard someone use that term. There was a big debate on this about a decade ago. While I was cheering for cabeese, it turns out a linguistic study shows the origin of the word caboose is closer to moose than it is to goose or noose, so the plural is simply caboose.
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Iron Horseman, it is in fact the first time I'd heard the term cabeese. I think it's great and I cheer for it's use along with you. The linguistic study, no doubt done by "experts", has no sense of humor.
 
Wasn't there a song along those lines. "I say potatoe, you say potato,........................."
 
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