What Happened to Cabooses?
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- The Caboose could be used for many things: an office, a break room, a sleeping cabin, a tool shed, a lookout station, and with easy access to its own brake system, it could even assist with emergency braking. So why don't we see them on freight trains today?
#trains #railway #caboose
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PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING: woops, I seemed to have missed a few things. Yes folks my channel offers different styles of videos, everything from opinion-pieces, to mini-documentaries, and small topic videos such as this one. Videos like this one are intended to hold over the audience until I can complete the mini-documentaries people like. In order to prevent me from devoting all my free time to videos like this, I do these unscripted. I sit in front of a camera and say everything I have off the top of my head, mistakes and all. I know more about trains and ocean liners than I let on, no, I am by no means an expert, but have you ever been telling someone a story and suddenly realized you recounted someone's name wrong? Or you mis-labeled the place you are speaking of, or even forgot to include an important detail of the story? Well...that unfortunately happens with videos like this. The conundrum is trying to improve these videos without taking away precious time from the production of the mini-documentaries which receive the more detail-oriented oversight. I promise, from now on I will try to make these videos more accurate.
Well said. I am a Treestorian here in Chicago. And someone who would never call themselves an expert since I found so-called experts think they know everything yet continue to ask what else is there that I don't know and can still learn. That can be rediscovered after lost overtime, or had never been known and only just discovered.
They still use it in India in some Goods Trains till now!
Also a cabooses held the switchman to switch manual track switches before or after a train crossed. Obsolete on modern trains as they use computer switching stations
@@0011peace ok then look at this link of indian railways
@@adykakroo no link provided
plus as the speaker said this is about US railroads not Indian. There some old historical and small railroads that use cabooses in the US. But larger freight and Amtrak the only cross country passenger service in the US.
I had a friend whose Dad had a caboose in the back yard mounted on a small section of tracks. It was his man cave. Freaking AWESOME!
A caboose man cave sounds awesome to me.
A caboose man cave sounds awesome to me.
There was a place near Cleveland Ohio that put a bunch of cabooses and other train cars together and made a popular restaurant out of it.
It was called Victoria Station. I don't know if it still exist.
My 10 year old self is officially jealous.
Hell, my current 54 year old self is as well.
A caboose Man cave sounds AMAZING. !!
My dad was an engineer on the M-K-T (Katy) railroad in the 1950's. He let me ride in the caboose from Smithville Texas to Galveston with the Brakeman. I am now 75 years old but still remember it. There was a "round house" that turned the engines around. The good ole days.
I was a engineer on the UP and I ran to Smithville from Fort Worth pulling coal trains
The roundhouse was where maintenance was done. A turntable is where engines were turned around inside a switching yard.
My dad was a brakeman for Canadian National (CN) from the 60's to the early 90's. As a kid my dad brought me along once. We flattened a penny under the wheels and it was an all around fun time.
"She took the Katy........ left me a Mule to ride." Love it
The good ol'days... I don't know. I am very nostalgic of old railroads... but let's face it those old days were far from being all good.
When I hired out on the Railroad in 1968 we still used Cabooses. We lived out of them while at work. Ours had 4 bunks, a desk, a stove, 2 sinks, a refrigerator, overhead water storage tank, a hot water tank located near the heater used LP gas and a bathroom with a toilet. There were lots of lockers and storage space. Some of the Cabooses we're assigned to regular Conductors. They took really good care of them. They were clean and the floors were waxed.
My uncle worked on the Caboose out of Elkhart, Indiana not sure the year he start but i was born in 65. Later my dad worked in the egine maintance part of the yard from about 73 or 74. First as labiourer then a mecahnic then a forman. He retired on disability.
I still see cabooses to this day just not nearly as many as I would see back in the 70s, and 80s. Now I mostly see more engines where the caboose used to be.
@@0011peace Your sPale Checur is broak in
Thank you!
If u put an engine in place of caboose, there will be two engines in the train.
My uncle bought an old caboose and had it moved onto his property on a lake . He turned it into a summer cabin . It was so cool to stay in it
I bet it was
That sounds so awesome 🥰
I had an idea of building a replica wood caboose or section of a sleeper car inside a steel building. Mount the car on a swivel pedestal with hydraulic or electric actuators to rock the car gently side to side and turn it back and forth a little to make it a motion simulator. And have solenoid clackers underneath to make the clickity-klack sound and vibration. Then have big screens about 8 feet from the windows onto which would be projected recorded video of passing scenery. So, without going anywhere, it would look, feel and sound as if you were riding the rails.
They’ve got something like that at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento, but with a real sleeper car from maybe the 1930’s. That was the coolest thing. I could have sat in there all day. 😀
The caboose was always my favorite part of the train. Seeing it meant the end of a long wait.
I always fantasized about jumping up and grabbing hold of the railing, and going on a journey.
@@atlantic_love Goodluck on your journey and peace be with you.
@@thelmatucker7598 Thanks lol. If I tried that now my fingertips might touch the railing, but I would for sure eat gravel.
@@atlantic_love OK then. Board safely and with dignity. Goodluck to you.
@@thelmatucker7598 LOL. Lighten up, Francis :)
We run a caboose on the end of our train on the New Hope Valley Railway in NC. Its coal burning stove keeps us toasty warm in winter! The caboose also had a lever to “dump the air” (operate the emergency brakes) if there was a serious problem.
I'll have to check that out. I live in Holly Springs north of you.
@@sst6555 I was wondering if they had a "shitter" in there and how it may have worked.
You run, or you ran?
@@atlantic_love We currently run, or operate, a caboose.
As of 2013 when I did the Army Unit Movement Officer Course there were still a handful of Army Corps of Engineer cabooses that could be used for a guard force for trains transporting sensitive items
that’s not surprising since there’s still Army trains and railway units…
Now that's a video I'd like to watch; a little tour and talk about military trains.
@@deshawnjackson9077
Sometimes military trains would get run in the barracks…..
Hey! Im trying to get into the UMO-DPC right now!
@@lelandgaunt9985 no huh😂
The caboose became obsolete in the 1980s, as regulation changes about sleeping of the crew when the train was in motion came into effect, as well as trains growing so long that it would take 15 minutes or more for the replacement crew to move from the caboose to the engine made them impractical (then after the change over moving the train slowly until the old crew could climb into the caboose). The railroads on longer lines today simply made sure that every 8 hours or so there was a replacement crew available, like an airline. So they would stop the train at a station, change crews, and get back to moving. The crew that just got off duty would go to a hotel for the night, and the next day hop on a train going the other direction to replace that crew and return home. No more single crew with enough personnel for 2-3 shifts going all the way across the country. They just work their 8 hours or so, then swap out and do the same on the return on another train.
So ultimately, it was the superior logistics as well as the length of the train that killed them. But as some have said, the military still runs them when they are moving sensitive cargo for security forces. As late as 1987 when I was at the Seal Beach Naval Weapon Station, Navy trains with ordinance would pull in with a caboose. No extra train crew on board, but a handful of Marines in the event somebody tried to attack it or steal the ordinance.
cost of a hotel vs. costs of ensuring at least one caboose was always available for a train? cheaper for the hotel rooms
Another point people often miss is safety. American trains get moving by bunching slack, and with longer trains each jolt collected enough energy to thrown the crew in the caboose off their feet. And a caboose put the crew right where they'd be killed in a rear end collision. The final nail in the coffin was electronic manifests. Once the conductor no longer needed an office to do paperwork the last reason for a caboose was gone. There's still a solid safety argument for a two man engine crew but no need for a fireman so let's have the conductor ride in the cab where he's safer and can work directly with the engineer.
Trains crews frequently have 12+ hour days, 8 hours is either a shift in the yard or an exceptionally fast train on most territories, and even then crews will often 'die' before reaching their terminal. As for taking longer for a crew swap with a caboose, nah, they did rolling swaps.
In the late 90's and early 2000's when I served the U.P. There were a few jobs that required us to back up more than 2 miles to them. At that time, the FRA requirement was, if a train has to back up more than a mile, a way had to be made for the crew to stand instead of riding the ladder on a car's side. So they had couple of old cabooses on a siding for us to use for those long reverses.
You can use them to whistle through road crossings while shoving backwards they used to be where you stored your liquor
“Shoving Platforms”
Hey Brother... 04 Conductor here out of Roseville. 6'5" and 300lb of "Why Am I Holding This Ladder and Not Riding on a Shoving Platform?" I like hearing that they "kinda" recognized that riding a Shove is hazardous. Empty Lumber cars and Grain cars were my go to ;)
The Caboose was also used by the train Conductor as an office to do his paperwork, the stove was used to heat the air in the Caboose, and to heat food. The Whistle valve on the caboose could be use to signal the trains approach to a road crossings during shoving moves, and to put the train into emergency after the implantation of the Westinghouse air brake system.
Mostly yard crews use cabooses now when working industries that have long shoving moves, the Conductor is the Engineer's eyes and communicates instructions as to hazards, crossings, stopping etc.
Very few people don't know this but they were Irish men in most of them died
@@lelandthomosoniii4743 Where did you come up with that crock o' shit?
@@lelandthomosoniii4743 And during the 1800s when the rail lines were being extended to the West Coast, Chinese emigrants did the construction jobs.
@@williamfulgham2010 On the US transcontinental railroad, the Irish immigrants built the rail line from the east, the Chinese immigrants built it from the west, until they met at the Golden Spike in Utah. Note that the Chinese built less mileage, but it was much harder terrain to have to build through mountains - shoring up the track, blasting tunnels, blasting away rock faces to allow for the width.
@@rudra62 Thank you for the updated information.
A caboose is sometimes used on modern trains that are required to carry security personnel. Trains carrying top secret cargoes for the military and those carrying nuclear materials are equipped with a caboose to provide a place for the security forces to ride in.
Cabooses are also found on trains moving Oversize loads and some railroads keep a few at hand for those local jobs that require lengthy backing moves or Shoves as they are known to protect the back of the train and signal at Grade Crossings etc...
to my knowledge, Montana Rail Link still uses them in general Revenue service.
I’m actually in possession of one of the cabooses used for this purpose. It has been transformed into a bunk house complete with shower and bathroom.
Exactly. In 1992 I was training troops on rail operations in Fort Hood Texas. All trains there had a caboose.
it also helps give a buffer just in case of ramming…
@@lordsherifftakari4127 Yeah, I spotted a bunch of them while up in Montana recently. I should have taken photos since they'll probably be gone as soon as BNSF takes control of the line back.
When I was a boy in Russellville Arkansas we had a train come off the rails downtown. It was carrying several reefers of Morton's frozen goods (TV dinners, pies, frozen fried chicken, etc) since there was a Morton's plant outside town. While they were attempting to put the cars back on the track, the word was put out that the company had decided to sacrifice all the goods as no power was available to keep the food frozen. So word went out and the towns housekeepers, including my mother, descended. There was a caboose. I remember because the railroad was using that to keep track of the distribution and recovery efforts. The only time I got to go into a caboose. They were using it for an office.
Hey now that's quite a story! Thanks for sharing
cheaper to write the load off than pay to have another locomotive supply power or just remove everything by truck…at least the townsfolk got some nice meals 🤣
They likely wouldn't do that much. As well as sacrificing the goods the town folk wouldn't be buying goods since they got some for free. So not only did the company lose the goods, and the sales on them but they also lost sales for goods on the shelf. Maybe even taking more loss as the goods on the shelf expired from fewer sales. Nice of the company to let the people have the goods but it increased the loss up to 3 times.
You make a valid point, but Russellville is a Southern town. Wasting food is not tolerable in this part of the world. The execs at this company would have offered the goods up to prevent the waste only. It would been a decision based on their upbringing, not their business degrees. Both are required for effective management.
that happened where I life in Ms. I found out when i went to school on Monday train had detailed lost a boxcar of candy bars. kids had a lot of them to sell.
The caboose is still in widespread "service" today, but not in its original intended function. A great number have been turned into restaurant dining rooms.
There was a place near Cleveland Ohio that put a bunch of cabooses and other train cars together and made a popular restaurant out of it.
It was called Victoria Station. I don't know if it still exist.
@@im1who84u Sadly the last restaurant closed in December 2017, after the chain declared bankruptcy in 1986
Thank you for explaining the purpose of the Caboose ; MOST interesting !!! I remember growing up in South Africa and not far from a railway junction . The freight trains always had one on at the end , which in South Africa was called the Guard's Van. South African Railways / Suid Afrikaanse Spoorweg, ( SAR/SAS) , colloquially referred to as ' the Spoories' , operated steam engines right up until the early '90's ! ; mainly for shunting around large rail yards and junctions. I now realise how privileged I was to have witnessed working steam engines. The sights , sounds and smell of steam , grease and coal smoke were unique ...now a bygone age.
Someone may have mentioned this, but one reason for modern trains to use a caboose is in urban switching operations. These moves often require long reversing movements. So a caboose will be attached for the conductor or brakeman can be the eyes of the engineer, communicating with radios. They will also have keys to unlock switches and gates along the way where various rail-served industries have sidings.
That is what they do on the Mykawa sub on the BNSF tracks in south Houston. It is always fun seeing that caboose but I really wish they would paint it.
@@michaelinhouston9086 Yes, modern railroads seem to be very frugal re their own equipment. Those transfer cabooses don't get any love, even a fresh coat of paint, as best I can tell.
There is a smaller rail company here in the Vancouver BC area that still uses a caboose on occasion. I’m a rail loader who uses this company. So one day I asked an employee what they still use it for and he pretty much echoed what you said. He said it’s our lunch room and when they have a mile long train they will put it on the back, especially if they know they will have to back that train up
Awesome!
As elucidated below, the caboose, grummy, way-car, was the office for the conductor. In the days of steam, there wasn't any room on the footplate of the locomotive for a third person - only for the engineer and the fireman to shovel the coal. The caboose was a necessary part of the train as you stated. But in the days of diesel, the cab of the locomotive no longer required a fireman, and there was no longer a need for multiple brakemen, so the conductor, and one brakeman now sit in the cab of the diesel, along with the engineer. Some cabooses had a simple toilet that dropped down onto the tracks. Later cabooses had wheel-driven generators and batteries to provide power for radios and lights. No more kerosene lanterns that could cause a fire. Now the diesel locomotives have not only a flush toilet and holding tank, but a sink with a water supply, and an ice box for bottled water and lunches. Everything you said was true, but you forgot the conductor's office. The FRED is powered by a small air-driven generator and has a radio to communicate with the locomotive. Thanks for the video. Jon, on the U.P., Pacific Coast Line, Santa Barbara Sub, M.P. 404.5
You would love to take a gander at my heirlooms from my grandfather. Robert Ralph Ray, Southern Rail, Inman Yards foreman.
This is the best history and explanation I have ever seen on cabooses, I will surely share this with my Grandkids and also I have subscribed!I worked as a Agent/Dispatcher on the Chesapeake Western Rwy.
It was a sad day for all of us when they took our cabooses away. It was like cutting the left arm off the body of our railway.
The conductor and rear brakemen had a brass air gauge that they could verify That they had air to the rear of the train. They took our cabs from us and gave us one of them cursive ET as we called them ( end train )
I think back when I worked on the section gang and they took the spiking hammer out of my hands and put an air hammer to replace it, that was the beginning of the end of the glamour a railroads....
One of, if not my most cherished railroad collectibles is an "N" scale replica of a 1980s era Cattle Car. What makes the car so special (for me) is that I got it when I was a kid, living in southern IL around 1990. When my family visited St. Louis Union Station, I found the cattle car at a model railroad hobby-shop that was located within the station. The car, which I did utilize occasionally on temporary railroads that I built, now remains in its original plastic displaying container with the original store price tag still on it.
Fyi: because of higher container (and other) cars, some cabooses were developed with protrusions extending from the sides of the caboose (similar to what an extension on the side of an RV or camping trailer looks like, only permanent/non-retractable.) These side mounts made it easier for the caboose crew to at least have a better view up the sides of the trains in front of them.
One more thing: Caboose crews, depending upon the railroad company and the routes to be traveled, would often travel with their own designated caboose/office and would be switched at certain connection/transfer junctions onto the next train the crew was to monitor. Of course, not all crew had this considered luxury, many had to contend with packing up and unpacking their belongings as well as all official documentation, etc. that needed to go along with the crew, each and every time the crew was to transfer to the next train/leg of their trip.
Since I was asked to do so with other of my collectibles, I've posted a RUclips short to my channel which displays the RR replica of mention within my comment.
I stayed in the "Red Caboose Motel" near Strasburg PA... I think they have over 30 cars set up as "rooms"... not a 5 star hotel, but pretty cool experience for train fans.
Many years ago there was a place in Sinton, TX, called "The Loose Caboose Motel." On the way to the coast one very stormy night we decided to to stop there rather than continue to brave the freak high winds and rain. My mother's little VW could not top 45 mph against that wind.
It was a regular little motel but they had a caboose and three slightly ragged old passenger coaches there for special use. Being the curious kids we were, we went out in the wind and tried every door to the old train cars until we found one unlocked. The cars were coupled together so we roamed all through them. We got into the caboose, too. The wind outside kept swaying them as if they were rolling down the track again. It was great fun! The lights were on in the cars. Either nobody saw us or they didn't mind us playing in there because noone came out to run us off.
That place is long gone now.
They used to have a caboose motel in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, it's no longer there but they used old cabooses turned into motel rooms too. We stayed there once when I was a kid, and I was extremely disappointed. The interiors were gutted and refurbished and were no different than any other motel room, except with a skylight from the cupola. 10 year old me was expecting the sponge mattresses and bunk beds, and seats in the cupola, and a potbelly stove. Now looking back on it as a 38 year old, I'm still disappointed and I still wish the cabooses were authentic.
@@modelrailpreservation
Yah, that would suck. I'd want to stay in a real caboose, too. What's the point of offering cabooses to stay in when they're not cabooses anymore.
Texas State Railroad sometimes puts a caboose on the end of a passenger train and charges a different fee to ride in the caboose. They also give a group rate for groups of people who want to ride together.
The Combres and Toltec, in Colorado and New Mexico, frequently has a caboose on the end of their historic scenic steam railway rides. I was fortunate enough to know some people who'd chartered such a caboose, and got tickets for it. I wasn't close enough to be part of their "in" group, so my friend and I got to take most of the trip from the top of the caboose. WooHoo!
You mentioned the caboose carrying spare parts and tools which made me recall some of the itens found in the caboose. Air hoses (aka hosebags) which you mentioned. Knuckles and knuckle pins. Brake beam keys and brake shoes and shoe keys. Brake rod pins and cotter keys. Hammer, pry bar and pipe wrenches And up until the 80's at least a pulling hook for opening journal boxes and a supply of grease bars in case of a hot box.
I went in the '80s to buy one up in New Hampshire was in gorgeous condition and then my wife was screaming at me the kids were like a caboose?
2 many people with
Noooo
Pizzazz!!!
1st video, you have a relaxed presentation style and a good speaking voice :)
Thanks
Many long distance freight trains in Australia - ones that take several days - still have crew cars attached but directly behind the engine. Often converted passenger sleeping cars, they have bedrooms, a lounge, TV, cooking and shower facilities for a group of drivers taking the train thousands of Kms sooo they can rest and relax between their shifts. These trains often have 3 or 4 drivers and it saves having to change drivers and station then at remote locations.
Great video. There are some cabooses still in use today even on the class 1 railroads. They are sometimes used in yard service but mostly as “shoving platforms” for a rear crewman to stand on during long backing moves where it would be unsafe for crew to hang from the side ladders for the duration of the move. CSX and NS still used this practice at least into the early 2000s since many long backup moves are required to access certain coal mines in the Appalachians.
BNSF also uses cabooses for this. Long backing moves being a few miles. I've seen BNSF use a caboose for long backing moves in the Denver area.
The UP uses cabooses to protect long reverse moves especially on locals. They also use them as blizzard busses on double tracked subdivisions to rescue crews who have run out of time and the roads are unpassable because of heavy snow.
At a plant job I used to do contract cleaning for, I was on a lunch break and the plant had a very active railroad line operated by NS and Amtrak. A neighboring steel stamping plant had a siding where it would receive steel coil rolls from trains. On my lunch break, I was heading back to work when I was stop at the railroad crossing by a small NS train that was bringing in a shipment for the stamping plant. I think the train had at most, 8 cars, but surprisingly it had a small caboose with the NS logo at the end of the train. I'm more than sure it was attached to that train to serve as a lookout for that stamping plant since the siding going into the plant was rather long and would have trucks bringing in stuff near the tracks as well.
When I worked for Canadian National we called them "VANS" short for "brake van" as used on British railways. Initially a van was assigned to a conductor as his home and office away from his terminal.
In the 1960's we started using "runthru" vans which stayed on the train and the crews changed at division points.
The term caboose is an anglisization of the Dutch "kambooze" which was a deckhouse with bunks and the galley (kitchen) on windjammers.
Brake van ? You mean the guard's van ! Actually "brake" is more accurate earlier on.
Great Video . The manner in which you relate your content is very enjoyable , much like sitting in a pub and having a interesting conversation with a friend over a beer . you are a natural teacher / storyteller , informative and entertaining without becoming pedantic . I'm looking forward to more of your videos.
Peace. Be Free.
Thank you!
Back in the old days of steam powered locomotives, the caboose was the place where the railroad conductors would fix up a big pot of slumguillion stew. On a somewhat tangentially related note - One of my best recipes was handed down by my grandfather from Ohio who was part of a stew loving band of clowns which toured the country on the railroad in the 1930s and 40s. Not only did he fully participate as a performer (juggling and spraying seltzer mostly) but he was also in charge of the Clown Chuckwagon, and over the years, came up with a nice selection of mostly campfire stews (or "or stewge" as Gramps used to call them),, soups and casseroles. One of my favorites, casseroles, which I still prepare frequently, consists of baked beans and wieners (for the KETO portion of the meal), macaroni and cheese. and a couple handfuls of those big orange circus peanuts - a sweet yet savory bake-up that's a hit with everyone who tries it. Gramps had one clown name for performing with his fellow troupers at carnivals, civic events, etc., throughout the central Midwest ""Antsy Pants" - but around the campfire at breakfast or suppertime, when most of these talented vagabond buffoons had removed their make-up and hung their giant shoes in their campers, (but oddly enough not all of them) Gramps was affectionately known among the boys as "Yummo." He told me how it wasn't unusual for farmers to donate a hen or two and maybe a couple of dozen eggs, in return for a brief barnyard slapstick performance by a couple of the boys for the farmer, his family and his hired hands.. He also told me as soon as he got back to camp with the chickens, the alcoholic Geek who traveled with them would inevitably beg permission to bite the heads of the pullets when Gramps was ready to get those birds cooking. Seemed that this particular Geek actually not only savored the taste of the live chickens he was required to eat (which were usually provided by the promoter of the event at which the troupe was performing) - but craved more when "off=the-clock" Talk about a Carnivore diet!! Wow!!! Reportedly, he was known to comment that "live chicken pairs well with a pint of Carstairs White Seal Blended." By the way, Grandma also traveled with Gramps. She was the seamstress - making a good number of the clown suits from her own design and repairing all them when required. So of course Gram and Gran rolled along from town- to -town with a big foot pump operated sewing machine in their trailer, - in addition to all the pots, pants, cutlery, stirrers, etc. My Dad was born in a campground in Posey County, Indiana, delivered by a local midwife and plopped into a casserole baking dish as soon as Gramps cut the umbilical cord with his second best onion chopping knife. As for me, I married young and did well for myself in doing so. My wife is the daughter of an outdoor parking lot magnate in a major city in Ohio. I was dowried with three downtown lots. I've had a comfortable life pretty much doing whatever I want all day while other people collect money on my behalf while sitting down in booths, watching TV, reading (or even snoozing between customers arriving and honking the horns to wake 'em up). Consequently, for awhile, I was able to open a couple of storefront business which specialized in selling "clown suits for the whole family," including custom made if somebody wanted them - and even clown suits for the family pets. The seamstresses I hired used Gram's patterns, of course. . The stores were called "Hem and Ha!" - and with every sale, I usually threw in a copy of one of Gramps' recipes for a clown casseroles, "silly stew," "buffoon bread, "Punchinello Porridge,," or what have you. Of course, they all pair well with seltzer water
“It was the most beautiful, most expensive train ever built, the Spruce Caboose. Some people said it was too big to stay on the tracks. They were right.”.
Did not exist!!!
@@MsFred58 He’s making a joke about the Spruce Goose, a model of which is on the table below the Titanic to Alex’s right.
Hilarious 😂😂😂
@@MsFred58 it's a Simpsons reference.
"Follow the Headless Brakeman"
My mother used to date an engineer in the 1980's. He worked in a caboose. His main trip was going back & forth between Needles California and Barstow California out in the Mojave Desert.
I used to also live right next to the railroad tracks in Hinkley California from 1976 - 1981. Whenever the trains were stopped, the Caboose would be right there by my house. As a kid, i always found the cabooses to be interesting. I would go and talk to the engineers in the Caboose while they were stopped. They would always give me a carton of water as a gift. It looked like a small milk carton made from waxed cardboard.
I always understood that a caboose was basically a mobile office for the engineers. They always had a map out on a table when I was go talk with them. They had their CB radios out so that they could talk to the other trains to find out their location. Since they shared the same track. Then they would relay to the engineer in the engine when it was safe to go. They were trip planning amongst other things like what you mentioned in your video. They had a lot of responsibilities!
Unfortunately most of their jobs were replaced when the invent of computers came out. Once the computers were complex enough to do their jobs and be trusted that was the end of the Caboose!
Thank you for your video.
I had always dreamed as a kid to be an engineer and either work in the Caboose or work in the engine.
Instead I became a professional bus driver.
Many farmhouses here in Wisconsin and elsewhere had cupolas. These were typically used for someone to monitor their herds and watch for predators. Sometimes they would/could shoot the predators and other times sound an alert.
I'm not 83Y/O and very fondly remember cabooses and steam engines.
And, one of the greatest things about those old trains was the whistle. Today's trains have the horn which has no personality as did that "lonesome whistle".
Thanks, Alex. This was a nice read.
That may have been one niche use, but generally, I think they were most often used in buildings to help circulate air by creating a chimney effect. Pre-air conditioning, architecture had a lot of different ways of getting the hot air away from poeple.
In the 1960s I was a brakeman on the Northern Pacific's Rocky Mountain Division. I remember cabooses fondly from personal experience, winter and summer.
I suspect you have some lovely stories to tell us!
My uncle worked for Penn/new York Central/Conrail/NorfolkSouthern as the swicthman out of Elkhart Indiana.
My dad Worked for the same company at the Engine yards cleaning/repairing then later as a foreman before he went on disability. He started the last year of vesting for railroad retirement board. All people in years after him instead got Social Security.
My dad worked for Union Switch and Signal in Swissvale PA. He said that one contributing factor was the improvement in communications between the engineers and and the switch crew, brake crew, conductors, et al.
In about 1977, the RR left a caboose on an unused siding way out in the woods near our home. Almost like they forgot about it. It had fuel oil, heat stove and some type of interior lighting, what kind I don't exactly remember. It snowed insane amounts that year. Us kids used that caboose as our hangout for months until one spring day it was gone. We camped, cooked and had fun in it. We took cases of fuses for later use. Made excellent fire starters. Wonder what ever happened to it. Probably long gone like so many of the RR's are. Peace.
Fun video! I think also another reason for the caboose in the olden days was that if the train had to make a unscheduled stop, an emergency stop (perhaps for malfunctioning equipment like hot boxes &c) and so forth, one of the men in the caboose would take flares and walk down the tracks whatever distance behind the train and then use the flares to warn or signal any oncoming trains to stop.
Excellent done history! Thanks for keeping railroad history alive very much appreciated!
When I was a kid one of my favorite songs was “Big Jon and Sparkie’s” Little Red Caboose. (The song is on RUclips titled “Little Red Caboose 45).
As a result I was always excited to see a train so I could keep an eye out for the caboose. I remember a news segment years ago announcing trail lines would be discontinuing the use of cabooses. For me it was disappointing to hear. Great video! Thanks!
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
It's the same in many other countries. Here in the UK we called them brake vans, because of their early use for braking. During the 50s and 60s there was a drive to speed up freight services with new wagons that were fully braked. As well as no longer being needed, the old brake vans were often not suitable or at least comfortable for these higher speeds, and the switch to diesels meant that there was more space on the locomotive for the guard to travel (usually in the rear cab since most British locos have two cabs). Only two types of trains kept guards vans for longer. The first was infrastructure trains. These tended to use older wagons which were sometimes unbraked. Being more limited in use, covering shorter distances between yards and worksites, and mostly running at night, lower speeds were not a problem. It wasn't until the 80s or possibly early 90s when all these became unbraked. The others were nuclear waste trains. The idea was that in the event of an emergency, having crew at the front and back of the train meant they could walk in opposite ways along the track to get help. With mobile phones this became less of an issue and in the 2000s guards vans were removed from all trains.
There was also one other reason for cabooses or guards vans at the rear of trains. In the early days of railways trains were separated by holding the next train until the first one had been gone a certain time. In the event of an issue where the train stopped unexpectedly, the guard would be expected to walk back along the track to signal to the following train to stop. Even after modern signalling systems were developed, this requirement was often still kept in place. Radio communication and mobile phones have made this obsolete (although trains still carry flags, hand lamps and detonators for signalling to other trains in an emergency). At least in the UK, most freight trains have for a few decades been either one person operated (just a driver) or carried just a shunter.
One other thing. Even though passenger trains have been fully braked in the UK since the late 1800s, the part where the guard/conductor travels on passenger trains is still referred to as the brake compartment. This though is because these compartments still often have a wheel that can be used to manually apply the brakes for the purpose of holding the train without a locomotive supplying air pressure for the brakes.
You're an excellent speaker. Very smooth and staying on focus, speaking off the top of your head. Educational and pleasant. Great work. My appreciation, respect and support.
Wow, I was just wondering about this. As a child we lived by some train tracks. On a lazy summer day I would wave to the engineer, count the cars, then wave to the guy on the caboose. Good times...
It's nice to see you taking a break from ships and talking about trains. I enjoyed the video, and I do love trains. This was a nice relaxing video to learn and enjoy. And it was nice to hear something else from you. :D
There are some Class One Railroads that still use cabooses as "shoving platforms" and some branch lines that serve local industries often times don't have a "Y" at the end of them. And these "Locals" still requires a caboose for reverse moves (the locomotive pushes it's train at that point back to it's terminal or yard) and Norfolk Southern is one Carrier that still does this. Many Class One Carriers use locomotives as Distributed Power Units (DPU's) on the rear of many lengthy freight trains to reduce the "drag" a long train would exert. Putting locomotives on the rear of a long freight train also reduces the risk of couplers being broken and having trains being broken apart as well as possibly derailing. Most of these newer freight engines actually have computer software that can also perform the tasks of "FRED", to monitor what the train cars in the rear of the train are doing. In some cases, railroads will even put freight engines in the middle of very long trains as "swing units". The Burlington Northern Railroad did this practice throughout the 1990s, with many unit coal trains going to and from the Powder River Basin. (The newer SD70MACs were just beginning to be put on these trains, while the older SD40-2s were still being used.) The Caboose was essentially the "office" for the train crew, mainly for the conductor for paperwork etc. When "FRED" was introduced, many locomotives started being built with the wide nosed North American Safety Cab and these cabs have space for the conductor, as well as the rest of the train crew.
I still have a place in my heart for the old GP-38's....grin...
What this guy said. I had some long shoves I always used a caboose for.
In Railroad Tycoon cabooses give 75% less breakdowns and 50% less chance of the train being robbed
Mt Hood Railroad uses a Caboose every lumber freight run.
Train runs backwards first 3 miles towards the switchback with the caboose at the “front” with a brakeman keeping watch in contact with the locomotive by radio along with a dynamite valve at hand for emergency stops.
Reaching the switchback, the brakeman will get off the caboose while under movement, wait near the switch until the locomotive has passed the switch and then the brakeman throw the switch & enter the locomotive to continue their route.
I adored that job.
Something a little special pushing up the Hood River silently in my caboose with the noisy locomotive 5 cars behind me.
We also had a bowl shaped yard and I was occasionally able to independently switch my caboose around lines and couple to my locomotive on momentum & hand brake.
Depending on where the last guy left the caboose though.
I haven't seen a caboose on the end of a freight train since the mid 80's or so. Nice video. Thanks for sharing it.
I'm 79yr.old & I remember & miss the caboose.
A train without a Caboose is like a sentence without a punctuation mark. Great video by the way. 😀
Really
I say the same thing. Hmm, notice the younger generation seems to be abandoning punctuation? The same younger generation that has gone their whole lived seeing freight trains without a caboose?
Agreed!
Thank you I've learned a lot in this short amount of time. I'm 69 and never knew most of this. Thanks again.
Railroadmen out here on The West Coast in particular the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific Men called them the "Crumby".....Lovingly of course !
great video my man. very easy to listen to and well presented, even if it wasn't scripted beforehand. keep up the good work
Oh I love cubooses!! I really miss seeing them. When I was young, we lived in CA central vally, and our car often got stopped by a long freight train. We would always wait for the cuboose to pass by, and we would wave- and they always waved back!! Then I noticed later they stopped having the caboose, but always wondered why. I thing they would still appreciate a place to use as a break room, but don't remember seeing any other than on the antique railroads, as you mentioned. Thanks for the cool train video- keep them coming! :)
Alex, thanks for the video! I grew up in a home where our backyard was along railroad tracks. I remember when I was very young my mother telling me that all trains were terminated by a caboose. Very rarely, we'd see a train with two cabooses on its end. And once in a great while, no caboose. Then, sometime when I was in college, the cabooses disappeared.
Learn something new every day. Until today I have never heard of a "EOT or a ETD." As always Alex your narration in nothing but top notch. Thanks to Alex the Historian for his time and hard work.....
You're welcome!
@@AlextheHistorian I actually built and repaired EOT's (FRED's as you call them) for Siemens Rail Automation for about 6 years before I got promoted. The amount of tech in them these days, and what they can do, is pretty neat. Plus they are a huge safety upgrade by being able to dump the air out of the system thus applying the brakes if it detects a problem. GPS tracking, speed and data monitoring, phone call check ins, downloadable and customizable wifi compatible with instant software upgrades. Truly sad to see the Caboose go the way of the dodo (in most cases), and taking personnel jobs with it, but increased safety is a good thing.
Excellent description of the function of cabooses. I grew up in the Forties/ Fifties on a street that had a Pennsylvania RR repair yard at the bottom of it. Much too the chagrin of the yard workers I used to play among the train cars including many cabooses. I appreciate your details and descriptions. Thanks
Nice cutaway of the R.M.S. Queen Mary.
Thanks to the B & O Railroad Museum keeping some of its trains in operating condition, I have had the enjoyabke experience of riding in the caboose.
Thanks for making the video.
Happy Independence Day to you.
Thanks! And to you as well
The other piece of equipment which has rendered the caboose unnecessary is the trackside defect detector, which detects hot box, dragging equipment, etc...
I thought the EOTD/FRED/ETD did all that via telemetry and communicated to the locomotive, brakes etc and acted accordingly when needed
Appreciate you and your content, Alex!
Thanks!
Loved it, very interesting. Thankyou
Nice summary here, Alex. It's my understanding that cabooses are still occasionally used by modern railroads as crew platforms when running local freight jobs, etc. I actually just saw one up at Vancouver, WA station a few weeks ago being used for that purpose. Of course there are other people here who can go into far more detail.
Would they be used because of all the reversing and switching that the local freight does?
@@AlextheHistorian Yes precisely
Ah I see!
Thank you for a very thorough explanation of how a caboose was used, what the crew inside were responsible for, and thanks for explaining what the rear-end devices do, l honestly had no idea they could perform so many functions!
Thanks for such an informative video! I had heard of some of those reasons for cabooses but you explain it even further!
I grew up in Azusa, CA on corner of Monte Vista & 4th St, which is 2 blocks from the train tracks. At age 7 (1956) my friends & I would play as close to the tracks as we dared, awaiting the daily train. As it clanged by, we always waved at the Caboose & there was usually a Trainman inside it waving back at us!
Jack Benny used Azusa in many of his classic radio bits. Mel Blanc voiced a train dispatcher that would call out the destinations of the train about to depart, and Azusa was always the final destination. In my mind’s eye I could “see” that station even though it was really just actors standing
*around a mic reading from scripts.
*actually the final stop was Kook-- amonga (Cucamonga.)
It’s great that caboose’s can be seen and ridden at heritage railroad museums.
At the illinois railroad museum they will occasionally run whole trains of just caboose
even better if you get to ride in the locomotive!!
@@michaellawson1518 Isn't the plural of "caboose" "cabeese"? :D GDR
Love this video. Thank you for making it. Very interesting!
In some amusement parks, cabooses are used as restaurants over rail.
Hello! First time viewer. I appreciate your easy going storytelling manner and your genuine interest in the topic presented. Keep up the good work. Greetings from west coast of Canada!
I love trains of all sorts but have never seen a caboose with a side bay window before. Thank you, Alex.
I personally don't think I've ever seen a bay window caboose with my own eyes before. People say they're more common than cupola caboose, but yet I'd never seen them before! Lol
In the UK these are called duckets and are pretty common probably because of our small loading gauge. I suspect there are railroads in the USA that have similar issues.
Southern Rwy used them, maybe exclusively. A guy in my neighborhood has one in his backyard.
The bay window was used by the southern they could see hit boxes and other problems better in the curves than the cupola you couldn't see a hot Journal well in the cupola
Sorry hot boxes
Very interesting! I have really enjoyed all your railroad videos on you channel. Thanks for sharing!
When I was little I had my first train set and my favorite car other than the engine was the Caboos. My father worked on the Railroad his entire life starting in early 70's told me in 80's the Caboos no longer exist it broke my heart!
No mention of the EOT device being radio controlled which is why they had to have cabooses. We simply didn't have the technology to replace the caboose with an EOT device before the 1960s. But other than that, you have a great channel. Keep up the good work. I particularly enjoyed your history of the Disneyland trains. Thanks.
Thank you! Later this year I will be working on a more researched video to replace this one, since ai have learned so much more about Cabooses from the various crew in the comments section.
Caboose are still used on short lines or for pick up peddle frieghts where there is switching, cutting off or adding cars along a short distance.
Back in the late 1970's, I graduated from High School. Before I was going to attend to college, I wanted to see the Great Pyramids of Teotihuacan. I traveled by myself using buses and trains. When Pullman cars no longer met US safety standards, Mexico bought the cars for public transport. I road on one of these trains down through Mexico, through the mountains. The last cars were the "cheap seats" and they were filled with goats, farmers and families who occupied the cabooses, cooking on the pot bellied stove. I sat on the steps of the caboose, drinking cheap Mexican beer, eating homemade meals I bought for pennies watching the desert disappear into the night. It was a magical experience.
Cabooses are still used on modern railroads for trains with exceptionally hazardous materials and as "shoving platforms" for trains that require long reverse movements (cabooses in this service often have their doors and windows plated over as an anti-vandalism measure; the crews only need the end platforms). Another piece of modern tech in addition to the FRED that has made cabooses obsolete are lineside defect detectors. These are sensors strategically placed along the tracks that broadcast to the crews' radios as a train passes whether it's measured any excessive heat from a seized bearing (hotbox) and an axle count to confirm the train hasn't parted.
I noticed your lego titanic in the background. Nice to see a fellow man of quality. Hat's off to you.
It's not Lego its an actual model I built in 2012.
Very interesting and informative video another good use for a caboose turn it into home and living in one
Gotta tell you that I really enjoyed this "unscripted" video - I am a rail fan so this is my major interest - I will have to check out your mini-documentaries out
The line that run threw my town, which is a busy line probably 10 trains a day or more. But during the fall when they harvest corn and beans there is a few trains that are only 10 or so grain cars long and always have a caboose on them.
Back when the railroads discontinued Cabooses you would be able to purchase a Caboose as scrap. A neighbor of mine had one in his backyard completely restored and setup as an tiny house.
I hired out on the railroad in the late 60's on the CB&Q (Chicago Burlington and Quincy) and no one called a caboose a caboose. They were always referred to as a 'Way Car'. A Way Car is where the conductor and rear brakeman rode with the 'Bills of Lading", or more commonly known as 'Way Bills'. The only time that you see a Way Car here in the midwest on the BNSF are on work trains. That allows a conductor or brakeman to monitor and protect a back up movement of the train.
Here in india we still use caboose in our goods/ frigates train, were the operator is called as guard/train manager. The main work is exchanging of signals, maintaining log book, also to apply break in case train lose, in short caboose and guard play important role in India railway but the dark side is they don’t have any power source in caboose so they work without light, fan/ac.
I went through brakeman/switchman training at Taylor Yard for So Pac in Glendale Ca. At one point we all had to climb the ladders on the box cars while moving and operate the brake wheels to make the box car stop. I froze and panicked while climbing the ladder in fear and was cut from the training the day. My Mom used to say that fear can be a sign of intelligence and in this case I was right. Many workers got killed or mamed over the years so now you will never see a brake wheel near the top of a box car, the moved them down below where it is much safer.
You know what used to terrify me when riding a car that was being switched and uncoupled ,and having to set the Manual wheel brake? It was seeing a giant spider in a web 6 inches from my face. Or a huge wasp nest. But the car was moving , so you had to just deal with it.
I was also a brakeman and we had to do the same thing in training and my first assignment after training was replacing a man who fell doing it and cut off both legs- I think the most dangerous thing for me was switching cars in the dark. I really didn’t like that…..about 50 years ago
@@joecontreras5068 I knew it was super dangerous and the engineer was a woman who was driving switch engine fast I think in competition with the men but she was pushing the box car, I was on the side ladder, then they pulled the pin so my box car was drifting by itself. I was supposed to climb around the car and reach over to the ladder in the back then climb up to the brake wheel while going 20mph. Thats when I froze and that was the end of my short career at SP. I was devastated when let go, felt like a failure and a chicken. This was maybe 45 years ago and the brakemen were making 75K even back then. One of the biggest failures in my life.
Cool & informative
When I was a kid grandma used to say if you can get the man in the caboose to wave 👋 at you you’ll have a lucky day !!
On the back of car 7 at Dollywood you can see a small whistle
Hello Alex. Model Titanic great. Spruce Goose, check. LP of Henry Hall in the USA, really rather weird although I like him too and have a similar looking record. Hope you like Al Bowlly too!! Liked the Caboose video although we in England called them Guards Vans and they were a lot smaller. They have gone too.
I worked on the railway in the UK as the very last of the class 7B trains (these where trains without an active brake line but a brake-van on the rear(British version of a caboose) was being phased out, it sure was an interesting experience because the whole operation of them was so different to an air or vacuum braked train
I have to say I'm 55 years old and as a child I got so excited when the guard rails came and the "TING TING TING" sound started and we'd watch the train pass. My parents would get me so excited to see the Caboose, no matter how long it took I'd be watching that last car.
I grew up along the Pennsylvania RR line in Chicago in the 50s and 60s when a caboose on the back of every train was the norm and you’d still occasionally see a steam driven locomotive go by. We would yell “Flare” to the brakemen in the caboose as they passed and occasionally they would toss us one.
My best friends dad was a conductor of a shorter line mill train. We would wave to his dad sitting in the cabose afternoons while we played. Hadn't thought of that in decades. Thanks.
A caboose is still used by freight railroads when a long shoving move (reversing) is necessary. The caboose allows the conductor to ride the leading end safely and provides him with both a whistle for signaling at crossings and a brake control valve to activate the train brake in emergencies. Sometimes they are also equipped with headlights and ditch lights as well.
I'm old enough that when i see the end of a modern freight train I think "wait you've left something behind"
There used to be a drovers caboose. This was for livestock trains. The federal government required livestock trains to stop at certain intervals to allow the livestock to get food and water and to rest. The cowboys accompanying the livestock would travel in the drovers caboose along with the train crew. The drovers would ride a passenger train back home to the nearest station to the ranch.
Hey Alex, stumbled across your channel and got involved. You my good man have earned yourself another subscriber ;) ^^
Thanks!
FRED was an acronym given to the EOTD by the crew who lost their positions. Although if you see a train with a caboose, chances are there's something special being hauled.
From my understanding FRED was the real original acronym for the device, but the crew who lost their positions assigned a different set of words to the FRED acronym. I dont know what those words are bit I assume it was profane.
F***** rear end device..
It was originally an acronym for “federal rear end device”
What an awesome video. All the things I never knew, (or even thought about) when contemplating cabooses. You did a very good job of explaining so much in a pleasant and concise manner. Just a side thought, I was thinking that cabooses could be useful today for carrying all sorts of modern repair parts, and...you never know when it might be important to transport employees from one location to another.
Cabooses are still used in limited numbers on some railroads for backup operations.
I've ridden in cabooses. They're definitely a piece of American history. .
My dad was a railroader, first with Pennsylvania Railroad, then Penn Central. He retired from Amtrak in 1989. They were a fixture on the old wire trains they used for working on cattenaries and wires for the trains. Now, they're mostly used for historical railroads, like the East Broadtop or in Straudsburg, Pennsylvania. You did a great job, explaining a crucial and often overlooked item. Thank you.
Years ago there were 5 or 6 crewmen that ran the train. You had 2 crews, 12 hour shifts
So the active crew was up in the locomotives and the crew that was off would be in the caboose sleeping.
They would switch off every 12 hours
They had stoves for heat and also to cook meals and some in the last years they used them even had air conditioning and refrigerators
They had their own generator hooked onto the wheels of the caboose to provide AC power
There were also bunk houses in almost every train yard where people could sleep
Trains used to run very efficiently because they always had Cruise available in the bunk houses
But as the railroads began using less people they got rid of the cabooses and now you only have one person driving a 3-mi long train and oftentimes they are so short-staffed that they actually drive people via taxi from up to 8 hours away to then start their 12-hour shift
It's really awful
no
A friend who works on a Class One spends half his life in motels and not infrequently has to travel by van to the train two hundred miles away to take it to the next crew change point, and sometimes get's "dead headed" by van from his destination back home again. I cannot understand how this benefits the railroad's productivity or revenue stream. He says the railroads are actively studying ways to reduce to one man crews and eventually zero crews, everything being done by driverless computer programs and ATC.
When did fewer people become less people?
Excellent video. Thanks!