about cabooses

[torikoos]

I've read another topic about the use of cabooses. However, I don't live in the US so I don't often see a 'real' US train passing me , nor have I had that pleasure when I was younger. :-)
Are cabooses still used today, or only sporadically, or are these now all phased out?
If so, when did this happen, and until what year (when modeling a certain era) could you still get away with putting them on a train?
When did steel cabooses first get introduced?

Thanks, Koos

[Triplex]

Cabooses are still used "sporadically". They're still used on locals requiring long backup moves, but that's about all.

In the US, cabooses were required on all trains up to about 1985. Some of the eastern states required them a few years longer. In Canada, cabooses were required until 1989 (?), and seem to have still been common for a few years afterward. In Mexico, I believe they were required until the late 90s.

I'm not so well versed on earlier eras, but steel cabooses were common by the 1940s-50s "transition era". By 1980, wood cabooses were rare, with only a few major roads still having any. KCS is the only road I know of to have had wood cabooses to the end of caboose laws.

[nachoman]

I remember seeing cabooses regularly until the mid 1980s. 1985 or 1986 they began to be phased out, and scarce by 1987. I do recall a short period that cabooses returned for a few months around here on the Southern Pacific. I was too young to know why, but I do remember a few months when I saw trains with cabooses sometime in about 1986 or 1987. I have seen cabooses on local trains and work trains, but as far as I know, the caboose is locked up and serves only as a platform on the end of the train. Of course, cabooses are still very common on model railroads, even those set in the modern era

[torikoos]

Thanks everyone, that clears things up for me.
I'm in the process of making some decisions on what to model, and around what period, and believe it or not, I don't own a single model caboose yet. :-) So if I decide to go 'modern', then I won't need one (I will need some modern freight cars though), if I go back in time a bit (late 60's early 70's), I will have to go and buy one.
Alternatively, if I'm careful with my scenery and type of buildings I use, I can alternate era's and do both :-) This however also has implications for the signals and other railroad structures, and that means I need to do more research, as I want to be prototypical correct as possible...

If anyone has any suggestions, links to websites etc in regards to these last few points, I'd be grateful.

[Puddlejumper]

The first all steel caboose was (I THINK, I'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong) was the Pennsylvania Railroad's N5 cabin car introduced in 1916. Wood cabooses were still common well into the 50s-60s depending on what railroad you are interested in.

[Triplex]

I'm in the process of making some decisions on what to model, and around what period, and believe it or not, I don't own a single model caboose yet.

Then it's time to take a major step back and decide what you're interested in regarding location and era, and why. I suspect this will involve a lot more than whether or not you use cabooses.

[torikoos]

I'm in the process of making some decisions on what to model, and around what period, and believe it or not, I don't own a single model caboose yet.

Then it's time to take a major step back and decide what you're interested in regarding location and era, and why. I suspect this will involve a lot more than whether or not you use cabooses.

My interests are probably similar to yours, too many to mention, and in the meantime I have made a 'decisison'. I'm going modern(ish), but such that the buildings etc on my layout are not of the type constructed in the last 10 years or so, but could have been there from 1950's 60's onwards. Then, depending on my mood, I will run my 'older' trains (set in early 70's) one time, and new modern stuff another (late 90's to current).
I therefore am looking for tips and material to read/look at, in terms of structures, signalling devices etc that I could use for both 'era's above.
I guess a modern cantilever signal bridge made by BLMA models would not be suitable, but search light type signals could work.
By the way, when were the first signals with multiple seperate lights (like the modern hooded (darthvader)) types first introduced (with or without the hoods)? I know as a model railroader there is a degree of creative freedom, but I don't want to go too far. :-)

[BR60103]

Torikoos:
Check the current PhotoFun thread for a couple of late-era cabooses. Note that most of the windows have been plated over. The most recent CN and CP cabooses that I've seen have had the windows covered -- usually with badly painted plywood.
Not sure when the signal types came in. In the 1950s, CPR had searchlight type signals with a single light; CNR had triple lights, like a traffic light. But on our line, CNR had single light signals until last year when they were replaced with 3-light LEDs. Any of these heads might be mounted up to 3 deep on a mast to give complex instructions. On CPR's eastern Ontario line the signals were approach lighted -- dark until a train was in a nearby block and lit until the train was a couple of blocks past.

[TinGoat]

From ToRyHeritage · Toronto Railway Heritage Group .

December 14, 1987:
The Railway Transport Committee gives both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways qualified approval to operate freight trains without a caboose, subject to numerous conditions and safeguards. The ruling allowed the railways to replace the caboose with electronic end of train devices and relocate the rear-end crew in the cab of the locomotive. This transition removed from service possibly the only aspect of railway freight service considered romantic by a general public that was frequently irritated by lengthy freight trains blocking level crossings.


November 14, 1989:
CP Rail begins operating freight trains without cabooses. Whatever romance was imbued in the freight train by the general public was usually centred on the tail-end caboose, once ubiquitous throughout North America. The caboose was a home away from home for the crew, containing cooking facilities and bunks, as well as an office for the conductor. The purpose of the car was to allow the train to be supervised from the rear, making sure there were no problems - loads shifting dangerously, overheating axle boxes on the cars (hot boxes) that could cause derailments and cars separating from the train without the crew's knowledge. If the train made an unscheduled stop, the crew could protect the rear of the train and signal for assistance. New technology made the caboose unnecessary. These included improved bearings and lineside detectors to detect hot boxes, better designed cars to avoid problems with the load, and electronic end of train devices that could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train separating and allowing the brakes to be applied from the rear by remote control.

Derek Boles
Toronto Railway Heritage Moderator

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I've read another topic about the use of cabooses. However, I don't live in the US so I don't often see a 'real' US train passing me , nor have I had that pleasure when I was younger. :-)
Are cabooses still used today, or only sporadically, or are these now all phased out?
If so, when did this happen, and until what year (when modeling a certain era) could you still get away with putting them on a train?
When did steel cabooses first get introduced?

Thanks, Koos

cabooses saw regular usage up in Northern NJ all the way until maybe a year or two ago (and i think they still run them), but Norfolk Southern on the commuter lines in that area. A red "Conrail" caboose was the usual suspect, usually behind a Norfolk southern GP of some kind. Ironically, the red conrail cabooses never belonged to conrail, but were ordered by conrail just as CSX/NS split came about in 1998. NS decided to leave them in full Conrail Reporting marks. You will also tend to see alot of cabooses on the short freights on the Northeast Corridor.

Cabooses are often seen as a safety measure on freights entering areas primarily run by Passengers, which explains their frequent appearance.

i also recently saw a plated over CSX (former conrail) caboose (on the back of an NS train ironically enough), that i think was a "pushing platform" going across Pennsylvania.

[Brakie]

"The caboose was a home away from home for the crew, containing cooking facilities and bunks,"
-----------------------
Maybe in the early years of railroading but,starting around 1890s crews stayed at Railroad YMCAs and ate at the RR YMCA or local beanery.A lot of railroaders would buy meal cards(aka pie card) from their local RR YMCA.

The early RR YMCA had sleeping rooms,a wash room,restaurant and billiard/pool room..In the last years of the RR YMCAs they had sleeping rooms,showers,restaurant,TV in the lobby and several pay phones.Sadly,these gallant RR YMCAs has been replace by hotels.

[Russ Bellinis]

Another use of cabooses that I've seen is the S.P. used a caboose to transport railroad police from one part of the railroad to another. The caboose was stenciled "Railroad" on one end of the bay window and "Police" at the top on the other end. I don't know if the U.P. continues this practice. I think the BNSF uses a passenger car or combine for this purpose.