# You still using the Caboose?



## jjb727 (Apr 13, 2012)

I for sure as hell am!  

I don't know why, but I always thought that a steam train without a caboose always felt EMPTY...no ending substance or as if there's a missing piece. Sure, in this day and age, you don't need it anymore because the EOT device tells the engineers EVERYTHING they need to know about the train at all times, but I like to stick with the old times where the crew at the end of the train always mattered. 

Well anyway, let me know how you guys feel about cabooses. You may like them or you may hate them with a passion..I don't know, but state your opinions anyway. Who knows, maybe in the future we will either get something newer or even revert back to the caboose (in real life).


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

Not a fan of them... or boxcars either.

I might come around one day though


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## jjb727 (Apr 13, 2012)

its all good. not everyone will like them. what do you use then?


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

I dont have an operational layout at the moment, building my first DCC setup.


No doubt I will use Cabeese and Boxcars


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

In the era of steam trains, very few ran without a caboose. Even in modern times there are a few of them around, though most trains now run without them.


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

personially I don't care either way, but on my road my road uses every thing it can for as long as they can and fixes things till its no longer fixable then off to "scrap" it goes to be reused and what ever is not able to be salvaged is scraped for metal...so my road will be using steam, cabooses, diesels and what ever else there is...


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

The conductor and the brakeman rode in the caboose and kept an eye out for hot boxes and signals while the train was moving. In the loco cab was the engineer and the fireman. With the advent of diesels the fireman was no longer needed and modern electronics watched for the hot boxes and brake issues. Now there have been some bitter battles over the firemans job and the brakemans job fomented by the railroad unions and track sabotage was a common thing for a long time back in the sixties. The FEC was embroiled in this and they had to run a truck on the tracks ahead of the trains to check for explosives on the track and under bridges along with misaligned turnouts and sabotaged rails. There was an actual train wreck in my back yard in West Palm Beach one night and I slept right through it. The next morning there were derailed gondolas all along the track and one was right up to my back yard fence. Nobody was hurt but it cost FEC some big bucks.
Eventually the railroad won and the firemans job was eliminated along with the brakemans job so at that point there was no more need for the caboose. Most trains now travel with a conductor in the left seat of the loco and the engineer in the right seat and that's it. The conductor acts as the brakeman too if needed but the engineer just drives the train.
I can see where the caboose went but what would take the place of the box car? Pete


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

norgale said:


> I can see where the caboose went but what would take the place of the box car? Pete


While a lot of things have gone intermodal, the boxcar really has not gone anywhere. I see tons of them every time I actually manage to get trackside.

In the steam age pretty much everything that wasn't liquid or shipped in open cars went in boxcars, but covered hoppers for grain and other bulk commodities and trucks and containerization have certainly changed the landscape in the modern era, but boxcars are most certainly not dead.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

I model the 1980s and my club models the 1970s, so cabooses are very much still a "thing" in my modeling world.

I've got several Overland brass cabooses for my road from a recent run, and I'm planning on scratchbuilding several of the older wood cabooses. One or two will might still be used in regular service, but some of them will get work service numbers. Some of the old retired wood cabooses were turned into bunk cars for work trains.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

I'm running four different consists on my layout.........two diesel freights, one steam passenger, and one '80's Amtrak with Superliners.
The first three mentioned have a caboose to match the loco. The last two cars on the Amtrak are sleeper cars, which is the way Amtrak does it 90% of the time.
I think cabooses are cool. :thumbsup:
Bob


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I've got a caboose track full of 'em...

By default my layout is sorta the 50s as a result of
a major bargain from that well known hobby shop...Craigslist.

A buddy of mine rode shotgun in one of those FEC rail
guard cars...I think they were stations wagons...he said
the car did not lower the crossing gates...so they had to
run not that far ahead of the following loco that would.
They, of course had to run at the train speed.
Else they would be barreling thru skillions
of crossings in every city on Florida's east coast
with vehicles using them...the
tracks went right through the middle of every town.

Don


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

i have heard that there are now a devise that is put on the llast car's coupler that blinks to tell all that its the last car.
dont know if that is true.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

FRED - Flashing rear-end device

It also monitors stuff like brake line pressure and communicates with the cab.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

norgale said:


> I can see where the caboose went but what would take the place of the box car? Pete


Over here theres not many boxcars. Its all intermodal.

I would say only between 1-5% of the consists are boxcars (the 5 is being very generous!) I got excited the other day because I saw some being run, and that was just a couple of Sadleirs cars ahead of 50+ containers, haha.

There is one mob that run almost exclusive boxcar stock, and thats SCT but they have moved to newer facilities further north from the city so I rarely see them these days.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I still see boxcars running around here a lot. Just sat at a crossing where a really large freight tied up the road for at least 10 minutes, boxcars and tankcars a'plenty.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

Just went over a bridge and saw the SCT train... all boxcars. bahahaha.

Just to test a hypothesis:
I hardly ever see a million dollars in my wallet.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> I still see boxcars running around here a lot. Just sat at a crossing where a really large freight tied up the road for at least 10 minutes, boxcars and tankcars a'plenty.


"Only" 10 minutes? That's almost a "quickie" here in Flint, MI, where a typical freight running through town has 190 to 230 cars. How do I know that? My wife is a car-counter par excellance. :laugh:
I jokingly tell people I keep a spare ham sandwich in the glovebox for those times I get stuck by a slow moving freight. hwell:


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## 10wheeler (Feb 13, 2013)

I love cabooses and 40 foot box cars! To me trains without cabeeses are BORING! I also love steam engines; however, am getting tired of their constant maintenence. All locomotives take maintenence; but, after 45 years of being a steam nut, I am considering changing my focus to more first generation diesels.

We all have our likes, care lesses and dislikes. We're entitled to them, it's part of the fun!


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## union pacific 844 (Jan 29, 2013)

i run a caboose with my diesels and steamers i love caboose


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## jjb727 (Apr 13, 2012)

i dont see gondolas very much...


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

raleets said:


> "Only" 10 minutes? That's almost a "quickie" here in Flint, MI, where a typical freight running through town has 190 to 230 cars. How do I know that? My wife is a car-counter par excellance. :laugh:
> I jokingly tell people I keep a spare ham sandwich in the glovebox for those times I get stuck by a slow moving freight. hwell:


I was fortunate that this was a faster moving train. I don't know how many cars it had, but it was a lot, they were zipping by every few seconds. I'd say it had to be at least 140-150, and I came up after it was already in the crossing, I didn't see the locomotive(s).


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## aircooled (Jan 28, 2013)

I live within a few miles of a somewhat major yard, so we get everything imaginable rolling thru. Plus Amtrak. About the only thing I can't remember seeing is raw timber.
Because we're so close to the yard, the chances of getting stuck at a crossing are extremely high. And sometimes, the trains seem to creep into the yard. I don't know which is worse: Being stuck for 5-15 minutes for a dozen cars or less, or a train that blocks every crossing from 1st to 25th Avenue!


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