Caboose
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- For other uses, see Caboose (disambiguation)}}}.
A caboose (US railway terminology) or brake van or guard's van (British terminology) is a manned rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train in North America, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.
The caboose arose to provide train crew with a shelter at the rear of the train. From here they could exit the train for switching or to protect the rear of the train when stopped. They also used windows to inspect the train for problems such as shifting loads, broken or dragging equipment, and overheated journals (hotboxes). The conductor kept records and otherwise conducted business from a table or desk in the caboose. For longer trips the caboose provided minimal living quarters, and was very frequently personalized and decorated with pictures and posters.
Early cabooses were nothing more than flatcars with small cabins erected on them, or modified boxcars. Side door cabooses remained in service until outlawed due to their danger, but the standard form of the American caboose had a platform at either end with curved grab rails facilitate to train-crew members' ascent onto a moving train. A caboose was fitted with red lights called markers to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase bringing up the markers to describe the last car on a train. (These lights were officially what made a train a "train.")
Cabooses are non-revenue equipment, and on the poorer lines were often improvised or retained well beyond the normal lifetime of a freight car. Tradition on many lines held that the caboose should be painted a bright red, though on many lines it eventually became the practice to paint cabooses in the same colors as locomotives.
Caboose types
The form of cabooses varied over the years, with changes made both to reflect differences in service and improvements in design. The most commonly seen types are as follows:Cupola or \"standard\" caboose
The most common caboose form in American railroad has a small windowed projection on the roof, called the cupola. The crew sat in elevated seats in order to inspect the train from this perch.
The invention of the cupola is generally attributed to T. B. Watson, a freight conductor on the Chicago and North Western Railway. In 1898 he wrote:
- "During the '60s I was a conductor on the C&NW. One day late in the summer of 1863 I received orders to give my caboose to the conductor of a construction train and take an empty boxcar to use as a caboose. This car happened to have a hole in the roof about two feet square. I stacked the lamp and tool boxes under the perforation end and sat with my head and shoulders above the roof... (Later) I suggested putting a box around the hole with glass in, so I could have a pilot house to sit in and watch the train."
Bay window caboose
On a bay window caboose, the crew monitoring the train sits in the middle of the car in a section of wall that projects from the side of the caboose. The windows set into these extended walls resemble architectural bay windows, so the caboose type is called a bay window caboose. This type afforded a better view of the side of the train and eliminated the falling hazard of the cupola. It is thought to have first been used on the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad in 1923, but is particularly associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which built all of its cabooses in this design starting from an experimental model in 1930. Many other roads operated this type, including the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Southern Railway, the Milwaukee Road, and the New York Central Railroad.
Extended Vision caboose
In the Extended Vision (EVC) or Wide-Vision caboose, the sides of the cupola project beyond the side of the carbody. Rock Island created some of these by rebuilding some standard cupola cabooses with windowed extensions applied to the sides of the cupola itself, but by far the greatest number have the entire cupola compartment enlarged. This model was introduced by the International Car Company and saw service on most western and many eastern lines. The expanded cupola allowed the crew to see past the top of the the taller cars that began to appear after World War II, and also increased the roominess of the cupola area.
Transfer caboose
A transfer caboose looks more like a flat car with a box bolted to the middle of it than it does a standard caboose. This type of caboose did not require sleeping, cooking or restroom facilities because it was used at the end of trains transferring cars between nearby rail yards. Such transfer runs seldom travelled more than twenty miles, and were usually of much shorter duration. The ends of a transfer caboose were left open with safety railings surrounding the area between the crew compartment and the end of the car.
The Great Northern Railway converted four of its Baldwin VO-1000 switcher locomotives into transfer cabooses in 1964. The units were stripped to their bare frames (the original AAR Type-A switcher trucks and distinctive cast steps were left in place) and fitted with 15-foot-long steel cabins.
Drover's caboose
Drover's cabooses looked more like combine cars than standard cabooses. The purpose of a drover's caboose was much more like a combine as well. On longer livestock trains in the American southwest, the drover's caboose is where the livestock's handlers would ride between the ranch and processing plant. The train crew rode in the caboose section while the livestock handlers rode in the coach section. Drover's cabooses used either cupolas or bay windows in the caboose section for the train crew to monitor the train.
The word \"caboose\"
The first usage in print of "caboose" in its railroad sense was in 1861,[#endnote_etymonline] at which time it must already have been in circulation among American railroadmen. The railroad historian David L. Joslyn, a retired Southern Pacific Railroad draftsman, connected "caboose" to an older, nautical usage (1747) derived from Low German kabhuse, a "wooden cabin" on a ship's deck, giving the Middle Dutch word kabuis, the compartment on a ship's deck in which cooking is done. This usage is now rare, as the galley moved belowdeck, whereas the Dutch word transformed into kombuis.
The first cabooses, not unlike the nautical originals, were wooden shanties built on flatcars, as early as the 1830s.[#endnote_UP-CabooseHistory] There is some disagreement on what constitutes the proper plural form of the word "caboose". Similar words, like goose (pluralized as "geese"), and moose (pluralized as "moose", no change) point to the reason for the difficulty in coming to a solid consensus.
The most common pluralization of caboose is "cabooses", with many arguing that this is incorrect, and (as with the word moose), it should stay the same in plural form. A less-seriously used pluralization of the word is "cabeese" (following the pluralization rule for the word goose, which is "geese"). This particular form is almost universally used in an attempt at humor (as, presumably, is "cabice").
It was common for railroads to officially refer to cabooses as "cabin cars".
Slang terms
Among rail crews the caboose was sometimes called a "crummy" (as in a crummy place to live), not elegant, often too hot or too cold, and perhaps not especially clean. Other nicknames used were "clown wagon," "hack," "waycar," "brainbox," "palace," and "cabin".FRED, the end of an era
Until the 1980s, laws in the United States and Canada required that all freight trains have a caboose. Technology eventually advanced such that a caboose was unnecessary, providing improved bearings and lineside detectors to detect hot boxes, and better designed cars to avoid problems with the load. The caboose was also a dangerous place, as slack run-ins could hurl the crew from the places and even dislodge weighty equipment. The final nail for the caboose's coffin came with an electronic box with the innocent name of "FRED," an acronym for flashing rear-end device, or "EOT," End-of-Train device. A FRED/EOT could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train's air brake pressure and report any problems back to the locomotive. The FRED/EOT also detects movement of the train upon start-up and radios this information to the engineer so that he/she will know that all of the slack is out of the couplings and additional power can now be applied. With the FRED/EOT on the job the conductor moved up to the front of the train with the engineer and year by year, cabooses started to fade away. Very few cabooses remain in operation today.
Preservation and reuse of cabooses
With their regular use now greatly decreased, cabooses have become popular for collection by railroad museums and for city parks and other civic uses, such as visitor centers. Several railroad museums roster large numbers of cabooses, including the Illinois Railway Museum with 19 examples and the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola (California) with 17. Many shortline railroads still use cabooses today. Large railroads also use cabooses as pushing platforms or in switching service where it is convenient to have crew at the rear of the train.Cabooses have been re-used as garden offices in private residences, and as portions of restaurants. Also, caboose motels have appeared, with the old cars being reborn as cabins.
References
- ↑ Online Etymology Dictionary, [caboose].
- ↑ Union Pacific Railroad, [The Caboose's Early Uses].
- [The Caboose Station] from the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad website: has information on introduction of the bay window caboose
- ["The Wood Shanty Disappears"] from Southern Pacific Bulletin, January, 1962, pp 22-26
- ["The Colorful Caboose"] from Trains Magazine (undated article)
| Rail transport freight equipment | |
| Enclosed equipment: | Autorack · Boxcar · Coil car (rail)>Coil car · Container · Covered hopper · Refrigerator car · Roadrailer · Stock car · Tank car |
| Open equipment: | Flatcar · Gondola (rail)>Gondola · Hopper car · Schnabel car |
| Non-revenue equipment: | Caboose |
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