cabooses are not extinct!

M

Matt Probst

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Mar 15, 2002
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Yesterday, I was driving past some NS tracks near my house, when I saw a beat-up looking switcher (still in it's Conrail paint) pushing a cut of cars into the sidings that service the chocolate factory. As I drove past the cocoa bean silos, I was startled to see a Conrail painted, bay window caboose on the head end of the train. (An employee was sitting on a chair with his feet propped up on the railing, reading a magazine.)
It was the first caboose I've seen in "action" in years and left me wondering......:confused:

Matt--Hershey, Pa.
 
Mmmm....chocolate factory........

From what I understand, Matt, a number of cabooses are still in service throughout North America. Most predominantly on shortlines and where locals have to do a lot of backing up...............................
 
Hi Matt, NS keeps one bay window caboose on the ready track here all the time. The only run I've ever seen them use it on is to take empty hoppers to chip mill in Greenville, Ga ( about 60 miles away) and then come back with a string of loaded ones. Maybe they take an extra crew because of the time element. I'm gonna try to find out.
 
Matt, any time I've been to Hershey they've used a caboose on the switching moves. The last time it was still one painted for Conrail.

Around here CSX has a lot of Chessie cabeese used for switching. All the yards, even some very small ones, have cabeese stationed there.
 
Around Toronto, CN uses cabeese on the local switching runs, but all the windows have been covered over (rather crudely) with plywood or sheet metal which is painted orange to match the body.
The Brampton and Orangeville (local short line) has two pieces of equipment painted for the road -- a loco and a caboose. (may be others, these were at the station when I went by.) They were used in a Tim Hortons commercial last winter.
 
Still one active caboose in Tulsa...

The UP still uses a caboose daily here in Tulsa. I think its an ex-Mopac "transfer" caboose - small cabin, large porches. They use it each evening when they run from their yard in east Tulsa to the UP yard in Muskogee. Then after that crew returns in the morning, the caboose runs across to west Tulsa to interchage with BNSF at Cherokee Yard, and TSU(Tulsa Sapulpa Union) and Sand Springs Railway. Just noticed the other day that it seems to have a "generator" run off one of the axles through a set of pulleys and belts. All the windows have been covered with sheet metal and it makes the evening run with a FRED on the back end - even though were talking about dark territory and this is the only train on the line.
 
At about 9 o'clock on the CSX lines around Hagerstown, all the locals come out and serve all the companies. A few weeks ago I drove by the yard and the switchers were gone doing locals and so was the caboose I thought was abandoned! I freaked out and started driving. I thought it was scrapped. Then near where all the lines converge to form one big line I saw a caboose. Then I heard another whistle! Another train with a caboose! The first time I saw cabooses going in opposite directions in years!
 
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