I couldn’t believe it!! A BN green, kinda rusty caboose trailing along behind an empty unit train of gons…heading north from Tenino, Wa towards Lacey, Wa…and THERE WAS A CABOOSE on the end!! It passed me going the other way so I missed the markings. Shades of yesterday…
Wow!! Are cabeese making a comeback?? {Probably some retired unit being shipped to a new owner…heh heh heh…some cabin up in the north woods, huh??}
Perhaps the caboose you saw is still used as a shove platform for back up moves and was being shifted from one terminal to another - and if so, where else would one place it? End of train!
I recall a couple years ago, there was a pic in Trains of 2 cabeese at UP North Platte. Shiny - repainted. If I recall, the caption on the article said something about them being used to pick up dead crews online as well as perhaps for security / train monitoring purposes.
I wonder how that ever played out.
Did it look like this?
…It really did make a freight train look complete. Live people at both ends of the train. In reading and understanding the problems riding in the caboose, I now wonder how crew members weren’t injured more often, considering the slack action of freight trains, etc…
I’m assuming it’s not, but that picture you have posted above Chad looks like a model almost!
I’m thinking it might actually be the same train, I saw it twice in southern Cal last summer at entirely different spots.
Wow…neat! It must be both nice and a challenge to railfan where there’s decent variations in topography.
BNSF recently repainted some cabooses it uses in NW Wisconsin into c.1980 BN paint, with BN logos etc.
The CP’s local, which passes through town, normally includes a caboose. It’s not uncommon to see the brakeman/conductor standing out on the platform.
csx local here in defiance has a caboose on it.Matt and I like it when they come through town.Fostoria uses a caboose as well.
stay safe
Joe
Most of the cabeese you see today are actually used as shoving platforms, with nothing inside and just a place for someone to stand. CP uses these a lot in Milwaukee and Chicago, and I’ve heard they’re big on operations out east too.
Cheers!
~METRO
No, it looked like a poorly maintained unit; had windows and flush sides…not the boxy
look of the caboose in your photo. I’d almost say it looked ‘better’ than the one in the photo.
Can you explain what a shoving platform is for us flatlanders?