Murphy Siding,
Good question! I too also wonder that myself, especially when rolling stock has crossed the country back and forth more than a few times. What possible way do the railroading co’s have of tracking each and every piece of rolling stock to be sure it is ready to roll?
I’m not much of a caboose fan to start with. To me, the caboose was the most over rated thing in railroading. When the cars basically came off around 1990, it was costing the carriers 92 cents per mile to operate the car. In addition, the caboose did not generate any revenue in return. My late uncle worked for the Frisco for 35 yrs and spent most of his trips riding in a caboose either as condr or flagman. Asked him once what he did back there and between job duties, it was playing cards, drinking beer or naping. Alot of guys i work w/now on the rr can relate the same. The caboose was a party car where it was drinking, drugging or bringing ladies of the night on board. After caboose were done away with, substance abuse on the rr dropped to a great degree. It can be said that doing away w/caboose was a good move by the industry.
Old age is creeping up on me-Today I passed a retro styled McDonalds and on the billboard it said “Try Our Aisan Salads!” Now this. Not that long ago it would have been posted as " I just looked at my feet and found five toes." Yes, times have changed.
I remember my tour of the caboose. The guy showed me where they played their cards, the little bed they and their ladies spent some time on, and the incredibly small toilet. There was hardly any room to shut the door for privacy. The chairs were comfy, though.
UP uses an old MOPAC transfer caboose in Tyler, TX.
Bummer, you knew some party pooper in management would come along and ruin it. I remember talking with some guy who was an engineer with CONRAIL and the “official” reason he gave for the demise of cabooses was to pay for updated grade crossing equipment.
I hope you understand that I was being sarcastic. I am jealous of him seeing a BN caboose. I’ve never seen one.
There’s a Santa Fe caboose (last time I checked) in Boron,CA. It seemed to hang around the BIG borax mine, factory, plant whatever it is! The Milford and Barnum RR in Milford ,NH also uses a caboose. It’ll be sad to see when the last of the cabooses rot away.
I saw CNW 11186 (newer photo) leading the way for today’s Marsh Job in Milwaukee. End of train was UP 1237 (EMD GP39-2)!
Later, SOO 57 (in box car red with white highlights) was hanging around for CP’s counterpart, the Lake Job (“Jones Island Patrol”).
Also, UP has a caboose that runs around Janesville on locals. Looks like UP repainted it, it looks absolutely ghastly! I’ll post a photo sometime when I can find it… I think I’d prefer badly-graffitied 11186!
For what it’s worth, I wasn’t offended. I think this just goes to show the differences in railroading from one area to another. All freight railroads do pretty much the same thing-haul stuff from one place to another. The fact that things are different from area to area is what keeps things interesting.[:)]
BNSF uses this nice caboose on M.O.W trains around the Twin Ports.
Ill find my real picture later.