[:p] I dont know about you but i think a train just aint a train without a good old caboose on it, its so booring seeing a train these days with a blinking red light at the end, i mean whats up with that, i totally think that cabooses make the train, and i know that u wont see a train running on my layout without a caboose, what are your opinions, are ya for em, or against them???[?]
while I’ll let the long winded argue the cost-benefits, the union rules, the changing dynamics, blah blah blah, I’ll second your motion and say yeah, cabooses rule! They will forever roam on MY railroad, no matter the operating date!
Cabeese are just fun. The only trains on my layout that will not have a caboose are those served by electric box motors–the crew ride in the box motor!
I’ve seen a bunch of trains, and I never see the red light on the end.
Cabeese!!! And MORE cabeese!!! Actually, I’m safe, since I model the WWII-Korean War era, so if I don’t have a caboose on the end of the train, it’s either A: A passenger, or: B: It’s gotten uncoupled and unbeknownst to me, is rolling back down the grade toward the yard.
I really enjoy modeling cabooses, I tend to model in trends. I’m about to go on my caboose kick again w/ B&O wagontops in resin from the BOHS company store. Never worked with resin before- any suggestions before I begin.
Bob K.
Love’m, wouldn’t leave the yard without one! Like building wood kits of them or slam bashing one from a plastic kit. Northern Pacific, really terrific.
I hate the red lights, bring back the caboose.
yea a caboose defines a train, I’m tired of seeing the red flags myself.
I like cabeeses! My freights won’t leave home without one.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins
Modern trains and their FREDs suck. That’s why I model 1945-1952. Cabooses are at least as important as the engines in a train, and have as much character!
I love cabooses! Every freight train on my layout has a caboose on the end of it.
In fact I love cabeese so much that once a week I run a solid cabeese hop over the mountain from one yard to the other to alleviate a shortage. Like running a helper lash-up, but more cute and wobbly.
Where I grew up in east end of Houston in 1950s, the Houston Belt and Terminal switch jobs and transfer runs never had a caboose. I have since learned that HB&T once owned ONE caboose to shuttle crews between downtown passenger terminal and New South Yard out on what was once the edge of town. Most HB&T “runs” had no caboose. But “real trains” of the ATSF, MoPac and SP had cabooses.
So I tend to model cabooses on trunkline trains and out-in-the-country locals, but no caboose on transfer drops and local switching district jobs within the switching limits of the big city.
My old neighborhood, Magnolia Junction:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aat.jpg
You get a yes over here…all of mine have em at the ends.
Jim
I agree with all of you! A train just ain’t a train without a caboose. All the trains on my railroad have one; even the log trains going into the woods end with a bobber.
Richard
I have several cabooses on my roster. I model from the 1920’s (from 0-4-0’s up to the bigboys in the 50’s) thru to the present with yard switchers up to the AC4400’s. A hidden staging yard allows me to store the eras locos and rolling stock that are not appropriate, for the era that I choose to run on the layout at any particular time. I have put some FRED’s on the modern era frieghts just to keep the cynics happy. To keep myself happy, I am not beyond putting a caboose at the end of a stack frieght or grain consist. I came up with and employe FRED’s on the cabooses on some of those frieghts just to confuse and or agrivate the cynics. If they say anything, I just tell them it is a local frieght and local ordinances require cabooses. After all, I own the property and I make the laws and ordinances.
Ohhh yeahhhhhhh. [:)]
Who BUT the railroads didn’t like a caboose. I love them. You are soooo right, a train is just NOT a train without a caboose.
Give me some RS3s a nice long train and a caboose. Now that is what I call a TRAIN. [:D]
I model the 80’s and 90’s, but that is one place where I don’t give a hoot about realism. A freight without a caboose? Ridiculous!
[:)]
Like some others on the forum, I model transition era RR. So realism dictates that EVERY non-passenger train gets a caboose. It really would not matter if I modeled any era…Loco + freight cars + caboose = TRAIN!