Could be me, but the only issue I saw with the pic was the grey curve that looked a lot like the edge of a table…[:-^]
On topic, I got nothin’. I’m sure I’ve seen pics of cabeeces on coaches. But I can’t think of any of them now.
While there are all sorts of exceptions, such as mixed freights (locals) and M&E (mail & express) trains, most passenger trains - even the lowly 1 or 2 coach train - did not have a caboose. The conductor normnally could find an open seat or what have you to do paper work.
Just to ‘cornfuse’ things, the prototype C&O mixed freight I’m modeling had both a coach (or combine) and a caboose, and local freights had 2 cabooses - one behind the engine and one at the end of the train. Goes to show ya’, it always helps to study the prototype. And forget about the movies, so many liberties are taken for the sake of art that they are just about useless for prototype study.
Charles
On the B&O,the eastbound Shenendoah and Mail #30 would sometimes pick up cabooses at Keyser,WV.I remember seeing mail trains westbound through Akron with cabooses on them,probably for Willard.
On a mixed train (passenger cars and freight cars) whether or not there was a caboose could depend on where the freight cars were located…which sometimes had to do with how the passenger cars were heated, at least in the non-summer months.
If the passenger cars had it’s own heat (i.e. a stove - you can tell by the stovepipe sticking out of the roof) then the railroad could run the freight cars between the engine and the passenger cars. That way, the passengers didn’t get jostled around while the freight cars were being switched. In that case, the conductor and brakeman could ride in the passenger cars and wouldn’t need a caboose.
However, if the cars used steam line heat, they’d usually be up front of the train so they could hook up to the engine’s steam lines. Then the freight cars would follow, and usually a caboose at the end.
Also, in some branch line all-passenger trains, a couple of coaches might be followed by a side-door caboose that would be used to handle express packages and such, rather than using a separate baggage or combine car.
Well into the 1960’s it was fairly common to see cabooses (cabin cars) on some PRR passenger trains between New York and Washington. The passenger cars would be on the head end with express and mail storage cars to the rear. On the hind end was a cabin car for the flagman. As I recall, the cabin cars were stenciled “assigned to passenger service”. Have been told that the flagmen on the cabins wore passenger uniforms.
wmshay06 mentions local freights with 2 cabooses. When the state of Pennsylvania still had a flagging law, B&O’s Wilsmere(DE)-Philadelphia local ran with a caboose behind the engine for the conductor and a caboose on the rear for the flagman. Of course the conductor got the nicer caboose.
Here’s a different view of the general area of that first shot.
The “edge of the layout” is actually part of the turntable pit.
Wayne
Or, it could be that… Kinda ironic you puit that up for me, I’ve been working on engine facs all last night and this morning.
Back to cabooses: Monon did the cab at head end too for long trains. The front guy could throw a switch, and grab his caboose of Riding car (old Troop car) and then as the train cleared the switch, the back cab could throw the switch. ANd the train isn’t waiting for a guy to run the entire length of a train.
Fancy “name” express trains (e.g. Broadway Limited, Congressional, 20th Century Limited) would run an observation car, and they were popular with passengers 'cause the view was better than you got in a coach. Plus the bar was usually located in the observation car. The presence of an observation car was the mark of the first class top-of-the-line luxury train. The vast majority of commuter, short haul, and plain old passenger trains going from nowhere very important to somewhere else of little importance had nothing on the end of the train except marker lamps.
There is little to no need for a caboose on a passenger train. The coaches ride better, have better heat, and have comfier seats than a caboose, so the crew rides in a coach. The crew can check for hot boxes by merely walking the length of the train, indoors and out of the weather, none of that Indiana Jones stuff running along the roofwalks. If a journal box is heating up, the smoke and odor will be obvious in the car vestibules long before it would be noticed by a crew man in the cupola on the end of the train.
The older heavy weight observation cars had the open platform, the later streamlined boat tail observations didn’t let you out in the weather. The open platform observation was a favorite of whistle stopping politicians. The balcony was a ready made speakers platform and the rail road station was the middle of town so the advance men could rustle up a good crowd. I remember getting taken down to the Framingham MA station to hear Harry Truman campaigh for his re election.
Until the advent of Amtrak the Spokane Portland & Seattle Ry. and later Burlington Northern ran a combine on the Oregon Trunk Mixed. The mixed ran between Wishram Wn and Bend Oregon. The train had a combine heated with an oil heater for cold weather. The combine had a bay window on each side like the all weather cab windows on a locomotive. Next to the washrooms was the conductors desk. There were oil lamps for light in the combine too. The mixed train was used by people to access the Deschutes River canyon for fishing and camping as there are even now areas with no roads. No cabooses were regularly used on this train but sometimes a caboose would be deadheaded ahead of the combine.
A general rule for a passenger train is to have a car on the back that is the rear flagman can ride in. He may have to ‘flag’ for an unscheduled stop, or operate the ‘tail hose’ for a backup operation like backing into a depot on the tail of a wye. Some railroads had baggage cars with a ‘rider’ office in the last baggage car of a mail train. This would have heating/lighting and usually a window. Other times an old coach would be used, or even a caboose.
Many of the old ‘Wild West’ movie trains will have a steamer with a couple of coaches, a flat car and a caboose - seems pretty typical. Many prototype ‘mixed’ trains had a combine and some freight cars. The Milwaukee Road Mineral Point branch train comes to mind.
Jim
Of course, sometimes the caboose was the passenger car !! I know Wisconsin required a couple of railroads to offer passenger service on some branch lines into the 1970’s-80’s, the railroad’s response was to allow passengers to ride in the caboose - on the few occassions there were passengers, who were often railfans.
As a general rule, the railroads didnt use cabooses. Every now and then, you would find a passenger train with a caboose tacked on the end for whatever reason.