Saw a Caboose today

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I normally just read the toy train forum, so I don’t know if this is noteworthy or not. I saw a caboose on a regular line today.

It was in southern California and I was coming up on a freeway interchange going from the I-15 freeway to the 91 freeway. Just before the interchange, the 15 freeway crosses over a couple of lines used by BNSF, Amtrak and Metrolink. The area is light industrial and you normally see a number of freight cars sitting there. I saw some movement behind the parked cars, and looked back over my shoulder as I drove past. There were 2 engines and a caboose moving slowly to the east. I’m not good at engine I.D., and even less so looking back over my shoulder at 65 mph, so I couldn’t tell the engine types. They did seem smaller than the BNSF engines that haul freight through the area. One of the engines was in Burlington Northern colors - green and black, and the other was Santa Fe in blue and yellow. The caboose was an ATSF red extended vision type with white lettering.

Kind of neat to see a caboose.

2

Probably being used as a “shove platform” for long reverse moves.

3

I saw 2 a few months back about a week apart from each other. 1 was in the middle of a work train but the other was crossing over the Galveston causeway bridge on the back of a BNSF freight train where it belongs. It was a red Santa Fe cupola style. The paint still looked decent too. Neat sight.

I saw something else today that was neat. I got caught at the tracks at lunch today by the Ringling Brothers Circus train. I knew the circus was here (Houston) last week but it didn’t even dawn on me that it might be passing by where I work. I should have figured it was as it’ll be in Dallas next week and the line that runs by my office is the UP main between Houston and Ft. Worth. It was neat to see passenger cars going by.