A couple of weeks ago I hurriedly drove past two cabooses on a side track here in Kansas City (Lenexa really). I was on my way out of town and had my brother in the car…he doesn’t so much get excited about trains as I do. Needless to say, I didn’t get to stop to take pictures. I remember a post here a month or two ago where you guys were looking for and talking about the rarity of seeing cabooses on live tracks. Anyway, so there were two cabooses there a couple of weeks ago and later they were gone. WELL TODAY, I was in the area, going down I35 in Lenexa on my way to see a customer and low and behold, the cabooses were back. One of them was connected directly to an engine (an SD50 or something, I didn’t notice because I was fixed on the caboose)…and there were a coupld of guys standing there looking (not-so) busy. By the time I exited the freeway and got back there, the engine was gone…but the two cabooses where still there…WITH THEIR DOORS OPEN! What did I do? I climbed aboard. Pretty cool. Oddly the stove was burning in one of them. I snapped the following pics with my picture phone (sorry about the quality)…one of each from the outside, one in the inside. An hour later, they were gone!
Neat. You have more guts than I do these days. There’s an ex-C&NW bay window caboose on the yard track just next to where I park my car. The UP uses it for the Ringwood job - which is one long ‘back-up’ move with the caboose leading. My classic is a Chicago and Great Western caboose still part of the UP’s MoW standard consist on this sub.
We all have “trespassed” at one time or another. Before 9-11 no one worried all that much assuming you weren’t unloading a boxcar into your personal vehicle or trying to throw a switch for the railroad. Someone taking a picture of an old caboose ain’t hurting anyone. Let’s leave this thread on here.
Cool interior shot! If anyone is too, too worried about this…I’ll hire you as an unpaid apprentice and get you your photo credentials. What hours are you normally available to shoot cabooses??? [:p][;)][}:)]
Well, I’ll admit. I really didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. Maybe it is people like me that ruin it for the rest of you. My apologies. It was a unique opportunity and I took advantage of it. Personally I’ve never had any run-ins w/ a railroad.
Anyway, sorry if I offended anyone. For those not offended, I hope you enjoyed the pics.
Pretty nice pictures. When I was a kid, I went inside the engine shed of the FJ&G after midnight (door was open) and “rode” the S-2 diesel and the caboose. But let’s keep that a secret between me and you. (got pictures to prove it)
Well, yes you most definitely were in the wrong, and are just lucky that you weren’t caught and charged with trespass and a couple of other things. Anyhow, hopefully it’s a lesson learned for the future.
NEVER enter railroad property without permission (written and/or an escort). These days, it’s even more important than ever that folks heed that warning.
And that attitude is precisely why so many REAL railroaders have such little regard for foamers (as railfans and hobbyists are commonly known). Railroad property is not only private, it’s also dangerous. And you just know that the first thing a railfan would do after being injured would be to seek the services of the nearest ambulance chaser. Such is the nature of our society these days. Railroads do not take kindly to uninvited outsiders trespassing on their property, and rightly so.
Just consider yourself lucky this time, Matt, and let it go at that.
We have ALL trespassed at one time or another in our pursuit of this hobby. Yes, we are displaying more enthusiasim than sense (I was once an avid track walker…on LIVE lines!) but we should cut our brother railfan some slack here. An opportunity arose, and he took it. No harm done. Heck, my mom way back when I was 15 suggested I should climb on a train during a train yard visit I was going to undertake, and thus I went down and climbed aboard a BN SD9 during my visit!
I’d say my trepass of yore is more worthy of being chewed out than this one under discussion, since I was fooling around on an idling unmanned locomotive!
Anyhoo, nice pictures, my friend. BN cabooses like that were in regular use when I was a child in the early 1980’s, and on occasion, I still see one pass by my place.
Richard Krebes
Livin’ by the BNSF in Long Lake, Minnesota
Just to be sure…if I’m hunting and would like to hunt the next field over, presuming I have permission from BOTH landowners, but there are railroad tracks between the two fields, can I walk across the tracks…or would I be trespassing on RailRoad Property and be subject to the applicable fines?
Hello Plasticlizard ! Norfolk & Southern does the same thing out east of me in Fairport Harbor. A old N & W Extended vision Caboose is coupled to maybe Two or Three Tank Cars & maybe a Hopper or two pulled by a GP9 series Engine & I saw the same thing out in Ashtabula,Oh. On a Highway Overpass Today. Looked like the same caboose coupled to some freight cars and one Diesel Engine. Maybe CXS 30 John has a explanation for this as he works on a real railroad & might know why. Fairport is about 10 mi east of me & Ashtabula is about 35 N.E. of me. Altogether the Train cannot be any more than 5-6 Freight Cars in Length…Keith
I was in New Hope and I was standing right next to the tracks, and a U25b came right along side me, and the engineer let me climb up on the engine. The thing is i have nto been around the tracks for a while, but i made my granda pull along side the NS mainline on Friday, and I saw two Dash 9s on an intermodal (I was not trespassing, i was standing on the parking lot of Einstien Supply company.)
