Maybe this belongs in the Stupid Questions thread but … I’ve seen photos of these, and I have only an assumption about them, but would be interested in hearing any explanation on how/why these are used.
My assumption is that these are only used for switching, though I’m not sure why. I notice they seem to have MU connections and lighting. Why the large platforms? They also seem to have a bit beefier frames, but I may be mistaken. One I saw looked like it was built from a chopped down and shortened box car. Are these mostly custom equipment?
I know many transfer cabeese were home-builds by various railroads. They were used largely for transfer runs between local yards where it wasn’t necessary to
have the same degree of visibility as was needed for road jobs - just an enclosure
for the conductor and brakeman to ride along in I believe.
My understanding of them has always been that they were nothing more than shelter for the crew (conductor, brakeman, etc), although they were also necessary in some areas for long reverse moves. In fact, I think I saw something about that recently here on the forum. Someone somewhere is still using one for that purpose. As ghighland said, they were usually homebuilt on whatever the RR had, so you might as well as not see one built on an old steam tender frame or an old boxcar frame. I’ve seen pictures of transfer cabeese that were literally old boxcars, intact, set up for easy access. The large “porch” is simply what’s left over after you put a little shed on a big platform. A lot of them had a toolbox, too.
Inasmuch as they were home built, I guess they were custom. From some of the pictures I’ve seen, though, “custom” may imply more class that existed. [;)]
Speaking of long reverse moves, I recall SP in Lompoc, CA pushing their train to some industry on a spur that required a bit of city running. There was a whistle on the caboose so they could blow for the crossings.
Heck, on my model RR, whenever I have a westbound branch local departing my
Division Yard I have to do a reverse move all way through the Devils Lake Sub to get to the branch! I’ll eliminate that move as soon as I get my new cut-over installed this
month.
The traditional caboose was often used to provide at least rudimentry living quarters (there have space for bunks) for the crew when they were away from their home yard since they would be often be at least a days trip away from home. Crews on transfer run are home at the end of shift.
The cabins on transfer cabooses are normally only big enough to provide basic shelter, equipment storage and perhaps a desk for the conductor to do paper work.
