I model the BNSF. I do not own a caboose in my fleet. I show people my “collection” since I don’t have a layout. The most common question is, “You don’t have a caboose? You gotta have a caboose.”
I tell them that BNSF owns cabeese, but they are not used on most freight trains.
I tell people to look at a train go by and tell if they see a caboose. They usually don’t have anything to say about that.
Anybody else have situations like this?
That’s one excellent reason not to model “modern times.” Perhaps if you had a branchline with no run-around tracks, thus requiring long backward moves to justify an adulterated caboose.
Mark
Makes me want to model the 1940s. The Southern Pacific had a caboose shortage and had to rely on converted passenger cars and box cars to make up for it. This is just the “tip of the iceberg.” You modern modelers sacrifice a lot just to be up-to-date. You have comparatively little variety to choose from.
Mark
I wonder if you ask these folks what a diesel locomotive sounds like, they will probably say, “Choo-Choooo!”
LOL
I think cabooses are cool, but I also model the modern era as well. Preserving history is admirable, but I like the challenge of modeling/replicating the real world, it makes the hobby more dynamic. If all my trains were frozen in time and stuck in a certain era the hobby would personally get very, very boring after a while.
My C&HV owns 3 cabooses used on locals that require long reverse moves.
Even tho’ a modeler may model modern times there isn’t any prototypical reason not to have a caboose or two sitting in the yard.
In our modular club most every ‘engineer’ has a caboose bringing up the rear, whether running 1870’s era or present day. Since the layout is very large and for a good portion of the time that it takes a train to travel around it, the train can be out of sight of the ‘driver’ for a while. The caboose is a good visual indicator that his train is still intact, that he hasn’t lost his last few cars on the other side of the layout somewhere. It limits the number of collisions with other trains running on the same track or even your own train as it travels around the layout. I usually run a caboose, on my home layout, for the same reasons, prototypical or not. All it takes is a glance to know everything is still hunky dorrie.
Jarrell
You know, my Santa Fe is set in 1989 with a stretch to 1990 at times. I still run waycars on most trains because I like them and that is what counts. Operating sessions have found them practical as a solid grain train made up of all the same color covered hoppers is hard to detect when it maybe loses the last car or two in a hidden area. But everyone knows on my Santa Fe that there will be a caboose behind that grain train or they will know it lost some cars.
I don’t give a darn about prototypical reasons, I have practical reasons. Besides, I like those modernized Red Caboose waycars.
Bob
This is why you model the mid 70’s, when much of the transition era equipment was still around, including cabooses, but modern stuff started showing up.
I found a lots of recent photos of cabs used with IHB an EJ&E. The cab was often directly behind the engine. I asked in a Yahoo group and got an answer from an active conductor.
He wrote there is still the same paperwork as it was in the past. Therefore they are using the cab often as a mobile office running at any convenient position in the train.
IHB has also used them as switching platforms (transfer caboose) as well.
Naptown is putting signalling in, and we’re putting the resistors on the cabeece to mark the end of the train for that signal detector. yes, one can put it on a freight car, but cabeece are required, and there’s fewer of them, which means signalling can get under way faster. Plus, a freight train might not end up with a resistored boxcar, but always a cab.
And just fro more caboose fun, Monon put them in the front of long trains as well for switching onto a branchline. Rather than the brakeman in back run the entire lenght of the train to throw a switch, the front guy throws it, climbs on, then when they clear the switch, the rear guy re-aligns the switch. Why the front brakie didn’t ride in the engine is beyond me though.
By Yingle there’ll alway be waycar’s on the tail end of my trains,besides what would I do with this monster. [(-D]
What??? No cabeese??? When did that happen?[:-^]
There are some things that are just un-American. One is the designated hitter. Two is a freight train without a caboose. That’s just plain wrong.
John
I have never seen anything like that. That thing is awesome. Where did you get it?
Here’s some of shots I got a few months ago. Some are still being used. One was with a MOW train, and the other two was doing some switching. All were taken on a CSX line.
I run cabeeses on my choo choo trains. Seriously, I like them and have spent hours detailing them and like seeing them behind a string of cars.
I have to disagree. I sacrifice nothing. Variety? What do you want? Hoppers? Boxcars? Intermodal? Tank cars? Amtrak? There is so much modern rolling stock(especially N scale) I have a hard time to decide what to spend my money on. Haven’t seen as much 1940"s compared to modern released in the last year.
Get off your high horse and take a look around.
If you ask Warren Buffet what sound a diesel locomotive makes, he’ll probably say “Ka-Ching!” [:)]
I collect cabooses but I don’t normally run any on my layout. I do have a few sitting in a caboose siding near one of my engine shops.
Of course, just running a string of cars as a train isn’t prototypical. You still have to have something indicating the last car, like a red flag or a FRED on the rear coupler of the last car. I suspect many modern modellers have a couple of “honorary cabooses”, boxcars with a flashing battery- or track-powered FRED on one end that they only use on the rear of their trains.
Thats what I use but it’s not really very realistic. I’ve ordered a couple new one’s from Re Ring Engineering that look like the real thing. They are expensive, 55 bucks Canadian so I hope they work as good as they look. Once I get them I’ll report on how they work.