| | | I have noticed that trains no longer have a caboose. Why is this?
Seems like trains would need a caboose for safety reasons.
Best Answer: Yup, you are right, for safety the caboose was pretty important, cabooses have been replaced by a device on the rear of trains that can communicate air pressure to the engineer and give him the ability to initiate emergency brake applications from the rear of the train so it is not as bad as you might think
Cabooses were the cause of a lot of personal injury claims by RR employees riding them, the ride was not always smooth or predictable.
In the real world of railroading, there are very few accidents that would have been prevented by a caboose.
Source(s): RR engineer
Rango · 5 years ago
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Good questions. When I first hired out, there were still cabooses in use (BN, now BNSF. I'm on my third railroad now). The cabooses served as the Conductor's mobile office. And often the Rear Brakeman was there too. The caboose also served to have someone always at the rear of the train to watch for overheating rail car wheel bearings that may not be visible from the head end. And to restore switches back to the main line position once the train had left the main line. No train may back up until a crew member is at the rear of the train to act as the Engineer's eyes and ears. Someone was always there in the caboose in the event the train had to back up. And finally, the entire train could be stopped from the caboose as a safety measure.
But now most main line switches are electric. Trains rarely need to back up. Wheel bearings are the new "Million Mile Bearings". And now Fred can stop the train from the rear. F.R.E.D. is a portable electronic device able to put the brakes into emergency if necessary (Front to Rear End Device). Personally, I don't miss the cabooses. They were kind of a pain.
There aren't any Firemen anymore. (That was a coosh job in diesels, huh?) And often just one Brakeman on trains termed as "Locals". Otherwise a train crew is an Engineer and a Conductor.
In the days before radios, the head end and the caboose could not communicate with each other. But both crews carried the same set of instructions. Each member had his own specific responsibilities that came with his particular title, Head Brakeman, Rear Brakeman, Conductor, Fireman , Engineer. And anytime the train had to stop as with to set out a car at a certain town, as one example, everyone knew where to be and what to do based on his title. This is why I've always said, 'You don't get paid for what you do in railroading, you get paid for what you know.'
Source(s): Engineer
Derail · 5 years ago
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actually the caboose was used by the brakeman of a train crew which there were 3-4 people on a train crew in other words 3-4 people onboard a locomotive which the brakeman was no longer needed which there still are brakeman but they are only in some yards which they were no longer needed in either the early 80's or 90's. but actually in some areas like on shortline railraods and class 1 local trains there are cabooses still used. for what i dont know but they are on some trains but it is rare these days which in the chicago area they are used like on the joliet local and hodgkins local. (joliet, il and hodgkins, il) and some more as well but not all the time and i betcha that in the next 10 years there will not be 1 caboose on a railroad line maybe abandoned or at a museum but that would pretty much be it.
Brandon · 5 years ago
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They do still use them, it's just because it's cheaper to have an FRED or EOT on the end of a train. The only thing they were good with was shoving platforms. Otherwise, they weren't safe as others stated. Railroads also lost out a lot on profit because of cabooses. But it's a money thing why they don't have them anymore. There are some locals like where I live the Union Pacific Janesville 76 and sometimes the 75 job use them as shoving platforms.
AJ · 5 years ago
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Rango is 100% correct.Cabooses were probably one the number 1 source of personal injuries of modern day train operations.As trains got longer and longer the slack action got more severe.At slow speeds the slack action on the caboose could be like a car hitting a wall.We used to stretch brake trains to give crews on the rear a good ride.That burns a tremendous amount of fuel.So much that we aren't allowed to do it anymore.So by eliminating cabooses the railroads saved a bunch of money in maintenance,fuel,wages(2 man crews now) and injury costs.I myself don't miss them one bit.I was glad when the railroads got rid of them.
Source(s): UPRR engineer
Andy · 5 years ago
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Also train crews are smaller than they used to be. 4-5 man freight crews were commonplace in 50s. Now almost all train crews are 2 man.
T · 5 years ago
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