Caboose on Modern Railroad

I see this BNSF caboose in the Parachute, CO BNSF yards on my monthly trips to Denver from Ridgway. This caboose is sometimes attached to a string of cars, sometimes not and is never in the same place in the yards. My guess is that it is a Mobile office for the local that switches this yard servicing the oil and gas activities there, including Covered hoppers with probably fracking sands and tank cars for the oil transport. So one can have a caboose on a modern class A railroad.

 

It is a shoving platform, someplace for the crews to ride while shoving out to an industry. Instead of riding on the side of a car.

 

Beat me to it...lol


Some railroads have a "transfer caboose" they use. Others actually have a somewhat fancy "shoving platform". Other railroads just close up the windows and doors on an old caboose and use it for a "shoving platform". It's purpose is to give a crew a safe place to ride during long shoves or backup moves like Burlington Northern Fan stated.

 

cabooses are seen now thanks to regulations that crews have bathrooms available, so rather than renting a porta john, the rr brings in a caboose.

 

What the other guys said about a shoving platform. In the winter you'd best hope that the stove inside is working,otherwise you are riding in a refrigerator.

Charlie

 

Last spring I actually caught a BNSF local at Fullerton Ca. GP60M up front and atsf caboose in back. They were getting ready to shove a couple miles on the transcon in an atypical move. Took the dispatcher a few tries to find a slot for them.

 

So, maybe not on a unit train but local freights, YES!

 

I shot some on a remote mexican railroad in Yucatan, a few years ago, not that far from Cancun's ressort complex...

Dom

 

Montana Rail Link has a number of different uses for cabooses

Every loco in the yard in Laurel,MT has one of these.



I see this one on MOW trains


And they have several of these around....they are set up as bunk cars


The caboose in the first post doesn't look like a typical BNSF shoving platform.........they usually have all the windows and doors covered, and most are not in that good of shape.

 

There are three cabeese here in Glendive. BNSF uses them on runs up the old Redwater branch with local service to either a gravel pit or oil tank farm/ pipeyard. They also use a caboose on locals up the Sidney branch when servicing the fracking sand yard and that pipeyard. The crews are not allowed to enter the caboose but only stand on the platform during backing moves on their way back to the yard. When I asked why, it's for safety reasons. Go figure.

If memory serves me, Montana requires a caboose on local freights, or they wouldn't have any. One of these cabeese here is the red, white and blue one that was painted to match the SD-60M in support of Desert Storm.

PS- Neat that the NS is showing a little pride in their old cabeese!

 

I've photographed a few cabooses in action in the last couple years. Here is a BNSF shoving platform in St.Paul, MN, with a modern shoving platform behind it.


Here is one in Kelly Lake, MN:


CSX and NS in Kingsport, TN:



A trio that at used by CP as shoving platforms and yard offices out of Pigs Eye:

 

So here's a pic of that caboose being used with empty pipe flatcars. This is on the approach to the 'Black Bridge' over the Yellowstone heading back to Glendive.

 

This past summer on the KCS Gulfport (MS) Branch. The caboose is still in active service used for backing moves on a five mile industrial line.

KCS bought the Mid-South in the mid-1990's, but never repainted the caboose, which was originally owned by IC.

 

Found a better pic of this caboose. Crossing Towne St. on the Redwater branch after working one of the industries up there.

 

Here are a few photos of the Argonne Local with a caboose (shunting platform) at the end. I was caught off guard by this one. It is at Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve around Argonne National Laboratory. The hiking trail is right next to the tracks here.