![]() ![]() Older freight cars had plain bearings with hot boxes for crews to spot overheating – as freight cars replaced these with roller bearings, there was also less need for cabooses to monitor them. Lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices eliminated much of this need. A major purpose of the caboose was for observing problems at the rear of the train before they caused trouble. On trains not fitted with continuous brakes, brake vans provided a supplementary braking system, and they helped keep chain couplings taut.Ĭabooses were used on every freight train in the United States and Canada until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. ![]() Ī similar railroad car, the brake van, was used on British and Commonwealth railways (the role has since been replaced by the crew car in Australia). The caboose also served as the conductor's office, and on long routes, included sleeping accommodations and cooking facilities. ![]() Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars, they later became purpose-built, with projections above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles. A Burlington Northern extended-vision caboose at the end of a train in 1993 A preserved Toronto, Hamilton, & Buffalo caboose car on exhibit at the Toronto Railway Historical AssociationĪ caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. For other uses, see Caboose (disambiguation). For the United Kingdom equivalent, see brake van. This article is about a car used in North America. ![]()
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