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Cobweb Express
A Disturbing Fact
by Mel McFarland
Well, I got a few of you! I want to talk about one of my favorite objects today, something a few of you missed. There is this Caboose on Santa Fe. Years ago, when they put it there, I did a story about it. Some of you know I own a caboose, too. You folks also know it caused a great disturbance in the neighborhood where I moved, but in the twelve years it has been there, for the most part no one even notices it is there, sort of like the one on Santa Fe!
So what was a caboose actually used for? Now that the railroads do not use them for much. In the old days a train might have a crew of five to seven men. The engine might have three in it, and if there was more than one engine, each had two more men. There was an Engineer who ran the engine, a fireman who kept the engine running and sometime a head end brake man who helped stop the train. On the other end was the Caboose with a Conductor who managed the business of the train, and usually another brake man who helped, as needed stop the train. To a Conductor the caboose was his office and his home. On most railroads a caboose was assigned to a conductor and only he used it. Later the cabooses were needed to go longer distances than one conductor could travel. Other conductors would take over, like when a train might travel from Chicago to Los Angeles.
In the early days the Conductor or a brakeman might even cook food in the caboose. Up in the engine this was easy, but it did not happen so often except for maybe a pot of coffee. As the Conductor sat where he could watch the train, he would monitor where they were to pick up or set out cars during their trip. Later they even had radios to talk to the engineer and the dispatcher, otherwise notes were passed to the train as they went by stations. There were some stations where they had to wait, but at most stations unless they had work there they would just pass on by.
My caboose was built sixty years ago for use up in Montana and it is heavily insulated. There were places for the entire crew to sleep if they had to. Up there trains sometimes got stuck in snow storms. The crew had a place to take shelter if it was needed. Now, on most trains there are only two people, the Engineer and up there with him, or her, is the Conductor. In some places the engineer even does the Conductor’s job.
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