Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for August 20, 2014

Runaway caboose coming up?

Little Red Caboose! (Toot Toot!)Little Red Caboose! (Toot Toot!)Little Red Caboose behind the train, the train.Smokestack on his back. (Toot Toot!)Going down the track. (Toot Toot!)Little Red Caboose behind the train, the train.

The bridge was washed out yesterday, but don’t worry, Joel and Rufus have worked all night to repair it.

I believe Plattsburg was making a joke about a joke. Lighten up

I miss the cabooses, and I haven’t seen one in years. I would love to have one in my back yard for a shed.

I’ve always wondered what the inside of a caboose looked like.

Also, modern freight trains tend to be pulled by diesel-electric engines, not steam engines. This is obviously a “living” museum railroad.

Also, modern freight trains tend to be pulled by diesel-electric engines, not steam engines. This is obviously a “living” museum railroad.

Too bad it’s not the Cannonball from Petticoat Junction. The rest of them could all ride in the comfort of the dinning car!

The Cannonball is in Jamestown, California if you ever want to see it yourself. :o)

The way I learned it (about sixty years ago) was: Little red caboose -boose -boose -boose,Little red caboose -boose -boose -boose,Little red caboose behind theTrain, train, train, train.Smokestack on its back, back, back, back,Comin’ down the track, track, track, track,Little red caboose behind the train. The original purpose of the caboose was to be a place for the brakeman to ride on a freight train, since a freight train had no passenger cars for them to ride in. It was basically a bedroom on wheels, with a little stove, etc.. The British equivalent (not altogether the same thing) is “Guard’s Van”.

Actually, modern freight trains no longer use a caboose. They now have a device hooked up to the back of the last car. Cabooses were phased out 30 years ago.You are generally correct, but even the mainline RRs still use a caboose on occasion for special trains. As a matter of fact, I just saw one go through Perry, Ohio on Sunday, behind a mixed freight that had a special, over sized car in the train.

Not entirely, at least here in Canada. While most trains use “End Of Train Units” local switching runs around here use cabooses. The theory is apparently that it would take more time to deliver a car or string of cars, disconnect the EOT from the last car in the string, reconnect the EOT to the cars remaining in the train, than it would to disconnect the caboose, drop off the cars at the siding, and reconnect the caboose.