Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
basementdwellerI was unaware of the inclined track allowing the caboose being rolled down the track, not so sure I want to model that however.
That sounds relatively unique to that particular location.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Here's what I said a few months ago by the subject. It's only a about two months back. I suggest you check out that thread, too.
Jeff
Caboose tracks, when they were assigned to a conductor, worked like the crews did. First In-First Out.
To describe that, say a westbound pulls into the yard. The caboose is on the east end of the train and yard. A switcher pulls it off the rear and places it on the proper caboose track, on top of any other cabooses already there. (The crew gets placed on the call board, a chalk board that lists the crews in order. When a crew goes out, they get erased and the next crew becomes "first out.") While the crew works towards the top of the board, the caboose works it's way down the caboose track.
When an eastbound train is ready, the crew as worked up to first out on the board, the caboose has worked it's way towards the west end of the yard. A switcher pulls the first out caboose and places it on the eastbound train.
An intermediate terminal would have a separate caboose track for crews working on either district coming into the yard. Terminals handling crews working on multiple districts, say at a junction point may have multiple caboose tracks.
Beginning back in the late 1950s, railroads started getting labor agreements that allowed "pooling" of cabooses. No more were cabooses assigned to a particular crew or conductor. Rather when a caboose was needed, the first available and serviced caboose could be used. The crews no longer slept in the caboose at the AFHT, but were provided either lodging or an allowance towards lodging.
basementdwellerOn to my question, say my caboose track holds 6 caboose's, and a caboose gets added to the track at one end and another gets removed at the other end, does the locomotive adding the caboose simply push all caboose's along the track to make room? I hope that question makes sense, presumably there would be blue flags protecting the caboose track while workers are cleaning / restocking them etc. I am just wanting to make this aspect of my operations more prototypical.
In all the yards I was familiar with, the cabooses (cabin cars) were serviced by carmen (car repairmen and car inspectors, commonly called "car knockers") Generally when shifting the cab tracks, the crew would respot the remaining cabs as directed by the Yardmaster or the car knockers.
The carmen would put up blue flags before starting on the cabs and take down the blue flags as soon as they were done, so that the cabs would be available if the car knockers were not present. In addition to actually putting up blue flags, the switches into the cab tracks were lined against movement into the track and locked with a special lock that could not be opened with a regular switch key. Trainmen were not allowed to operate the carmen's lock a or have a carmen's key.
Thanks for the replies, always interesting learning how things worked. A little more info to work with, I am modeling the PRR in 1966/ 67 era. Specific caboose (cabins) being assigned would have ended by then and the caboose (s) would have been in a pool ( correct term?)
I was unaware of the inclined track allowing the caboose being rolled down the track, not so sure I want to model that however.
I appreciate all the info. Thanks.
During the era when cabooses were assigned to individual conductors or crews, you couldn't just take the first caboose in the track, you had to switch out the RIGHT one.
At large terminals, it could be either the road engine or the yard crew that did this, provided the yard crew knew who would be called for that train.
At final terminals it was often the road crew's responsibility to put the caboose and engine away.
At enroute crew change locations, it would be common for the road engine to cut off from the train and do the caboose switching, provided that it was not being changed itself, in which case either the inbound or outbound engine (or both) might be used for the work.
At any rate, switching out the correct caboose meant moving the whole track, which was often full of sleeping Conductors and Brakemen. If the Engineer didn't like someone he might 'accidentally' couple on or jerk the slack out a bit harder than usual......
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
I guess it depends on the yard. Enola had a ramp for the cabin cars (PRR for caboose). It held several. The conductor would release the air brakes and roll the car down and onto the back of the train. It was called the pimple. If you want more info then you can imagine join PRRgroup@groups.IO and ask your question
My caboose track was a stub end track and a bit of an after thought, I never liked backing a freight train onto a caboose, it just did not seem right. I always read that the caboose is added to the train once the freight train is made up and ready to leave the yard.
I now have / will have a double ended caboose track so the arriving train will have its caboose removed and placed onto the caboose track before the train enters the yard.
On to my question, say my caboose track holds 6 caboose's, and a caboose gets added to the track at one end and another gets removed at the other end, does the locomotive adding the caboose simply push all caboose's along the track to make room?
I hope that question makes sense, presumably there would be blue flags protecting the caboose track while workers are cleaning / restocking them etc. I am just wanting to make this aspect of my operations more prototypical.
If it helps I am modeling the Pennsy so if there is any particular method they used that would be of most interest. Thanks.