I though it might be interesting if we could come up with some of the different names railroads used instead of caboose, and which railroads used them.
Here are some names I have heard:
-Way Car (Used on Santa Fe and maybe CB&Q? Please confirm)
-Cabin Car (PRR)
-Brake Van (used across the pond in Britain)
-Guard Van (also Britain, where conductors are called ”guards”)
-Van (not certain, but I think this was a CN thing)
If there are any others please add them below and also feel free to correct anything I just said, it’s highly probable that something is incorrect.
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
I think we recently just had this discussion, brought on by the "cabooses vs cabeese" controversy, when referring to a group of .....uhm...cabooses? cabeese?
I think cabooses won.
Many chimed in with different terms for the caboose, including those on your list.
For the time period I model, terms like "rare sighting" and "M.O.W. service" describe the caboose, cabooses, or cabeese.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewi I think we recently just had this discussion, brought on by the "cabooses vs cabeese" controversy, when referring to a group of .....uhm...cabooses? cabeese? I think cabooses won. Many chimed in with different terms for the caboose, including those on your list. For the time period I model, terms like "rare sighting" and "M.O.W. service" describe the caboose, cabooses, or cabeese. Mike.
I remember reading that tread, although the dictionary says ”cabooses”, “cabeese“ sure sounds fun to say!
I should also add “shoving platform”
And “FRED” or “EOTD” aren’t cars, but they are found on the end of the train so let’s give them a mention!
I admit, "cabeese" does have a "fun" tone to it.
Isn't that something close to what Italians say when they're asking if you understand what their saying?
Actually, I'm currently building a caboose, although the prototype started life as a tender. Now that's a life change! From the front to the rear. I better stop.
Onward to more terms describing the "gone, but not forgotten" caboose.
"Van" was common in Canada because it was based on British parlance. In the UK, most freight cars (goods wagons) didn't have airbrakes, so to help stop a train the end car was the "Brake Van". The man in the van, the "Guard", would apply the brakes to the van when the train was stopping. This made it easier to stop the train then just using the engine brakes would.
"Cabeese" is a fun word, and was made up as a joke some years back in hobby publications - it's based on the idea that if the plural of goose is geese, why isn't the plural of caboose "cabeese"? But the correct plural is cabooses.
I would also like to note that sometimes cabooses were replaced by combines or other passenger equipment on local mixed freights. In these cases the passenger cars also serve as caboose. So I guess ”combine” or ”passenger car” is yet another “name” for caboose!
On example would be Spokane Portland and Seattle’s mixed train on subsidiary Oregon Trunk from Wishram Wa to Bend Ore. The train used a pair of specially rebuilt heavyweight combine coaches that included features of cabooses such as a desk for the conductors paperwork. This train is noteworthy because it served flag stops anywhere along the line, making it a favorite for fishermen on the secluded Descutes River, and allowing it to survive up until Amtrak, even through the BN merger!
Keep the different names and forms of cabooses coming!
josephbwI have a book called "Waycars of the CB&Q". I guess that's pretty good proof that you are right.
Thanks for the confirmation.
So if I’m not mistaken that make two unaffiliated railroads using the same term. Interesting! Also interesting that CB&Q’s parents (GN and NP) nonetheless used caboose!
CNW crews also called them waycars. It's funny now when a caboose shows up, either as a shoving platform, gang car or blizzard bus, the few old CNW heads (those who worked in the caboose/waycar era) call them a caboose. But when they start telling their old head stories, they call them a waycar.
Jeff
Outside Braced Wooden Crummies (CBQ, MKT, RI, WP)
Muley/Blind End Caboose (T&P)
Big Woody/Little Woody Caboose (L&N)
Are we going to mention slang? If so, "Crummy" seemed to be the most popular, but I've heard (and read) them referred to as "Shacks," "Louse cages," and "Brain boxes" (conductors were often called "The Brains"), but there are probably more!
Deano
Revisited: I may have mentioned this before (I have trouble keeping track): My brother worked as a switchman in the Muskego Yard of the Milwaukee Road, back in the '50s. He came home with some of the wildest tales of what went on down there in the valley below the Mitchell Park Conservatory! The MILW used EMD "Cow and calf" SW 1200s for the hump and transfer jobs, along with the "Outhouse on a raft" transfer cabooses, nicely built of steel on former steam loco tender underframes. One night, one of the conductors was showing a New Guy around the yard and when they came to one of these consists, he took out his chalk. "This is a 'Cow,'" he told the NG, chalking it on the side of the running board, "and this is a 'Calf,'" labeling that, as well. "What's that, then?" NG asked, pointing to the caboose. The conductor thought a minute and said, "This--is a--'Sheep!'" his new boss announced, writing same on the side of the "porch."
On the C&O a caboose was called "shack" by some old heads.. Some young bucks in the shops called them "sleeping car".
Funny thing this..When the railroad wanted to drop cabooses they thought it was a good idea since a caboose wasn't needed. When the railroad started cutting their shop jobs they cried like babies.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
As the old saying goes, it depends.
I never worked for a RR so I never got tied to any particular slang for the caboose so "caboose" works just fine for me. Particular names for cabooses seems to be the most meaningful to railroad employees, and in some cases, hobbyists who get into such things to try to copy a RR practice.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761Particular names for cabooses seems to be the most meaningful to railroad employees, and in some cases, hobbyists who get into such things to try to copy a RR practice.
Jim,Of the train crews I worked with 98% called a caboose just that---caboose.We had no secret code or colorful words to use.
Larry,We will drop 34009,65123,23056,45623 on Maysville yard three..Marv will work the switches. In short I will be the "fieldman" making joints where needed and all cuts and setting hand brakes.
Pull the Westbound cut on Maysville yard five start number 13323 and make your cut at 21110.That will be the fifth and last car in the West pull.
I will tell the engineer(via radio) to pull forward to the switch after I made the cut and set hand brakes. If old Marv is on the ball the switch to Maysville yard five will be open for my next move. The engineer will not start the move until I give radio hm to proceed into yard five.
On the New Haven, they were "hacks".
SPSOT fan josephbw I have a book called "Waycars of the CB&Q". I guess that's pretty good proof that you are right. Thanks for the confirmation. So if I’m not mistaken that make two unaffiliated railroads using the same term. Interesting! Also interesting that CB&Q’s parents (GN and NP) nonetheless used caboose!
josephbw I have a book called "Waycars of the CB&Q". I guess that's pretty good proof that you are right.
wjstix Might be the kind of thing railfans worry about more than working railroaders.
How true, along with all the nick names for different paint jobs.
B&O crews around Pittsburgh sometimes called them cabs in the 70's and 80's.
I did not see ''Bobber'' mentioned. I believe mostly if not always the four wheel type.
wjstix SPSOT fan josephbw I have a book called "Waycars of the CB&Q". I guess that's pretty good proof that you are right. Thanks for the confirmation. So if I’m not mistaken that make two unaffiliated railroads using the same term. Interesting! Also interesting that CB&Q’s parents (GN and NP) nonetheless used caboose! I remember some years back someone writing (I think in Railfan and Railroad?) about riding a couple of BN freight trains in the 1970's as research for an article. He first spent time in a BN caboose with a crew of former CB&Q guys. Later he switched to the lead engine of a different train with IIRC an old GN man as engineer and NP man as fireman. He looked at his notes and realized he hadn't written down the caboose's number, so he asked the engine crew if they noticed the number of the "waycar" he had just gotten off of. "Way car? What's a "waycar"?" the GN guy said. "Hey Bob, did they have "waycars" on the NP?" "Nope, what is it - a car for weighing stuff?" said the NP guy. Of course they were just giving him a hard time, he knew what they meant. As Larry said, I think "caboose" is pretty universal. Might be the kind of thing railfans worry about more than working railroaders. p.s. I suspect there were some railroads whose crews called em cabooses, but they were listed on the railroad roster as waycars...or vice versa.
It was in Trains Magazine, authored by the late Paul D. Schneider.
New York Central and I am sure other railroads had rider cars on their Mail and Express trains. Frequently they were old heavyweight cars that had many windows plated over and a stove to keep the crew warm. The interior had just about everything a caboose had except the bay or cupola. I am guessing other railroads had them as well, along with drover cars for trains with livestock.
Paul
train18393 along with drover cars for trains with livestock.
The pictures I've seen of a drover car was a long caboose with lots of extra windows.
At least it was called a drovers car in the pictures.
Interesting.
train18393 wrote: "New York Central and I am sure other railroads had rider cars on their Mail and Express trains. Frequently they were old heavyweight cars that had many windows plated over and a stove to keep the crew warm."
Even Amtrak had these. "Mail 10" (DC to Springfield) was material handling cars with a Heritage coach on the rear for the conductor/a.c. and deadheads. The cars had all but about 2 rows of seats (at each end) removed. In the mornings it went south/west as Mail 13.
Ran that one a few times...
train18393along with drover cars for trains with livestock.
A lot of western roads used drover cars, usually built along similar lines to regular cabooses but longer, with passenger car type seats (walkover?). Stock trains required drovers to ride along and see to the needs and welfare of the stock. One of these needs was to keep cattle from lying down and getting injured. They carried poles which could be inserted between the slats of the car sides to poke them into standing up. This is the origin of the term, "Cow-punchers." (I doubt this came, as a friend of mine announced, from the scene in "Blazing Saddles," where Alex Carras, as Mongo, punched the horse.) BTW, drovers' cabooses often had 4-wheel passenger trucks under them for better riding quality.
PC101 I did not see ''Bobber'' mentioned. I beleive mostly if not always the four wheel type.
I did not see ''Bobber'' mentioned. I beleive mostly if not always the four wheel type.
Yes, something that is "bobbed" is short, like the "bobbed hair" short hair style popular with women in the 1920's.
Minnesota's legislature passed a law in 1911 requiring that cabooses be at least 24' long, and have at least two four-wheel trucks. Some railroads combined two bobbers together to create one caboose, in particular the Duluth & Iron Range. If you look at Walthers DMIR caboose, you can see how the end with the cupola was once a two-window bobber with a centered cupola. It was then made longer by adding part of another bobber. The joint would be about at the A in MISSABE....
https://www.walthers.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/529x300/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/m/dmir_wood_caboose_ready_to_run_platinum_linetm_932-7681.gif
Quickly scanning this thread, I found "Brain Box". I'd never heard that before although I have heard "Brain Buggy". Both, of course, referred to the conductor being the brains of the crew.
ChuckAllen, TX
train18393 New York Central and I am sure other railroads had rider cars on their Mail and Express trains. Frequently they were old heavyweight cars that had many windows plated over and a stove to keep the crew warm. The interior had just about everything a caboose had except the bay or cupola. I am guessing other railroads had them as well, along with drover cars for trains with livestock. Paul