Will Our Rail-Friendly President Reinstate the Caboose?

[MMLDelete]

I accepted I missed the steam era (except for one loco, one time, on the Bonhommie & Hattiesburg Southern) with some resignation.

But when we lost cabooses, that felt like a kick in the stomach. As did Amtrak being spelled with a "k."

Obviously, our man Shock Control is not serious. But it would be great, in some alternative universe.

[Flintlock76]

Overmod

Display it outside your scale recreation of the ex-CNJ Jersey City terminal and E'port shop complex.

Jeez, don't I WISH I could do a scale recreation of the JC terminal and E'port shop complex!  The "Chugger Barn" is just too small and the living and dining rooms of the house are hands-off!  

A generic North Jersey town on the 4 x 8 is the best I can do.  For now.

Like I said, I'll think of something.

[Shock Control]

Murphy Siding

Why stop there? Wouldn't you need a steam locomotive on the front to do it justice?

As a devotee of mid-century modernism, I prefer F units, which can be the focus of a separate proposal once we reinstate the caboose.  But I appreciate your support of steam, and will happily sign your petition at the right time.  

[Murphy Siding]

Shock Control

 

54light15

I would like the new president to consider that the Twentieth Century Limited and Super Chief be reinstated immediately. No, I DEMAND it! Action will be taken!  But what kind, I have no idea. 

 

 

Completely agree, but let's save these for a future proposal. We need to address this caboose travesty first. 

 

Why stop there? Wouldn't you need a steam locomotive on the front to do it justice?

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

I even bought a Jersey Transit caboose at the last train show I went to!  What the hell I'm going to do with it I don't know but I'll figure something out.

Display it outside your scale recreation of the ex-CNJ Jersey City terminal and E'port shop complex.

[Shock Control]

54light15

I would like the new president to consider that the Twentieth Century Limited and Super Chief be reinstated immediately. No, I DEMAND it! Action will be taken!  But what kind, I have no idea. 

Completely agree, but let's save these for a future proposal. We need to address this caboose travesty first. 

[Shock Control]

Flintlock76

Well I agree!  And you're damn right, freight trains just look stupid and incomplete without a caboose on the end!  Every freight train on my O gauge layout has a caboose!  I even bought a Jersey Transit caboose at the last train show I went to!  What the hell I'm going to do with it I don't know but I'll figure something out.  Maybe commuter trains look better with a caboose as well?

Besides, with no caboose how are you supposed to know the freight train's over?  

But now the really  important question is, is Joe Biden a steam freak?  

Now we're getting someplace!

[chutton01]

Well, at least this is not the "Railroads are DOOOOMED" nonsense of ttrraaiiffiicc threads. Since I'm more used to seeing cabooses stuffed and mounted for advertising, storage, or other such purposes, or else plated over to serve as shoving platforms, a train without a caboose is fine with me.

As for boxcars with colorful logos - I'm just cool with seeing boxcars (and other carload rolling stock) being used to transport freight, they don't have to have the big guady supergraphics of the 1960s to look cool (besides, Railbox boxcars are yellow and sport various slogans like "Rail car pooling experts" and so on, so there you go).  What I wouldn't mind is more wide spread usage of anti-graffitti coatings (although Rustoluem spray seems to adhere to everyhing).

And the F-units - now I know the OP is just busting our chops...

What our new rail-friendly president could do is programs like Tiger Grants on steriods, targetted toward more freight and passenger rail expansion (and no, rail-trail conversions are NOT acceptable uses of these grants)

[54light15]

I would like the new president to consider that the Twentieth Century Limited and Super Chief be reinstated immediately. No, I DEMAND it! Action will be taken!  But what kind, I have no idea. 

[Flintlock76]

Shock Control

 But you agree that a freight train looks stupid without a caboose, right?

Well I agree!  And you're damn right, freight trains just look stupid and incomplete without a caboose on the end!  Every freight train on my O gauge layout has a caboose!  I even bought a Jersey Transit caboose at the last train show I went to!  What the hell I'm going to do with it I don't know but I'll figure something out.  Maybe commuter trains look better with a caboose as well?

Besides, with no caboose how are you supposed to know the freight train's over?  

But now the really  important question is, is Joe Biden a steam freak?  

[Overmod]

Shock Control

But you agree that a freight train looks stupid without a caboose, right?

To be honest, even as a kid I thought it was stupid to tow a whole house, taking up a car length and with more than an empty car's weight, susceptible to slack action and having to be heated (and cooled, tbh) just for a couple of slow-moving guys to put out rear protection that a proper signal system would already assure.  I'm sure that there are plenty of nostalgic folks who think no train is complete without the little red car of childhood-story fame -- but I'm not one who fell for the propaganda.  

Note that the 'proper' answer is to use distributed power correctly even for the 'shorter' PSR-optimized consists ... and put any trailing crew in a cab of the DPU.  Gets the same job done, but with no need to switch cabooses around and figure out how to allocate them to trains.

Incidentally I still have drawings for converting cab units (specifically E units) to high developed engine horsepower for distributed-power consists.  It would be simple to do the same for a carbody with an F-unit nose... 

(Where is the emoticon with the propeller beanie?)

[Shock Control]

cv_acr

Well I guess it's early but this is the silliest thing I've seen today.

If that's the silliest thing you've heard today, you're in good shape!

I'm serious.

I also want the railroads to bring back F units and box cars with slogans written in elegant brush script, but those would be part of a separate proposal.  We need to start with cabeese. 

[cv_acr]

Well I guess it's early but this is the silliest thing I've seen today.

But I'm reasonably certain you're just making a joke.

I hope you're not being dead serious, anyway...

[Shock Control]

Overmod

I say that dollar for dollar, any money whatsoever that would be spent on such an effort ought to be directed towards progressive implementation of ECP.  And that's more dollars than I think a four-year, or eight-year, or even a ten-year Harris administration, would have to devote to caboose restoration.

In any case, I suspect restoration of cabooses as a direct mandate would require specific Federal legislation, which would also have to be strongly safety-based in ways not evident when cabooses were replaced with FREDs in the first place.  I do not think that claim can be credibly made, and any attempt to return larger crews (a favorite back in the day when states could mandate 3- or 5-person "full crew laws") would have to show equally strong specific safety benefits ... very difficult to substantiate in a world of mandatory PTC.

Yeah, yeah.  But you agree that a freight train looks stupid without a caboose, right?  How are we going to get future generations excited about railroads without cabeese?

[Overmod]

Shock Control

Do you think we could petition our upcoming rail-friendly President to reinstate the caboose on freight trains?

I say that dollar for dollar, any money whatsoever that would be spent on such an effort ought to be directed towards progressive implementation of ECP.  And that's more dollars than I think a four-year, or eight-year, or even a ten-year Harris administration, would have to devote to caboose restoration.

In any case, I suspect restoration of cabooses as a direct mandate would require specific Federal legislation, which would also have to be strongly safety-based in ways not evident when cabooses were replaced with FREDs in the first place.  I do not think that claim can be credibly made, and any attempt to return larger crews (a favorite back in the day when states could mandate 3- or 5-person "full crew laws") would have to show equally strong specific safety benefits ... very difficult to substantiate in a world of mandatory PTC.

It's possible that some bright soul in the PSR world may try dusting off the old GE MATE-based idea of having a crew dorm-lounge built into a road-slug-like unit (in the GE days, this was to be on top of an extended-range fuel tank) and push to change the applicable law to allow a railroad crew to work like a towboat crew for an extended period.  This is potentially better than any caboose in some respects, but I think it has the viability of Frosty the Snowman in an ultrasupercritical steam plant.

[MMLDelete]

Dream big!

However ...

[Shock Control]

Let's face it:  Freight trains without cabeese just look wrong.  They look cheap and incomplete, and as such, they do not instill confidence in potential freight customers.  

Do you think we could petition our upcoming rail-friendly President to reinstate the caboose on freight trains?  Doing so would provide jobs for the rail industry, and give us one more person to wave to as the train passes by. The caboose will allow the railroad industry to be more accurate in its reflection of model railroads. It will also send a strong signal to industry that railroads are the way to go when shipping freight.

What sayest thou?