I live in a small town called Dallas, and we have a lot of freight trains come through at all hours. I don’t mind waiting to cross, but I do mind not seeing the Caboose anymore!
Years ago, when I saw the Caboose, it made me wonder about the guys riding in it and where they were headed and what they were like. But now the damn train just ends with a freight car and that’s it. I always wave to the Engineer, and sometimes he will wave back, but I miss that little red Caboose!
So why did they take it off the end of the train? I love the Sam Elliot commercials about Union Pacific, but to me, a train ain’t a train without the Caboose.
Methinks that there are at least two business opportunities here:
put cabooses back into production. Between limited freight use and people who would like to own one or convert it into a diner, we could probably build a couple of million dollar business.
Why not set up a passenger charter line that would allow one to attach to the back of a freight train? It’d be a premium kind of thing but you could probably accommodate 10-20 people depending on the type of travel (overnight vs. daytrip) that you’d planned. All of the railroad buffs would have to make it an annual excursion.
Not a problem. My stepdad was something of a railroad buff, and I seem to share his taste for this sort of thing as well as certain things analog (so to speak).
Here’s a couple more sites; one is a rather depressing article about the cabooses demise, but with some neat facts. The other is a bit of history with some good links to pictures.
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, there’s a motel that is entirely made up of converted railroad cars. We took our mothers up there to stay overnight and slept in a caboose. It was very satisfying.
When I was in college and spending a summer in the desert of eastern Washington State, I went out to a swimming hole out in the country with a friend. I was perched on the hood of the car sunbathing, when a freight train came by. So at my friend’s suggestion, I removed my bikini top and waved at the guys in the caboose. Needless to say, they waved back very enthusiastically.
Ruby, as I see it, if the highlight of your day is making sure you’re trackside as the train goes by so that you can wave to the guys in the caboose… that’s life!
My Caboose Story: Several years ago I was touring America with a friend. We’re both railfans, of the steamhead variety, and could not pass up the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in Wisconsin.
Fare was 8 bucks, and a two-dollar premium to ride in the caboose. We jumped on it.
The ride was great. From the cupola, we could watch the entire train. The caboose was in great shape, and in addition to fulfilling a boyhood desire to ride in a caboose at the end of a steam train I got to be the guy in the caboose waving to children at crossings!
The ride out to the end of the line was delightful.
The night before, my friend and I had happened upon the Wisconsin Bowhunters’ Association pre-season Let’s-all-get-piss-ass-drunk-now-so-we-don’t-do-it-during-the-season-and-shoot-each-other Campout. After we’d met our neighbors, The Fugowi Bowmen, and found that they were listening to the Beatles instead of country, I grew very enthusiastic about the celebration.
I was feeling it the next morning. The ride out to the end of the line was delightful. The ride back was another matter.
The line at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum is a point-to-point line. After a half-hour’s break at the end of the line the locomotive pulled around on a siding and coupled nose-first to the caboose. Shortly after we left the yard I was dealing with conflicting desires: retreat into a closet and cover my ears to escape the pain caused by the noise of a steam locomotive under way, or stand at the rear (now front) door of the caboose and revel in being six feet behind a steam locomotive under way.
I stayed at the door for most of the trip. Eventually I couldn’t stand it any longer and retreated to the cupola.
It was on that trip that I conceived the desire to travel America again… but in a caboose at the end of a train. Who knows? Maybe I’ll pass by butrscotch & friend…
I am hijacking my own thread here, but I have always wanted to take an extended train trip…anywhere. I have checked out the Orient Express website, and that looks like fun, but way out of my reach at the moment, so do any of you fellow steamheads have other suggestions?
I’m dreaming here, but wouldn’t it be great to have an SDMB “Steamhead” get-together? It would be a nightmare to organize, probably, but man what a trip it would be! Quasi starts out in Atlanta and picks up his steamhead buddies along the way, and we spend the nights onboard the train. We could even have our own “on-board” murder mystery!
I’ve traveled around India by train twice now. I’d have to categorize it as the most exasperating, confusing, romantic and surprising form of travel I’ve ever engaged in.
You never know what the next stop will bring. A journey always seems to start or end at some ungodly hour. You meet people from all strata of Indian society.
My personal highlights:
Arriving in Jaisalmer as the sun went down. I remember leaning out of the carriage and seeing the whole Rajahstan desert suffused in shades of pink.
Sitting next to a fellow who turned out to be the Indian version of Evel Knievel. He enthusiastically hauled out his photo album and showed me pictures of himself in white leathers, riding his motorcycle, and jumping over Ambassador taxis.
The Darjeeling Toy Train. A tiny, narrow-gauge steam-train running passengers up to the Himalayan hill resort in Darjeeling. The scenery is incredible, but the train itself was hilarious. Passengers routinely step out for a leisurely walk along-side the train while it laboriously chugs up the steeper grades…
Lowlights:
Misreading a station sign and finding myself in the middle of nowhere at 3:00 am (and the next train not due for 24 hours).
Being in the same compartment for six hours with a tag-team of wailing children (as soon as the one would shut up, the other would start crying).
Noise, filth, dust and boredom as the train slowly wends it’s way across the Subcontinent.
I also miss the caboose.
On a recent family driving trip out east, we were driving thru W. Va. coal country. Was very pleased to see a yellow caboose at the end of a loaded moving train. Made sure to point it out to the whole family. It was yellow.
You should start another thread on train trips (long or short). I’ve traveled on them in North America, Africa and Europe and have an interesting story or two.
I hate the TGV – the French high-speed trains that do the north-south route in and out of Paris. They travel so fast that you can’t observe anything less than 1/2 mile from the train because it’s a blur due to the speed.
Two that have always sounded interesting to me are the Blue Train, which is really for touring South Africa: http://www.bluetrain.co.za/
I’m actually eager to see Paul Theroux’s latest book on traveling across Africa. I’ve traveled extensively on the trains in the Congo (ex-Zaire) though many of the lines that I was on were damaged in the civil war.
There are some good short runs in the U.S. One of my favorites is Seattle-Vancouver, BC, a train that runs right near my house. There are some excellent accounts of this trip online but the pictures are surprisingly poor for a run that goes along the water all the way: http://communities.prodigy.net/trains/ttrip082.htm
I did a train trip (Amtrak) two or three times when I was a kid. It was kinda fun, but all the swelling rails and going at 10MPH wore me down a lot (keeping in mind that I was a kid).
Anyway, there’s a company up in North Carolina that runs a steam engine. The website’s here: http://www.gsmr.com/ and it sounds like a hoot.
I think the very first song I ever learned was “Little Red Caboose”.
If any of you caboose lovers ever visit the DC area, I know of an abandoned caboose that you can visit but nobody’s allowed inside though. There’s a bike path here in Arlington that was paved on a former Washington & Old Dominion right-of-way and a caboose & boxcar were left behind when the track was torn up.
My stepdad was something of a railroad buff, and I seem to share his taste for this sort of thing as well as certain things analog (so to speak).
