General
This steel cupola equipped caboose was used to transport and support the train crew and was coupled to the end of a freight train. This is where the conductor did his paperwork and he and other crew members monitored the train while it was in motion, watching for overheated wheel bearings and loose cargo. Meals could be prepared on the stove and if a trip was long enough that the train crew would not return to their home terminal on the same day it could be used as sleeping quarters. The engine crew (engineer and fireman) would stay in a railroad hotel in such a case as there were two distinct lines of employment, as the train crew handled the groundwork of setting out and picking up freight cars along the journey and the engine crew who operated and oversaw the locomotive.
History
Our caboose was built in the Centralia, Illinois shops of the railroad rather than being built by an outside railroad car builder, at the end of the steam locomotive era as the diesel locomotives took their place on the IC.
The overall design was copied from a tried-and-true wood caboose design of which the railroad had hundreds in its fleet. A unique feature of the IC design was a large side “door” on each side, which in theory allowed fresh air to pass through the caboose as the Illinois Central freight trains made their way from Chicago southward to New Orleans as the “Mainline of Mid-America”. As a side note there were a few sub classes of this caboose which did not have side doors as Iowa state law prohibited them, so such cars were used in service on the east-west Iowa Division which passes over our line at Coleman.
When built our caboose had a few more windows and a coal fired stove. Later the railroad rebuilt the caboose, installing an oil fired stove, a fuel tank for the stove, plated over some windows and made provisions for the use of radios for crew and dispatcher communications. The toilet was upgraded to a water flush type and while we removed the toilet, the water tank for this toilet remains hanging from the ceiling. The original ice bunker is still in place. The old “friction” bearings in the trucks were replaced with roller bearings and an axle powered generator was added to power the electric lighting added to the caboose. When 9648 was chosen from the deadline by the museum an extra bench was recovered from another car and now is installed where the toilet was, and we constructed other wood framed benches to increase seating for visitors riding during our annual caboose train operations. Of course, the two most coveted seats are in the cupola. These seats are equipped with seat belts and there is a long pipe attached to the ceiling, running the length of the car to act as a handhold for times when the slack in a hundred car freight train starting up could cause acceleration of the caboose from 0 to 20 mph in a second! Fortunately, the crew could hear the slack come out and would be able to hang on before it hit the caboose. Often times cabooses would be assigned to specific crews for extended periods of time, so the last crew decorated 9648 with the lettering seen on the ice chest, the locker doors and at the steps up to the cupola. While the term “Conductor” is obvious the IC used the term “Flagman” for their switchmen, brakemen or trainmen who assisted in throwing track switches, and the coupling and uncoupling of freight cars. Spare coupler knuckles and air hoses were also kept on board along with some basic tools to change them out if there was a failure while on the road.
Narrative
The concept of the caboose, or “cabin car”, “way car”, or “brake van”, as they were known on some railroads, was to house the crew who, before air brakes, would set the handbrakes on each car when it came time to stop. This is why there are ladders to the roof on each end of a caboose, so these men could climb up with their brake clubs and scamper from car roof to car roof, to crank down the handbrakes on each freight car after hearing whistle signals from the engineer. It is hard in this day in age to fathom the loss of life among these men when they fell between moving freight cars while trying to stop a train. To solve this problem George Westinghouse invented and perfected the air brake system for trains. It is considered that by 1887, when the bridge over the Fox River at Coleman was being built, the air brake was finally considered to be in universal use on American railroads. Eventually the caboose would be eliminated on most freight trains by the end of the 20th century as transportation evolved. Loose car railroading, where freight cars would be dropped off and picked up in every town along the line was supplemented by eighteen-wheeler semi-trucks using the interstate highway system to do the same job. Railroads are very good at hauling bulk commodities such as coal, ores, oil, ethanol, corn syrup, grain, and cement long distances. They also haul long trains of containers stacked two high which are in turn transferred at large terminals to highway trailer frames for the last step to and from the shippers and customers. Next time you see a container train try to imagine how many semi-trucks would be on the highways to make the whole trip from shipper to customer. Technology has also led to the demise of the caboose. “End of train” devices can monitor and control air brakes by computerized radio signals with the locomotive. Periodic lineside hot bearing and dragging equipment detectors can notify a train crew verbally by radio of any such problems. (With the correct scanner frequency, one can hear such a detector located at Munger, east of Coleman reporting on Canadian National trains that pass over our line.) Manifests of freight are now computerized and available via computer screen to the conductor who now rides in the locomotive cab with the engineer, eliminating the need for such information being on paper. Often times these two train crew members are cross trained to take over in case of emergency. What used to be a caboose are still used as a “shoving platform” for a crew member on long backup moves when strings of freight cars are transferred from one railroad to another, an event that occurs daily in the Chicago area due to is high concentration of railroad lines and companies. In any event always use caution around trains, whether they be Amtrak, commuter or freight trains. Stop, look and listen still applies in the 21st century.
Author: Joseph Hazinski, curator