Willy Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Can someone please tell me why a CN Cabin would be bringing up the rear of a Norfolk Southern train in Newport, Pennsylvania, in 2006? http://www.railpictu...61128&nseq=1162 Is this a regular occurrence? And if so why a CN cabin? Cheers Willy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1905 Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Probably because it was there. Probably came over on a train and so is going back. Its probably not common. Cabooses and EOT's are handled just like locomotives as far as 'balancing the use between railroads. If there was an EOT instead of a caboose it could be another RR's EOT also. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Possibly in transit to a museum, or to someone who has bought it. There are a remarkable number of privately owned cabeese in peoples back yards in USA Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davknigh Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 CN has been known to lease NS motive power so perhaps this is an exchange, or the van is deadheading back north of the border or what shortliner said. Cheers, David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Thank you all for your reply. However it would be interesting to know what kind of working would have brought this car down from Canada. I though nowadays a Caboose/Cabin was only used on short trips that required a backing up move, or with a dangerous or out of gauge load? Cheers Willy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Boucher Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Possibly in transit to a museum, or to someone who has bought it. There are a remarkable number of privately owned cabeese in peoples back yards in USA This is what I would vote for. There are a lot more "private" moves than there are reasons to have a buggy on the end of a usual freight train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nile Posted December 29, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 29, 2010 The interesting thing is that it was placed on the end of the train.Is there a practical reason for this (eg frame strength,ease of handling),or did the yard crew think it looked better there? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 I seem to remember seeing something about Cabeese never being marshalled in the middle of the train due to the framework of the chassis not being capable of the force of a sudden stop with loaded cars behind compressing the frame and effectively squashing it - to the detriment of the conductor and any crewmwn riding in it. I'm pretty sure that ALL railroads marshalled ithem as the end of train for that reason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Posted December 29, 2010 Author Share Posted December 29, 2010 The interesting thing is that it was placed on the end of the train.Is there a practical reason for this (eg frame strength,ease of handling),or did the yard crew think it looked better there? I think that, whatever the reason for it being there, it would be easier to cut into and out of the train if it was at the back and also there may be safety issues with placing it anywhere else in the train as pointed out by 'shortliner' Cheers Willy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 Probably because it was there. Probably came over on a train and so is going back. Its probably not common. Cabooses and EOT's are handled just like locomotives as far as 'balancing the use between railroads. If there was an EOT instead of a caboose it could be another RR's EOT also. Just had another look at the photo the OP refers to. It looks as if there's an EOT on the back of the caboose. Is that usual if the caboose is manned? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nile Posted December 29, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 29, 2010 Since it's not a NS caboose,I think we are all assuming that it's not manned,just part of the train. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 It was the EOTD (FRED) that made me think that it was probably a delivery job Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1905 Posted December 29, 2010 Share Posted December 29, 2010 I doubt the caboose is manned for the simple reason there aren't enough people on modern road freight crew to man the caboose. Most trains operate with only a conductor and engineer The conductor is going to be on the engine with the engineer to line switches, etc so that doesn't leave any bodies to be on the caboose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stock_2007 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Hi when N/S started to run into Canada they had to run with a caboose due to a safety thing with N/S loco's not sure when this ended as a rule it would be a N/S caboose but I'm sure they would inter-change Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Posted December 30, 2010 Author Share Posted December 30, 2010 Hi when N/S started to run into Canada they had to run with a caboose due to a safety thing with N/S loco's not sure when this ended as a rule it would be a N/S caboose but I'm sure they would inter-change That is interesting and I hadn't realised that NS ran that far north on a regular basis, so thank you for that. Cheers Willy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigZ Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 I doubt the caboose is manned for the simple reason there aren't enough people on modern road freight crew to man the caboose. Most trains operate with only a conductor and engineer The conductor is going to be on the engine with the engineer to line switches, etc so that doesn't leave any bodies to be on the caboose. Back door's open...you *know* the NS wouldn't allow that unless somebody was in there. Too much risk for somebody to climb aboard and hurt themselves or similar... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 Back door's open...you *know* the NS wouldn't allow that unless somebody was in there. Too much risk for somebody to climb aboard and hurt themselves or similar... Well spotted there Craig and I wonder how many others took note of that open door because I certainly didn't! Willy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.