The Glory Days Of The Caboose

Have you ever watched a child's face as a model train chugged around a miniature track

? Or seen their eyes light up at catching a glimpse the one car every child in America seems to know the name of? "Look, there's the caboose!" My own eyes have lit up in a similar way at the same sight of the small but recognizable model caboose. It's funny how we all know the name of the singular car that, perhaps even more than the locomotive, seems to exemplify American rail history and yet of us few know its history. And fewer yet know where the noble caboose has "vanished" to!

The caboose, whose name seems to be linked back to nautical days and ship's cabins (or Mexican jails, depending upon who's version you prefer to believe), once seen at the end of very nearly every train that left the station, began its days as a crew cabin with few - or no - comforts. Rail life was hard and the men who worked the rails had to make due with few amenities. As the years went on, stoves for heat or cooking were added, and beds, and finally the familiar cupolas that gave the conductors a better view. As trains modernized, the caboose did too until they had the iconic shape and the oft seen color we usually identify with them - a little red caboose. (In truth, different rail companies painted their cabooses in different colors and patterns.)

On today's trains, the caboose has been replaced, in most cases, by a small box filled with electronics, the conductor now up front in the locomotive with the engineer. So where have all those cabooses gone to? The answer might surprise - and delight you. There are still cabooses to be seen in many a railroad museum, and more than a few were sold to become restaurants, fast food shacks or ticket offices. Some have gone on to a second life, attached to houses as studios or guest cabins. A well-loved hotel in Chattanooga has a few and a California Bed and Breakfast lets you spend a night in a real caboose, now outfitted with comforts many trainmen seldom knew.

And of course, the caboose lives on in our hearts and minds, a beloved symbol of American rail history, and the capstone completing every model train. After all, you can build the tracks and the locomotive, but the train's not finished until the model caboose is ready to chug faithfully behind it.

The model caboose is the expression of America's rail history.

by: Charlotte Mathes

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