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From: cb@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Christopher Byrnes)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: DEFN(\\"transfer caboose\\")?
Message-ID: <572@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 6-May-86 08:53:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.572
Posted: Tue May  6 08:53:01 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 20:20:38 EDT
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  The term "transfer caboose" comes from the specialized caboose which
is usually placed at the end of a railroad's transfer run.  A transfer
run is usually a (possibly long) train used to move cars from one
railroad to the interchange point of another railroad.  A typical
transfer run might go from a yard to the interchange point a few miles
away.  These runs are important because the sooner you get cars off
your railroad and onto someone else's, the sooner you can stop paying
per-diem car rental charges.

  Since these transfer runs are not going to be on the road that long,
they don't need a full-featured caboose.  Just a small place to sit
down, hold a toilet, store equipment is needed.  The small "shack" you
see on top of a transfer caboose is probably cheaper than the larger
carbody found on a regular caboose.  Since a transfer run is probably
more likely to spend time switching than actually running, the large
end platforms are an aid to crewmembers who are constantly getting on
and off.

  None of this means that some railroads have not used a regular
caboose in transfer runs or transfer caboose in regular runs.  With
the growing use of end-of-train markers we may be seeing less and less
of any kind of caboose in the future.

					Christopher Byrnes

					cb@Mitre-Bedford.ARPA
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