A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train . Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting ; as well as in keeping a lookout for load shifting , damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles .
83-465: Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars , they later became purpose-built, with bay windows above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train. The caboose also served as the conductor's office, and on long routes, included sleeping accommodations and cooking facilities. A similar railroad car, the brake van , was used on British and Commonwealth railways outside North America (the role has since been replaced by
166-405: A flat car with a shed bolted to the middle of it than like a standard caboose. It is used in transfer service between rail yards or short switching runs, and as such, lacks sleeping, cooking or restroom facilities. The ends of a transfer caboose are left open, with safety railings surrounding the area between the crew compartment and the end of the car. A recent variation on the transfer caboose
249-544: A fuel . Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a table, or hand-held lanterns may be used for portable lighting. Like oil lamps , they are useful for lighting without electricity, such as in regions without rural electrification , in electrified areas during power outages , at campsites , and on boats . There are three types of kerosene lamp: flat-wick, central-draft (tubular round wick), and mantle lamp. Kerosene lanterns meant for portable use have
332-479: A drover's caboose was much more like a combine, as well. On longer livestock trains in the American West, the drover's caboose is where the livestock's handlers would ride between the ranch and processing plant. The train crew rode in the caboose section while the livestock handlers rode in the coach section. Drover's cabooses used either cupolas or bay windows in the caboose section for the train crew to monitor
415-418: A faster airflow. This information should be adhered to regardless of the type of lantern in use. The lamp burner has a flat wick, usually made of cotton . The lower part of the wick dips into the fount and absorbs the kerosene; the top part of the wick extends out of the wick tube of the lamp burner, which includes a wick-adjustment mechanism. Adjusting how much of the wick extends above the wick tube controls
498-420: A flat wick and are made in dead-flame, hot-blast, and cold-blast variants. Pressurized kerosene lamps use a gas mantle ; these are known as Petromax , Tilley lamps , or Coleman lamps, among other manufacturers. They produce more light per unit of fuel than wick-type lamps, but are more complex and expensive in construction and more complex to operate. A hand-pump pressurizes air, which forces liquid fuel from
581-404: A fuel for lamps. A flat-wick lamp is a simple type of kerosene lamp, which burns kerosene drawn up through a wick by capillary action . If this type of lamp is broken, it can easily start a fire. A flat-wick lamp has a fuel tank (fount), with the lamp burner attached. Attached to the fuel tank, four prongs hold the glass chimney, which acts to prevent the flame from being blown out and enhances
664-452: A hole in the roof about two feet square. I stacked the lamp and tool boxes under the perforation end and sat with my head and shoulders above the roof ... (Later) I suggested putting a box around the hole with glass in, so I could have a pilot house to sit in and watch the train. The position of the cupola varied. In most eastern railroad cabooses, the cupola was in the center of the car, but most western railroads preferred to put it toward
747-697: A hollow tube all along the hight of the reservoir. This make it easier to use ceramic or glass oil reservoirs. While the Kosmos Brenner doesn't use a flame spreader other side draft kerosene lamps do. Examples are the Ideal Brenner and the Matador Brenner from Ehrich and Graetz In 1865 the Duplex lamp also came on the market. It was a very popular type of kerosene lamp in Great Britain. A variation on
830-470: A lawsuit filed against the New York and Harlem Railway . The most common pluralization of caboose is "cabooses". Use of cabooses began in the 1830s, when railroads housed trainmen in shanties built onto boxcars or flatcars. The caboose provided the train crew with a shelter at the rear of the train. The crew could exit the train for switching or to protect the rear of the train when stopped. They also inspected
913-543: A longitudinal I-beam , often in the form of a Vierendeel truss , sometimes reinforced by diagonal members, but originally in the form of stressed panels perforated by panel-lightening "opera windows", either oval-shaped (seen above) or egg-shaped. These flatcars must be loaded symmetrically , with half of the payload on one side of the centerbeam and half on the other, to avoid tipping over. Heavy capacity flatcars are cars designed to carry more than 100 short tons (90.72 t ; 89.29 long tons ). They often have more than
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#1732869253094996-706: A pair (or rarely, more) of bogies under each end. The deck of the car can be wood or steel , and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads. Flatcars designed for carrying machinery have sliding chain assemblies recessed in the deck. Flatcars are used for loads that are too large or cumbersome to load in enclosed cars such as boxcars . They are also often used to transport intermodal containers ( shipping containers ) or trailers as part of intermodal freight transport shipping. Aircraft parts were hauled via conventional freight cars beginning in World War II . However, given
1079-421: A platform for crew on industrial spur lines when it is required to make long reverse movements, or on heritage and tourist railroads . Railroad historian David L. Joslyn (a retired Southern Pacific Railroad draftsman) has traced the possible root of "caboose" to the obsolete Middle Low German word Kabuse , a small cabin erected on a sailing ship's main deck. This was absorbed into Middle Dutch and entered
1162-588: A popular lighting fuel. Modern and most popular versions of the paraffin lamp were later constructed by Polish inventor and pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz , in Lviv in 1853. It was a significant improvement over lamps designed to burn vegetable or sperm oil. In 1914, the Coleman Lantern pressure lamp was introduced by the Coleman Company . In 1919, Tilley High-Pressure Gas Company started using kerosene as
1245-508: A reservoir into a gas chamber. Vapor from the chamber burns, heating a mantle to incandescence and providing heat. Kerosene lamps are widely used for lighting in rural areas of Africa and Asia, where electricity is not distributed or is too costly. As of 2005, kerosene and other fuel-based illumination methods consume an estimated 77 billion litres (20 billion US gallons) of fuel per year, equivalent to 8.0 million gigajoules (1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent) per day. This
1328-504: A similar purpose, and in 2013 began repainting some of them in heritage paint schemes of BNSF's predecessor railroads. The form of cabooses varied over the years, with changes made both to reflect differences in service and improvements in design. The most commonly seen types are: The most common caboose form in American railroad practice has a small windowed projection on the roof, called the cupola . The crew sat in elevated seats to inspect
1411-409: A thermally induced draft . The glass chimney needs a "throat", or slight constriction, to create the proper draft for complete combustion of the fuel; the draft carries more air (oxygen) past the flame, helping to produce a smokeless light, which is brighter than an open flame would produce. The chimney is used for a more important duty. The mantle/wick holder has holes around the outer edges. When
1494-655: A train puts it at a speed restriction to go no more than 50 mph (80 km/h). Since bulkheads are lightweight when empty, hunting can occur when the car is above 50 mph (80 km/h). Hunting is the wobbling movement of the trucks on a freight car or a locomotive. If the wheels hunt against the rails for a period of time, there is a high risk of a derailment . Centerbeam flatcars, centerbeams, center partition railcar, or "lumber racks" are specialty cars designed for carrying bundled building supplies such as dimensional lumber , wallboard , and fence posts. They are essentially bulkhead flatcars that have been reinforced by
1577-777: A unique look for their small fleet. Seven of the eight Monon-built cabooses have been saved. One was scrapped after an accident in Kentucky. The surviving cars are at the Indiana Transportation Museum (operational), the Indiana Railway Museum (operational), the Kentucky Railway Museum (fire damaged), and the Bluegrass Railroad Museum (unrestored but serviceable). The remaining three are in private collections. A transfer caboose looks more like
1660-438: A whiter light and generate more heat . Mantle lamps typically use fuel faster than a flat-wick lamp, but slower than a center-draft round-wick, as they depend on a small flame heating a mantle, rather than having all the light coming from the flame itself. Mantle lamps are nearly always bright enough to benefit from a lampshade, and a few mantle lamps may be enough to heat a small building in cold weather. Mantle lamps, because of
1743-850: Is a modern method of conveyance for circus troupes. One of the larger users of circus trains was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (RBBX), a famous American circus formed when the Ringling Brothers Circus purchased the Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1907, merged in 1919, and closed permanently as a merged company in May 2017. Some companies, such as CSX Transportation , have former wood-carrying flatcars rebuilt into platforms which mount remote control equipment for use in operating locomotives. Such platforms are fitted with appropriate headlights, horns , and air brake appliances to operate in
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#17328692530941826-481: Is comparable to annual U.S. jet-fuel consumption of 76 billion litres (20 billion US gallons) per year. In 1813, John Tilley invented the hydro-pneumatic blowpipe. In 1818, William Henry Tilley, gas fitters, was manufacturing gas lamps in Stoke Newington . In 1846, Abraham Pineo Gesner invented a substitute for whale oil for lighting, distilled from coal. Later made from petroleum, kerosene became
1909-430: Is one of the few Class 1 railroads that still maintains a fleet of modified cabooses for regular use. Employed as "shoving platforms" at the rear of local freight trains which must perform long reverse moves or heavy switching, these are generally rebuilt bay-window cabooses with their cabin doors welded shut (leaving their crews to work from the rear platform). BNSF also maintains a fleet of former wide-vision cabooses for
1992-406: Is redirected, slowed, pre-heated, and supplied to the burner to actually support and promote the combustion of the fuel. Later, Irwin improved upon this design by inventing and patenting his cold-blast design on May 6, 1873 . This design is similar to his earlier "hot-blast" design, except that the oxygen-depleted hot combustion byproducts are redirected and prevented from recirculating back to
2075-456: Is supplied to the burner, thereby increasing the brightness and stability of the flame. Contamination of lamp fuel with even a small amount of gasoline results in a lower flash point and higher vapor pressure for the fuel, with potentially dangerous consequences. Vapors from spilled fuel may ignite; vapor trapped above liquid fuel may lead to excess pressure and fires. Kerosene lamps are still extensively used in areas without electrical lighting;
2158-715: Is the "pushing" or "shoving" platform. It can be any railcar where a brakeman can safely ride for some distance to help the engineer with visibility at the other end of the train. Flatcars and covered hoppers have been used for this purpose, but often the pushing platform is a caboose that has had its windows covered and welded shut and permanently locked doors. CSX uses former Louisville & Nashville short bay window cabooses and former Conrail waycars as pushing platforms. Transfer cabooses are not to be confused with Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac) cabooses, as their cabooses were fully functional. Drover's cabooses looked more like combine cars than standard cabooses. The purpose of
2241-700: Is the 50-foot (15.24 m) car (which usually carries one large container as a load); these are actually re-built old boxcars . Common reporting marks are FEC, CP, SOO and KTTX. The ATTX cars, which feature non-sparking grips and sides, are built for hauling dangerous goods (ammunition, flammable fluids, etc.). A spine car is a car with only center and side sills and lateral arms to support intermodal containers . A Trailer-on-flat-car , or piggy-back car allows two 28.5-foot (8.69 m) trailer pups or one semi-trailer up to 57 feet (17.37 m) to be carried. Like well cars, these usually come in articulated sets of five or three. A longer TOFC (trailer on flat car)
2324-514: Is usually an 89 ft (27.13 m) car. In the past, these carried three 30 ft (9.14 m) trailers which are, as of 2007, almost obsolete, or one large, 53 ft (16.15 m), two 40-foot (12.19 m) or 45-foot (13.72 m) trailers. As intermodal traffic grows, these dedicated flats are in decline. Most have been modified to also carry containers as well. One notable type is Canadian Pacific Railway's XTRX service—dedicated five-unit flats that only carry trailers . Similar to
2407-422: Is usually the lightest car available) is used as a bridge between the locomotive on the dock and the cars on the ferry or barge. Idler flatcars are also used in oversize freight service, as loads such as pipe often overhang the ends of most standard-sized flatcars. Empty flatcars will be placed on both ends of the loaded car. This protects the cargo ends from damage and ensures that the loads don't bind and damage
2490-652: The American Revolution . It was already in use in U.S. naval terminology by the 1797 construction of the USS Constitution , whose wood-burning food preparation stove is known as the camboose. In modern French, cambuse can refer both to a ship's storeroom and to the North-American railcar. Camboose as a cook shack was in use in English at least by 1805, when it was used in a New York Chronicle article cited in
2573-468: The Boeing Renton Factory for final assembly. Bulkhead flatcars are designed with sturdy end-walls ( bulkheads ) to prevent loads from shifting past the ends of the car. Loads typically carried are pipe , steel slabs , utility poles and lumber , though lumber and utility poles are increasingly being hauled by skeleton cars. Bulkheads are typically lightweight when empty. An empty bulkhead on
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2656-515: The Dutch language circa 1747 as kabhuis , the compartment on a ship's main deck in which meals were prepared. In modern Dutch, kombuis is equivalent to galley . Eighteenth century French naval records also make reference to a cambose or camboose, which described both the food preparation cabin on a ship's main deck and its stove . Camboose may have entered English through American sailors who had come into contact with their French allies during
2739-616: The Illinois Railway Museum with 19 examples and the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California , with 17. Many shortline railroads still use cabooses today. Large railroads also use cabooses as "shoving platforms" or in switching service where it is convenient to have crew at the rear of the train. Cabooses have been reused as vacation cottages, garden offices in private residences, and as portions of restaurants. Also, caboose motels have appeared, with
2822-493: The International Car Company and saw service on most U.S. railroads. The expanded cupola allowed the crew to see past the top of the taller cars that began to appear after World War II , and also increased the roominess of the cupola area. Additionally, Monon Railroad had a unique change to the extended-vision cabooses. They added a miniature bay to the sides of the cupola to enhance the views further. This created
2905-517: The New English Dictionary describing a New England shipwreck, which reported that "[Survivor] William Duncan drifted aboard the canboose [ sic ]." As the first railroad cabooses were wooden shanties erected on flat cars as early as the 1830s, they would have resembled the cook shack on a ship's deck. The earliest known printed record of "caboose" used to describe the railcar appeared in 1859 in court records in conjunction with
2988-505: The Wabash Railway , Pennsylvania Railroad , Norfolk and Western and Illinois Central Gulf , also built or upgraded cabooses with streamlined cupolas for better aerodynamics and to project a more modern image. In a bay window caboose, the crew monitoring the train sits in the middle of the car in a section of wall that projects from the side of the caboose. The windows set into these extended walls resemble architectural bay windows , so
3071-516: The crew car in Australia). On trains not fitted with continuous brakes , brake vans provided a supplementary braking system, and they helped keep chain couplings taut. Cabooses were used on every freight train in the United States and Canada until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. A major purpose of the caboose was for observing problems at
3154-400: The end-of-train device (EOT or ETD), commonly called a FRED (flashing rear-end device), as an alternative. An ETD could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train's air brake pressure and report any problems to the locomotive by telemetry . The ETD also detects movement of the train upon start-up and radios this information to the engineers so they know all of the slack is out of
3237-455: The strike plates ). With the rise of intermodal-freight-transport – specific cars , and given the age of most of these flats, numbers will decline over the next several years. Indeed, when the first well cars appeared, allowing double stacking, many container flats were re-built as autoracks . The few "new build" container flats are identifiable by their lack of decking, welded steel frame, and standard 89-foot (27.13 m) length. One variant
3320-477: The "central-draft" lamp is the mantle lamp. The mantle is a roughly pear-shaped mesh made of fabric placed over the burner. The mantle typically contains thorium or other rare-earth salts ; on first use the cloth burns away, and the rare-earth salts are converted to oxides, leaving a very fragile structure, which incandesces (glows brightly) upon exposure to the heat of the burner flame. Mantle lamps are considerably brighter than flat- or round-wick lamps, produce
3403-506: The "little red caboose" at the end of every train came about when cabooses were painted a reddish brown; however, some railroads (UP, and NKP, for example) painted their cabooses yellow or red and white. The most notable was the Santa Fe which in the 1960s started a rebuild program for their cabooses in which the cars were painted bright red, with an eight-foot-diameter Santa Fe cross herald emblazoned on each side in yellow. Some railroads, chiefly
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3486-422: The 1850s and 1860s, were of the dead-flame type, meaning that it had an open wick, but the airflow to the flame was strictly controlled in an upward motion by a combination of vents at the bottom of the burner and an open topped chimney. This had the effect of removing side-to-side drafts and thus significantly reducing or even eliminating the flickering that can occur with an exposed flame. Later lanterns, such as
3569-434: The American caboose had a platform at either end with curved grab rails to facilitate train crew members' ascent onto a moving train. A caboose was fitted with red lights called markers to enable the rear of the train to be seen at night. This has led to the phrase "bringing up the markers" to describe the last car on a train. These lights were officially what made a train a "train", and were originally lit with oil lamps . With
3652-472: The United States and Canada required all freight trains to have a caboose and a full crew for safety. Technology eventually advanced to a point where the railroads, in an effort to save money by reducing crew members, stated that cabooses were unnecessary. New diesel locomotives had large cabs that could house entire crews. Distant dispatchers controlled switches, eliminating the need to manually throw switches after trains had passed. Improved signaling eliminated
3735-420: The advent of electricity, later caboose versions incorporated an electrical generator driven by belts coupled to one of the axles, which charged a lead-acid storage battery when the train was in motion. The addition of the cupola , a lookout post atop the car, was introduced in 1863. Coal or wood was originally used to fire a cast-iron stove for heat and cooking, later giving way to a kerosene heater. Now rare,
3818-415: The bay window is known as a lookout or ducket. In the extended-vision or wide-vision caboose, the sides of the cupola project beyond the side of the car body. Rock Island created some of these by rebuilding some standard cupola cabooses with windowed extensions applied to the sides of the cupola itself, but by far, the greatest number have the entire cupola compartment enlarged. This model was introduced by
3901-466: The burner by redesigning the intake products, so that only oxygen-rich, fresh air is drawn from the atmosphere into the lamp ("the inlets for fresh air are placed out of the ascending current of products of combustion, and said products are thereby prevented from entering [the air intake]" ). The primary benefit of this design compared to the earlier "hot-blast" design was to maximize the amount of oxygen available for combustion by ensuring that only fresh air
3984-404: The burner is to hold the flame that heats the mantle, which is 4-5 times as bright as the wick itself. The Coleman Lantern is the direct descendant of this type lamp. A kerosene lantern, also known as a "barn lantern" or "hurricane lantern", is a flat-wick lamp made for portable and outdoor use. They are made of soldered or crimped-together sheet-metal stampings, with tin-plated sheet steel being
4067-916: The caboose include "special" trains, where the train is involved in some sort of railway maintenance; as part of survey trains that inspect remote rail lines after natural disasters to check for damage; or in protecting the movement of nuclear material within the United States. Others have been modified for use in research roles to investigate complaints from residents or business owners regarding trains in certain locations. Finally, some are coupled to trains for special events, including historical tours. The Chihuahua al Pacífico Railroad in Mexico still uses cabooses to accompany their motorail trains between Chihuahua and Los Mochis . Cabooses have also become popular for collection by railroad museums and for city parks and other civic uses, such as visitor centers. Several railroad museums roster large numbers of cabooses, including
4150-580: The caboose type is called a bay window caboose. This type afforded a better view of the side of the train and eliminated the falling hazard of the cupola. It is thought to have first been used on the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad in 1923, but is particularly associated with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , which built all of its cabooses in this design starting from an experimental model in 1930. The bay window gained favor with many railroads because it eliminated
4233-519: The cost and dangers of combustion lighting are a continuing concern in many countries. The World Health Organization considers kerosene to be a polluting fuel and recommends that “governments and practitioners immediately stop promoting its household use”. Kerosene smoke contains high levels of harmful particulate matter , and household use of kerosene is associated with higher risks of cancer, respiratory infections, asthma, tuberculosis, cataract , and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Flat-wick lamps have
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#17328692530944316-536: The couplings and additional power could be applied. The machines also have blinking red lights to warn following trains that a train is ahead. With the introduction of the ETD, the conductor moved up to the front of the train with the engineer. A 1982 Presidential Emergency Board convened under the Railway Labor Act directed United States railroads to begin eliminating caboose cars where possible to do so. A legal exception
4399-407: The end of the car. Some conductors preferred to have the cupola toward the front, others liked it toward the rear of the train, and some just did not care. ATSF conductors could refuse to be assigned to a train if they did not have their cabooses turned to face the way they preferred. This would be a rare union agreement clause that could be used however it was not a regular issue. The classic idea of
4482-444: The ends of adjacent cars. Often a flat car is placed directly in front of a crane ("big hook") in order to: Idler flatcars are also used to mount one kind of coupler on one end and another kind on the other end ( dual coupling ). This is called a match wagon or a barrier vehicle . Kerosene lamp A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as
4565-674: The ever-increasing size of aircraft assemblies, the "Sky Box" method of shipping parts was developed in the late 1960s specifically to transport parts for the Boeing 747 and other "jumbo" jets of the time. The "Sky Box" consists of a two-piece metal shell that is placed atop a standard flatcar to support and protect wing and tail assemblies and fuselage sections in transit (originally, depressed-center or "fish belly" cars were utilized). Boeing 737 aircraft fuselages constructed by Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, Kansas are hauled as special loads to
4648-450: The flame into the glass chimney. Since whale oil used in the Argand lamp has a high viscosity it was necessary to place the oil reservoir higher than the flame of the lamp itself in order to let the oil flow by pressure caused by gravity . Kerosene has a much lower viscosity and can be transported through the wick by capillary action . This made it possible to install the oil reservoir below
4731-411: The flame. Oil reservoirs were made with a hollow tube in the middle that transported air from below the oil reservoir into the flame. The tubular woven wick (or flat wick rolled into a tube, the seam of which is then stitched together to form the complete wick) is placed around this tube. The tubular wick is then mounted into a "carrier", which is some form of a toothed rack that engages into the gears of
4814-399: The flame. The wick tube surrounds the wick and ensures that the correct amount of air reaches the lamp burner. Adjustment is usually done by means of a small knob operating a cric, which is a toothed metal sprocket bearing against the wick. If the wick is too high, and extends beyond the burner cone at the top of the wick tube, the lamp will produce smoke and soot (unburned carbon). When
4897-495: The front and rear of trains and for hand signals, due to its reliability. At a time when there were few competing light sources at night outside major towns, the limited brightness of these lamps was adequate and could be seen at sufficient distance to serve as a warning or signal. A central-draft lamp is a continuation of the principles used in the Argand lamp from 1780. It also uses a tubular round wick and it also has air intake under
4980-425: The higher temperature at which they operate, do not produce much odor, except when first lit or extinguished. Like flat- and round-wick lamps, they can be adjusted for brightness; however, caution must be used, because if set too high, the lamp chimney and the mantle can become covered with black areas of soot. A lamp set too high will burn off its soot harmlessly if quickly turned down, but if not caught soon enough,
5063-422: The hot-blast and cold-blast lanterns, took this airflow control even further by partially or fully enclosing the wick in a "deflector" or "burner cone" and then channeling the air to be supplied for combustion at the wick while at the same time pre-heating the air for combustion. The hot-blast design, also known as a "tubular lantern" due to the metal tubes used in its construction, was invented by John H. Irwin and
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#17328692530945146-400: The lamp is lit, the kerosene that the wick has absorbed burns and produces a clear, bright, yellow flame . As the kerosene burns, capillary action in the wick draws more kerosene up from the fuel tank. All kerosene flat-wick lamps use the dead-flame burner design, where the flame is fed cold air from below, and hot air exits above. This type of lamp was very widely used by railways, both on
5229-455: The lamp to burn cleanly. In 1865 the Berlin based company Wild & Wessel invented the Kosmos Brenner. This lamp used a flat wick that was folded open at the bottom and gradually folded round at the top. This allowed for air flow in the centre of flame just like in centre-draft burner. Only here the air intake is done above the oil reservoir and under the burner itself. This avoids the need of
5312-410: The lantern is lit and a chimney is attached, the thermally induced draft draws air through these holes and passes over the top of the mantle, just as a chimney in a house. This has a cooling effect and keeps the mantle from overheating. Without a properly installed chimney, a definite safety condition exists. This is even more important if using Aladdin lamps. They also have a thinner chimney to induce
5395-425: The leading position on a cut of cars (i.e. coupled ahead of the locomotive). COFC (container on flat car) cars are typically 89 feet (27.13 m) long and carry four 20-foot (6.10 m) intermodal containers or two 40-foot (12.19 m)/45-foot (13.72 m) shipping containers (the two 45-foot or 13.72-metre containers are carryable due to the fact that the car is actually 92 ft or 28.04 m long, over
5478-400: The most common material, followed by brass and copper. There are three types: dead-flame, hot-blast, and cold-blast. Both hot-blast and cold-blast designs are called tubular lanterns and are safer than dead-flame lamps, as tipping over a tubular lantern cuts off the oxygen flow to the burner and will extinguish the flame within seconds. The earliest portable kerosene "glass globe" lanterns, of
5561-677: The need for additional clearances in tunnels and overpasses. On the West Coast, the Milwaukee Road and the Northern Pacific Railway used these cars, converting over 900 roof top cabooses to bay windows in the late 1930s. Milwaukee Road rib-side bay window cabooses are preserved at New Lisbon, Wisconsin , the Illinois Railway Museum , the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and Cedarburg, Wisconsin , among other places. The Western Pacific Railroad
5644-469: The need to protect the rear of a stopped train. Bearings were improved and lineside detectors were used to detect hot boxes, which themselves were becoming rarer with more and more freight cars gaining roller bearings. Better-designed cars avoided problems with the loads which helped as well. The railroads also claimed a caboose was a dangerous place, as slack run-ins could hurl the crew from their places and even dislodge weighty equipment. Railroads proposed
5727-402: The normal lifetime of a freight car. Tradition on many lines held that the caboose should be painted a bright red, though on many lines it eventually became the practice to paint them in the same corporate colors as locomotives. The Kansas City Southern Railway was unique in that it bought cabooses with a stainless steel car body, and so was not obliged to paint them. Until the 1980s, laws in
5810-733: The old cars being used as cabins. A bay window caboose numbered FCD-17 is still being used by the Philippine National Railways for non-revenue maintenance trains. It was built in Japan in 1962 and is used as an inspection car by the Philippine National Police . Flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car , or flatbed ) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on trucks (US) or bogies (UK) at each end. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry extra heavy or extra large loads are mounted on
5893-417: The old stoves can be identified by several essential features. They were without legs, bolted directly to the floor, and featured a lip on the top surface to keep pans and coffee pots from sliding off. They also had a double-latching door, to prevent accidental discharge of hot coals caused by the rocking motion of the caboose. Cabooses are non-revenue equipment and were often improvised or retained well beyond
5976-404: The old style lamps. Large fixed pressurized kerosene mantle lamps were used in lighthouse beacons for navigation of ships, brighter and with lower fuel consumption than oil lamps used before. An early version of the gas mantle lamp, kerosene was vaporized by a secondary burner, which pressurized the kerosene tank that supplied the central draught. Like all gas mantle lamps, the only purpose of
6059-426: The rear of the train before they caused trouble. Lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices eliminated much of this need. Older freight cars had plain bearings with hot boxes for crews to spot overheating – as freight cars replaced these with roller bearings , there was also less need for cabooses to monitor them. Nowadays, they are generally only used on rail maintenance or hazardous materials trains, as
6142-502: The soot itself can ignite, and a "runaway lamp" condition can result. All unpressurized mantle lamps are based on the Argand lamp that was improved by the Clamond basket mantle. These lamps were popular from 1882 until shortly after WWII, when rural electrification made them obsolete. Aladdin Lamps is the only maker of this style lamp today. Even they, are now marketing electric fixtures that fit
6225-470: The spine car except that it is designed to carry lumber or utility poles , a skeleton car is composed of a center sill and lateral arms only. No deck, sometimes no side sills and sometimes no end sills. The arms can include pockets for Side stakes or tie-down points to secure loads. In some marine services, the linkspan between a ferry or barge and its dock is very weak. In order to avoid loss of cargo or heavy locomotives, an old flatcar (which
6308-508: The train for problems such as shifting loads, broken or dragging equipment, and hot boxes (overheated axle bearings, a serious fire and derailment threat). The conductor kept records and handled business from a table or desk in the caboose. For longer trips, the caboose provided minimal living quarters, and was frequently personalized and decorated with pictures and posters. Early cabooses were nothing more than flat cars with small cabins erected on them, or modified box cars. The standard form of
6391-525: The train from this perch. The invention of the cupola caboose is generally attributed to T. B. Watson, a freight conductor on the Chicago and North Western Railway . In 1898, he wrote: During the '60s I was a conductor on the C&;NW. One day late in the summer of 1863 I received orders to give my caboose to the conductor of a construction train and take an empty boxcar to use as a caboose. This car happened to have
6474-518: The train. The use of drover's cars on the Northern Pacific Railway , for example, lasted until the Burlington Northern Railroad merger of 1970. They were often found on stock trains originating in Montana . Although the caboose has largely fallen out of use, some are still retained by railroads in a reserve capacity. These cabooses are typically used in and around railyards. Other uses for
6557-410: The typical North American standard of four axles (one two-axle truck at each end), and may have a depressed center to handle excess-height loads as well as two trucks of three axles each (one at each end) or four trucks (two at each end) of two axles each, connected by span bolsters . Loads typically handled include electrical power equipment and large industrial production machinery. A circus train
6640-404: The wick-raising mechanism of the burner and allows the wick to be raised and lowered. The wick rides in between the inner and outer wick tubes; the inner wick tube (central draft tube) provides the "central draft" or draft that supplies air to the flame spreader. When the lamp is lit, the central draft tube supplies air to the flame spreader that spreads out the flame into a ring of fire and allows
6723-401: Was patented on May 4, 1869 . As noted in the patent, the "novel mode of constructing a lantern whereby the wind, instead of acting upon the flame in such a manner as to extinguish it, serves to support or sustain and prevent the extinguishment thereof." This improvement essentially redirected wind which might normally tend to extinguish the flame of an unprotected dead-flame lantern, instead
6806-658: Was an early adopter of the type, building their own bay window cars starting in 1942 and acquiring this style exclusively from then on. Many other roads operated this type, including the Southern Pacific Railroad , St. Louis – San Francisco Railway , Katy Railroad , Kansas City Southern Railway , the Southern Railway , and the New York Central Railroad . In the UK, brake vans are usually of this basic design:
6889-487: Was the state of Virginia, which had a 1911 law mandating cabooses on the ends of trains, until the law's final repeal in 1988. With this exception aside, year by year, cabooses started to fade away. Very few cabooses remain in operation today, though they are still used for some local trains where it is convenient to have a brakeman at the end of the train to operate switches, on long reverse movements, and are also used on trains carrying hazardous materials. CSX Transportation
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