The crew on Canadian National 5261, with Illinois Central Caboose 199060 which has seen much better days, works on a pickup at Mounds, Illinois on the CN Centralia Subdivision during a wet, gloomy evening on December 29th, 2021.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Nikon 10-20mm @ 10mm, f/3.5, 1/200, ISO 1110.
Conductor Christopher Pollock keeps a watchful eye from the caboose as Norfolk and Western 475 heads west on the Strasburg Railroad on November 7th, 2021 at Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Irex 11mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 2800.
CSX Q533, with CSXT 3319 and 833 leading, pull past CSXT Operation Red Block Caboose 900068 (Cross Tracks Safely), after dropping a string of 27 cars off in the yard at New Johnsonville, Tennessee on the CSX Bruceton Subdivision during its daily run between Nashville and Memphis, TN.
According to the CSX Website: Operation RedBlock is CSX’s Drug and Alcohol Peer Prevention Program that is a union-initiated, management-supported program that uses peer involvement to prevent employee use of alcohol and/or drugs while on duty or subject to call. More than 3,000 operating employees at CSX are trained as prevention committee volunteers. Volunteers initiate activities and projects designed to educate co-workers about Operation RedBlock.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone, RAW, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/400, ISO 100.
Just something you don’t see much these days is a caboose on the end of a train, such as here where the B&Q 185th Anniversary Caboose bringing up the rear of CSX Q0648 as it passes the signal at the north end of Gibson Siding at Princeton, Indiana on the CSX CE&D Subdivision on May 1st, 2021.
I still remember as clear as day the times when this was an everyday occurrence and even manned with a crew, but today, it’s a rare occurrence and almost never with a crew. Mostly they’re in museums or used as shoving platforms for a crew when they’re working a yard or industrial complex that requires the conductor to ride on the end of the train as the engine shoves the train.
According to Wikipedia: A caboose is a manned 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, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles.
Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars, they later became purpose-built with projections above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train from shelter. 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 (the role has since been replaced by 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 until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. Developments in monitoring and safety technology, such as lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices, resulted in crew reductions and the phasing out of caboose cars. Nowadays, they are generally only used on rail maintenance or hazardous materials trains, as a platform for crew on industrial spur lines when it is required to make long reverse movements, or on heritage and tourist railroads.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone, RAW, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 100.
A GE employee looks out the door of Kasgro Rail Corporation (KRL) caboose 072 as CSX W991-29 heads north on the Henderson Subdivision at Casky Yard in Hopkinsville, Kentucky with a high and wide load for GE, on December 5th, 2020.
Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 600mm, f/6.3, 1/1000, ISO 450.
September 18, 2018 – Not something you see every day! CSX Q500 came through this afternoon with a rare sight on the end of it! CSX 900401 Operation Red Block safety caboose! Here it’s pulling out of the siding at the north end of Slaughters, Ky as it heads north on the Henderson Subdivision. – #jimstrainphotos #kentuckyrailroads #trains #nikond800 #railroad #railroads #train #railways #railway #csx #csxrailroad
November 4, 2017 – I’m amazed by what the camera can see that the eye doesn’t! When I pulled up to this spot with fellow railfan Ryan Scott, we both looked at the scene and man it’s dark!! I love how my full frame sensor captured all the ambient light and how it turned the slow moving clouds into almost what looks like the aurora borealis in some ways!!!
Here we see a CSXT 1543, a GP-15, tied to Chessie System Caboose 904138 on the City Lead that runs along next to Ohio Street in Evansville, Indiana. The set is used to work the industrial area around Berry Plastics and the caboose is used as the shoving platform.
ISO 100 for 30 seconds at f/6.3 with a Nikon 18mm lens on a Nikon D800.