Up until about 1960, many railroads assigned each caboose to a specific conductor for their exclusive use. If a train crew had to lay over at a distant town, generally the engine crew ate in a beanery in town and slept in a Railroad YMCA or boarding house. The conductor and rear brakeman (and flagman if there was one) generally cooked their own meals in the caboose and slept in the bunks in it. By the later 1960s, I think most railroads had gone away from that - although I think some early 1970s BN cabooses had a "P" on them to indicate they were in "pool" service rather than assigned to one conductor, so perhaps it lasted a bit longer there?
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