Hello,
I picked up a few back issues of TRAINS magazine over the weekend at the Western America Railroad Museum.
One magazine (dated August,1990) was dedicated to the history and demise of the Caboose, telling of its usefulness, charm, and popularity, as well as its sometimes being a dangerous place to ride, and finally being retired and replaced with EOT devices and other sensors which eliminated the necessity of a rear Brakeman and a rolling office for the Conductor.
I'll quote from one of the many Caboose articles in the magazine:
"Its charm and heritage not withstanding, the Caboose, perforated with openings and filled with obstacles for its occupants, was an inherently dangerous vehicle to board and ride."
"Caboose lore is filled with stories of smashups, injuries, and deaths brought about by short flagging, overlooked meeting points, switching errors, derailments, and train break-in-twos. Rear-end collisions were a leading cause of premature retirement for cabooses, but an oveturned oil lamp could quickly incinerate a wooden car, and a track washout could spell doom for even the sturdiest steel Crummy."
"Slack from the engineer starting a long consist (especially with the instant throttle response common with steam locos), could cause a whiplash which could throw a man from a platform or cupola, smash him into bulkheads and tables, and break enough bones to abbreviate his career at an early age."
(Remember the scene in "Emperor of the North" where the brakeman in the caboose suffers a broken back from the whiplash caused by the sudden application of the train's emergency brake when the hobo (Lee Marvin) applied it with his foot while riding the rods under a freight car?)
Of course, there were nice things written about the Hack in other articles in this issue, including one dedicated to locating and purchasing a Caboose for private display!
BAD ORDER
