I was just looking at some cabooses for sale and thought of a question for you guys. Could someone use a caboose for "private varnish"? If the car met the usual standards for titelock couplers, connections,etc. would Amtrak and the freight roads move the car? And how would a caboose handle, say mixed into a typical passenger train?
Just curious. Though small they are far cheaper than full size cars.
mw

p_michael_warren@yahoo.com

My guess is it would be difficult to get a caboose cleared for the speeds at which most Amtrack trains operate. I think most PV's are cleared for up to 90 mph, or higher. Passenger cars are built for that (even the older ones), where freight cars are not. With a lot of work on the trucks it might be theoretically possible, but I doubt that Amtrak put any effort in cooperating.

With regard to the freight roads, a caboose could probably be handled as "freight", but I doubt that any of the roads are still willing to handle occupied PV's. CSX did at one time, and the slack action just about trashed a car I was riding, not to mention to people on board.

> I was just looking at some cabooses for sale
> and thought of a question for you guys.
> Could someone use a caboose for
> "private varnish"? If the car met
> the usual standards for titelock couplers,
> connections,etc. would Amtrak and the
> freight roads move the car?

No. Cabooses are classified as freight equipment, and there's no way Amtrak would move it in their revenue trains. If you wanted the car moved over Amtrak owned lines, you'd have to pay for a special move.

You would probably have an easier time moving a caboose on a freight RR, although it's 99% certain they would insist on the car moving unoccupied and wouldn't guarantee where it was placed in the train.

> And how would a
> caboose handle, say mixed into a typical
> passenger train?
> Just curious. Though small they are far
> cheaper than full size cars.
> mw

They wouldn't handle well. Most modern freight trucks, unless equipped with special damping equipment, tend to hunt badly above 70MPH.

Even Amtrak's material handling cars are now restricted to 60MPH on certain freight carriers, and being phased out.

There's a whole host of other reasons why cabooses wouldn't cut it as private varnish, but the above are just the basics...


Fiv4HghStk@aol.com

> No. Cabooses are classified as freight
> equipment,
> They wouldn't handle well. Most modern
> freight trucks, unless equipped with special
> damping equipment, tend to hunt badly above
> 70MPH.

PRR and probably other roads had "passenger
equipped" cabooses to use instead of a coach as
a "rider car" on a solid train of "passenger
equipped" express, mail, refrigerator, and/or
baggage cars. They had passenger compatable
signal and steam lines, trucks, and brakes.
ConRail and/or Amtrak probably got some since the
last Railway Post Office train on the NorthEast
corridor outlasted PennCentral by 3 months! This
was the era when PRR's "Special Instructions for
Trains Authorized to Operate Over 80 M.P.H." only
went up to 90 or 100 mph. I don't recall
cabooses in the list of permitted equipment, but
I'll check again.
In the mid 1980s, New Hope & Ivyland tried to
find out if ConRail had any left, but the PRR N5c
cabooses available had gone through Reading Shops
in 1978 and emerged with standard freight
equipment, no matter what they might have had
before. Maybe Amtrak got some of the passenger
equipped variety. I doubt that there ever was
a "Heritage" caboose with Head End Power cables,
but can someone confirm? I never tried Amtrak
for a caboose, because the bosses bought a bay
window hack CR 24519 from ConRail and turned it
into a private car NHIR 447 with freight
equipment. It's now on the New Hampshire
NorthCoast Corp.

TyburnRR@cs.com