The Willamette and Pacific is part of a group of short lines controlled by the Portland and Pacific, operating on various branch lines of the former Class 1 railroads in Oregon. I see it running local trains on the former BNSF tracks alongside hwy 99 as drive out to my favorite home improvement store.
Today I caught this extra-short train, which reminded me of so many beginner toy train sets that came with about the same number of cars, and a caboose too. I don’t know why the W&P still runs cabooses, but they do. Locomotive 2333 is a GP-39-2, a former Santa Fe unit.
In addition to this short video, I have some shots that I took a few years back.
Number 1801, an elderly GP-9E, is rolling some coal as it heads out of the yard with a load of logs headed for one of the mills; Seneca, most likely.
At another intersection further north, I caught it again.
Here’s 1803, another GP-9E, and 1801 taking a break.
I love the paint job on these two old high-hood Geeps, especially the “Radio Equipped” sign on the hood of 1801. Lionel, anyone?
The paint scheme on the 1801 is a commemoration of the Southern Pacific “Black Widow” livery that was applied to SP freight diesels beginning after World War II to 1958. Since locomotives were repainted only as necessary and during full overhauls, the scheme could be seen on various classes of SP diesel power right up to their retirement or, in the case of the GP-9, to their total rebuild in the 1970s. In my younger days with SP, I worked on them frequently. After moving on to another career, I photographed two GP-9Es, which had run away unattended, as they fell off a lift bridge near Napa, CA in October, 1983.
The caboose is used as a “shoving platform.” In any reverse move, called a “shove,” a crew member must be on the leading end of the shove. On a long shove, it is much safer to be on a caboose platform than hanging onto a ladder on the side of a freight car. In addition, having a caboose as a shoving platform allows connection of an air hose with a brake valve and air whistle. Equipped thus, the conductor at the leading end of the shove can stop the train by opening the air valve, putting the train into emergency braking and automatically putting the locomotive into idle. The whistle can be used as a warning and is blown where roads cross the railroad. Thus, the train does not have to stop at grade crossings. Otherwise the conductor would have to get off from his perch on a ladder, walk across the road, stop traffic with a red flag or visually confirm that any errant, impatient motorists have stopped, and only then signal the engineer by hand signal or radio to proceed. The train would then shove into the grad crossing and stop for the conductor to reboard onto the ladder.
With “rationalization” of trackage, often sidings, where a locomotive can run around a train to pull it in the opposite direction, are converted to spur tracks or storage tracks, making long shoves necessary.
Very interesting about the caboose. Was shoving the main purpose for cabooses in the past? I’ve always been a bit curious why the caboose was common in the past but hardly ever seen in the modern era.
Cabooses were used for crews for switching and maintenance before electronics rendered them obsolete on the major lines
Cabooses had a few purposes. As noted, switching was one – lining a switch back to the main line after eg exiting a siding, without making someone walk the whole length of the train. Also as noted, letting the train apply brakes from both ends – it takes time for the pressure to drop the further back the train you go, so it can be quite a long delay from when brakes are applied
by yhe engineer untill all the cars actually have their brakes braking.
The other important function was watching the train for smoke, indicating stuck brakes or failed bearings. This is why the classic caboose has a cupola in the middle – they sat up high and looked out at the train in front of them.
Centralized control made the first purpose unnecessary; the “EOT device” (end of train), which connects to the air brakes at the rear of the train and connects to the cab via radio, took care of the second; and automated “hot box” detectors placed every so often along the track eliminated the need altogether, except in limited circumstances like this one.
Thanks for the insight!
I worked in a terminal on a Class 1 with 6 cabin cars, as we called them. Used every day.
Those needs listed above were never totally eliminated in all places. One thing that is important about the railroad, no two locations work the same. There are always oddities, which made having no seniority very informative.
There are plenty of unsignaled miles in the US, without detectors. Not all signals are CTC either, some lines still need paper authority to run on even with block signals.
Even in CTC a crew might need to shove back miles to work industries along a line. I’ve spent most of a night shoving up a main into sidings here and there, then running back with my haul, or the other way around.
Our cabins had air whistles for grade crossings, I think they scared cars more than horns because they were unusual and shrill.
My photo of GP-9E SP 3781 rolling unattended at around 20 mph into the Napa River at the Brazos lift bridge on October 23, 1983. The original Kodachrome is MUCH better. This was screen-shot from a website* that published the story years later. The incident was written up in TRAINS Magazine, February 1984.
*URL…text tells the whole story.
http://nilesdepot.org/niles/wreck.html#2
I’ve got a film scanner if you still have the Kodachrome. How did you get there in time to get the shot?
I resorted to the screenshot because the Kodachrome is put away safely but not accessibly! I do have a film scanner but haven’t scanned it…it’ll be 35 years next month!
I got there by coincidence. I wanted a photo of the whole train (it was short and much like the local that Paul photographed) on the bridge. But I only got two locomotives…they had been uncoupled in the nearby yard.
Neat! That train sounds much quieter than full size trains under full load that I usually see. I always roll my window down, particularly if I am close, to get the full effect. I love the sound and the feel of the massive power.
I have never seen lumber stake cars like that in person, as far as I remember. I imagine they are quite common in the PNW.
I never considered myself a railroad enthusiast (though I do quite enjoy the history and relecs of the past) but whenever I see a small freight load like moving through a sparsely used branch line I feel like a little kid amazed by the world’s wonders again. Being like a full sized toy train set perfectly sums it up.
The caboose is the best part though, I must have been 5-6 years old the last time I saw a freight train with one.
I think I’m about 10 years older than you, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real, working freight train with a caboose. I’ve only ever seen them in museums and such. But that may be because the railroad that passed through our town was just a small branch line and they only trains that came through were extremely short ones like the one in Paul’s video. Or maybe Norfolk Southern, who owned the line, just stopped using cabooses earlier than others.
Railroads ditched cabooses in the ’80’s except for the State of Virginia which required them through 1989. When I worked for CSXT, for a northbound train, we would have to put a caboose on in Rocky Mount, NC and then take it off in Benning Yard in D.C. or sometimes in Baltimore. Virginia’s century old law was silly and finally went away (in no small part because CSXT was headquartered in Richmond at the time). As others have noted, reduced crews and technological enhancements to end of train devices (EOT’s) obsoleted them.
Based on operating rules, occasionally there would be a requirement such as a backing move over a mile in length, etc. but those types of moves are largely not done any longer. The rules required that a caboose be manned by a minimum number of crew members so the nomenclature was changed to “shoving platform” for those long reverse moves. That way they could be staffed by only one individual.
I spent about 26 years in the class one, regional/short-line & passenger rail business and I saw many changes over those years.
This would have had to be 94ish, and most likely on the Milwaukee line through Roselle IL. It was a noteworthy sight then, my Mom found it worth pointing out to me. I just remember the caboose looked very decrepit, and there was a red light on the back. I think it was Soo line
Union Pacific runs one of these short trains here called, if I recall correctly, the Madera Flyer. I see it regularly on the tracks here about, we’ve somewe’ve a fair amount of light industry making things like pipe and toolings. (We don’t just make thugs!)
The Madera Flyer also has a caboose, and I seem to recall that it was used for the same reasons G. Poon mentioned. Ours, of course, is utterly covered in gang graffiti as mandated by the state constitution, article 4, paragraph B, subsection 3450.65, “mandatory graffiti on every last public surface”.
Weren’t those GP9s set up with that dual cab as some sort of job preservation scheme?
Amazing that such short, mixed trains are even viable.
Logs coming to the Bucksport mill (my hometown) by train ended decades ago, 1980’s? After that it was all by truck, most recently as chips until the mill closed a couple of years back.
BTW, I almost ended up working for that railroad. Back in the 90’s they were searching nationwide for experienced crew. The guy I spoke with was going to put me right on the Albany switcher, whatever that was.
Now they’re owned by a moronic conglomerate out of Florida with notoriously high turnover. Whenever you’re around that property, give yourself room to get away from a derailment.
Two reviews in here by Oregonians…
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Genesee-&-Wyoming-Inc./reviews?fjobtitle=Conductor
The moronic conglomerate is out of Connecticut. I used to work for them and they have a big operation in Florida but headquarters is in CT. Actually moronic is being kind……
This makes me wonder if there is some major train fan who has a large amount of private land and has a full size train like this that is a “toy”. For fun he makes 3 or 4 laps around the spread, parks it in the round house, and calls it a day. I’ll bet he’s out there somewhere.