05/20/2026
From the 1830s until the late 1980s, the last car on almost every freight train was the caboose.
The caboose was the train’s office and repair facility, where paper records and spare parts were stored, as well as the cupola, from which crew monitored the train. As the times changed, so did technology, development of the “Flashing Rear End Device” also commonly called the “End Of Train Device” is a small box that as the name suggests, periodically flashes red as the train goes down the tracks, along with communicating to the head end locomotive and giving important data. This device rendered cabooses unnecessary, and most were retired from active service, though some remain on railroads today used as “shove platforms”.
While our friends at the Steam Railroading Institute were running Pere Marquette 1225 on Lake State Railway this past weekend, they also had a rare opportunity to run a freight train with the 1225 up front. On the end of this freight train was their C&O caboose No. 3674. A sister caboose to our own C&O caboose 3577, it was very nice to see the steam engine running on the mainline, but also the caboose at the back!
