Bobber Caboose – PC&Y 20 Previous Next Bobber cabooses – see our CO&E 0100 page for an explanation of the name – made for a rough ride for crew members keeping watch from the rear of the train. This wood-sided bobber was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1905 for use on its freight trains …
Steel Caboose – WM 1880 Previous Next Built to provide safe, functional accommodations for crew members at the rear of freight trains, the caboose is a symbol of the Classic Era of American railroading. Train conductors used cabooses as their offices to fill out forms, organize switch lists and do other paperwork. Other caboose crew …
160 Ton Wreck Crane – P&LE X300505 Previous Next Derailments, from the typically minor ones to the occasionally catastrophic incidents, disrupted the flow of trains along the railroad. If trains could not run, the railroad could not deliver goods and passengers, so companies staged wreck trains at most major terminals to be “on call” when …
Steel Caboose – W&LE 0222 Previous Next One of a handful of pieces in the Age of Steam with local ties, caboose 0222 was built in 1949 by the Wheeling and Lake Erie’s own Ironville (Toledo) Ohio car shop. The original Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway included a line that stretch from Zanesville northward all …
Bobber Caboose – CO&E 0100 Previous Next Getting their nickname from the way that a floating bobber danced in the water on the end of a fishing line, “bobber” cabooses tended to ride rough and jostle riders. This was primarily due to their short length and use of only two, “fixed” (i.e., non-swiveling) axles with …
Idler Cars – P&LE X300504 and NS 960088 Previous Next A railroad wreck crane’s constant companion was the idler car, sometimes known as a “boom car.” The idler car was typically a re-purposed flatcar or gondola which would be coupled directly ahead of the crane and below the crane’s long boom, allowing the crane to …
