Why don freight trains have cabooses anymore???
— George, Dallas Dear George: Don’t need ’em, and besides, it’s cheaper this way. There used to be two guys in the caboose: the conductor and a brakeman. The conductor did paperwork, the brakeman threw switches, and they both watched for “hotboxes” (overheated freight car wheel bearings). They also radioed useful tidbits of information about the train (e.g., there’s been a little accident) to the engineer. Today virtually all mainline switch-throwing is done electrically from the central office, roller bearings have eliminated most hotboxes and trackside infrared sensors catch the rest, the conductor can do his paperwork in the locomotive, and the useful tidbits of information are provided to the engineer by a soulless machine (see below). So it’s curtains for the caboose. What you see instead on the end of the train is a gizmo called an “end-of-train device” (ETD) that (1) senses motion, (2) monitors the pressure in the air brake line, and (3) automatically radios its findings to a re
