When did Conrail stop using cabooses?

When did CR stop using their cabooses on their trains? Did a search.......

Pinewald Station wrote:

When did CR stop using their cabooses on their trains?

I was just re-reading the 2-volume set on the history of Conrail published by Railpace Publishing back in the early 1990's. While they don't list a specific date they do list several pieces of legislature that led to reduced crew levels on trains. An educated guess would be that the move to going caboose-less started in 1981 after the passing of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Among other things that Act allowed Conrail to layoff 20,000 employees (many who were train crew I'm sure), and to exempt Conrail from the full-crew laws that many states had in effect at that time.

Hopefully a Conrail employee can further detail things for you...I'm just taking an educated guess based on the information I read.

It happend system wide 1984-1986.

I started taking train photos in 1983, Southern Tier Main, NY state,
in 1984 cabooses were still in normal use, nearly ever train still had one..
by 1987 it was over, they were gone on mainline trains.

Scot

Thanks for the answers. I was going to model a CR line from the late 80s to early 90s and didn't think they still had hacks then!!

Technically they never stopped using cabooses, however their use after the mid-1980s was limited to local trains that may have needed to perform back-up operations; for instance the locals out of Geneva NY, one of which worked the mainline, both had assigned cabooses in 1992-1995. When the lines were sold to Finger Lakes, one local was moved to Lyons and kept it's caboose. They could commonly be found in Rochester and Buffalo at that late date. There were even a couple in Anderson IN in the mid-90s, although they appeared to be long out of service.

lvrr325 wrote:Technically they never stopped using cabooses, however their use after the mid-1980s was limited to local trains that may have needed to perform back-up operations; for instance the locals out of Geneva NY, one of which worked the mainline, both had assigned cabooses in 1992-1995. When the lines were sold to Finger Lakes, one local was moved to Lyons and kept it's caboose. They could commonly be found in Rochester and Buffalo at that late date. There were even a couple in Anderson IN in the mid-90s, although they appeared to be long out of service.

I think there were 1 or 2 cabs in Syracuse as well I and I beleve and 1 in Utica?? Seems like there were a few outhers. I recall Lyons have 2 Cabs and 2 locos in the early 90's. When CSX took over Lyons got 1 Unit and 1 Caboose.

Utica could have had one prior to selling the line to the north to the MA&N but I never saw one there.

That I know of Syracuse had none, had no need for one, none of the locals had any long backup moves to need them. I certainly don't remember seeing any in that period.

lvrr325 wrote:Utica could have had one prior to selling the line to the north to the MA&N but I never saw one there.

That I know of Syracuse had none, had no need for one, none of the locals had any long backup moves to need them. I certainly don't remember seeing any in that period.

The cabs that I rember seeing in Syracuse go back to the early to mid 90's were back near the MOW storage area one or two at most could it be possable that they were passing threw? or could they may have been part of the train that serviced Oswego or Fulton??

One did sit derelict in Oswego before it was finally scrapped. But I never saw them being used on trains back and forth.

We still have a pool of Conrail cabooses up in Rochester, NY, used for various local jobs that require long shove moves to be protected. A couple of Conrail cabooses survive in Oak Point Yard in the Bronx.

The correct term we were to use was not caboose or cabin but,"shoving Platform"(s). I got to ride in a bunch of real cabins too. If our job performed alot of back up moves,we got a cabin or the modified shoving platform,as per union rules. As to the reduced crews,I believe the 3rd man or Brakeman was bought out (eliminated) in 1992? on regular road trains,as we all got a big check. The two man crew was in effect earlier on the Van and or TV trains. The locals and yard jobs continued with 3 men.

There is still a caboose in use in Metuchen, although it isn't in the best of shape. Have to have one out there because the crew goes out onto Amtrak lines to do customers and with the Accela train flying by it's pretty dangerous to be on a Splat.

I there is also a CR caboose in use out in the Detroit area. I believe the number is 21300.

Conrail is still a legal entity in the form of owning and running three terminal railroads--one in Detroit (Livernois Yard or Junction Yard) in Southwest Detroit and two in the East.

AFAIK, CSX in Detroit got maybe as many as three or four of Conrail's old cabooses when NS and it bought Conrail about a decade ago. One caboose had seen regular use by CSX out by Plymouth--about twenty miles west and north of downtown Detroit. However, I have not seen it recently, but again I was not looking for it either...

95% of the cabooses still in use for local freights on NS/CSX or CSAO are xCR N-21 bay window cabin cars.
NS uses one of these on the H-83 local between Abrams and Coatesville due to it also being a "shoving" manuver.

Bri