page_title: Caboose
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Caboose / Types
caption_attribution_description: English: A former Milwaukee Road cupola caboose on display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay Photo by Sean Lamb (User:Slambo), April, 2004
context_page_description: A caboose is a manned North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles.
  Originally flatcars fitted with cabins or modified box cars, they later became purpose-built with projections above or to the sides of the car to allow crew to observe the train from shelter. The caboose also served as the conductor's office, and on long routes included accommodation and cooking facilities.
  A similar railroad car, the brake van, was used on British and Commonwealth railways. On trains not fitted with continuous brakes, brake vans provided a supplementary braking system, and they helped keep chain couplings taut.
  Cabooses were used on every freight train in the United States until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. Developments in monitoring and safety technology, such as lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices, resulted in crew reductions and the phasing out of caboose cars.
context_section_description: The form of cabooses varied over the years, with changes made both to reflect differences in service and improvements in design. The most commonly seen types are:
caption: A cupola caboose at the US National Railroad Museum
exif: {}