You say Cabooses - I say Cabeeses

[Canadian Viking]

ChrisW,
In the early days of railroading before the invention of the Westinghouse airbrake (patented in 1872; made mandatory in 1893) brakemen were needed to apply, and then release, the brakes on each car in the train. The head end brakeman rode in the engine; the rear brakeman rode in the caboose. When the engineer gave the whistle signal to apply brakes, both brakemen could spring into action. Without a caboose, it would take twice as long to apply the brakes on the train, and also to release the brakes when the engineer wanted to pick up speed.

Until the days of dynamic braking on diesels (and electric engines), extra braking was needed when descending lengthy steep sections of track. The train would come to a complete stop at the top of the grade, and the two brakemen would walk the train and turn up the retainers on all, or a certain percentage, of the freight cars. This helped to maintain steady braking on the descent. At the bottom of the grade, the train had to stop again and the brakemen turned the retainer handles back down before proceeding. This contributed greatly to safer train handling in the mountains.

The increased surveillance of the train from the caboose, as Orange46 mentioned, became espcially helpful as train lengths increased and it was no longer possible to see the whole train from the headend.

[Ace of Spades]

When we were kids, we'd always used to get the guy in the caboose to blow the whistle :D .

[ChrisW]

Thanks, Orange and CV. I can see how that would help in the mountains, then, but somehow that doesn't sound like a 50% reduction overall including the non-mountain tracks. Oh, well, it's a game, not a simulation. 8)

[Just Crazy Jim]

In theory, the caboose served as a mobile shed containing oil for the bogies' hotboxes (the oil pan that lubricated the roller bearings on the axles), a place for the relief crew on long distance runs and most importantly a mobile office for railroad policemen (sometimes termed "bosses" by hobo culture). It was railroad policemen who gave hobos the "bum's rush", meaning to throw them off a moving train, usually resulting grave injury and via that conduit the term entered the vernacular. As late as 1990, the US legal system still empowered railroad police with extraordinary powers to protect cargoes on railroads and the security of the railroad in general (U.S. Crime Control Act of 1990, §1704). So, the caboose isn't just a decoration, but a vital part of the overall "safety and security" of a train in the real world. How it operates in RT3, well, that's another matter.

[Gumboots]

In RT3 it cuts the breakdown chance by 1/2.

[Just Crazy Jim]

In RT3 it cuts the breakdown chance by 1/2.

*snort*

[Gumboots]

Well, that's what it does. Seriously.

[undertoad]

Well, that's what it does. Seriously.

I never use them: except on those special trains, like the one that's been sat outside a Weapons Factory waiting for a 7-car load to take over the mountains to the one Barracks on the map in the middle of a war. (KERCHINNGGG!)

But at least now I know what that that constant noise is you sometimes get when your camera is hovered over one place on the map. The high-pitched honking noise.

Obviously, it's the wild cabeese, calling to each other as they migrate to a railway that appreciates them.

[RulerofRails]

These days I play with the sound off, but yeah.

[Gumboots]

Now I have a mental image of great herds of cabeese roaming the plains.

[sbaros]

Another meaningful utilisation of the caboose concept
The DDS skin will require a massive recolouring of course.