Working the A&BB in Barberton

It’s around 1967-1969 in Barberton where the Akron & Barberton Belt caboose is tied on to some cars.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

On Foreign Tracks

A CSX train is using trackage rights eastbound on Conrail in Massillon in late 1998 or early 1999. This is the “Wooster Local” that served an orphaned piece of ex-Baltimore & Ohio  trackage in Wooster. The caboose was used for a backup move from Massillon to Warwick.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Between Assignments in Massillon

Western Maryland 5956 is in Massillon on June 11, 1978. Note that by now it is wearing Chessie system colors. It is parked in front of the long-ago removed ex-Baltimore & Ohio freight house along with a caboose.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

A Caboose on the CVSR

Private owner caboose FLNX 79896 operated for a short while on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. It is shown in Akron on March 12, 2016. That is Akron’s Y-bridge above, also known as the All-American Bridge

Photograph by Robert Farkas 

EL Monday: It’s Not the Lake Cities

By 1973, the condition of the tracks in Marion used by Erie Lackawanna and Penn Central was rough as can be seen in this image of a westbound EL train. In the consist is a passenger car that probably is being ferried somewhere. No, the EL had not gotten back into the passenger business by running mixed trains. The Lake Cities, the last EL intercity passenger train, had ceased operating in early January 1970.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

CVSR Caboose Rides Return on Saturday

The caboose used by the CVSR is shown at Boston Mill in November 2012.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad will resume offering caboose rides starting Saturday.

The caboose will be attached to the National Park Flyer, which departs Rockside Road station in Independence for a one-and-a-half hour roundtrip excursion.

The Flyer leaves Rockside Road on Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. and noon.

The caboose rides were last offered in early 2019 but were suspended in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caboose ride tickets at $25 per person. Children under the age of 3 do not need a ticket.

The caboose, which can seat up to 10 peoole, features a functional wood-burning stove and a cupola.

The trips will be offered through May 1. Historically, the caboose has only operated during the winter and spring months.

Working for Conrail Now

Although still painted in its Toledo Terminal livery, switcher 9300 was working for Conrail at the time this image was made. The date is March 30, 1983.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

A Locomotive and its Caboose

Conrail GP38-2 No. 8089 and its caboose are en route to their next assignment in Canton in May 1985. The unit was built for Penn Central in February 1973 and would later go to work for Norfolk Southern.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

It’s a Caboose!

They used to be on every freight train but then technology and labor reductions consigned them to a long list of things that used to be but are no more on America’s railroads.

But the caboose has a more romantic aura about it and was better known to most Americans than, say, an interlocking tower or trackside telephone booth.

Today the caboose is all but gone, primarily found on local trains. And even then it may not be a caboose per se but a shoving platform even if it used to be a caboose and still looks like one.

Shown is westbound Norfolk Southern local B23 in Goshen, Indiana, on the Chicago Line. The local originates in nearby Elkhart and works only as far east as Goshen before returning to the yard.

When I made this image on April 22, the B23 had two covered hopper cars and a caboose.

It may be battered and bruised but NS 555616 still has the classic look of a caboose and it’s still something out of the ordinary.

Rail Events Planned for Cincinnati Area

Various railroad related events are being planned for the Cincinnati area this spring.

These include resumption of service of the Cincinnati Dinner Train. Tickets can be purchased and other information is available at https://www.cincinnatidinnertrain.com/

The Cincinnati Railroad Club will participate in a National Train Day event on May 1.

CRRC board member Jim Corbett said the Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad has invited the club to set up a booth about/for the club.

Excursions that day will depart at trains departing at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

On May 15, a restored Southern Railway steel caboose, X554, will be moved in a parade down Elm Street in Ludlow, Kentucky, to a location on city property next to the city’s rail viewing platform.

The Ludlow Railroad Heritage Museum is hosting the move to the location at 49 Elm St.

A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for May 31 at the caboose. It will be the first time the caboose will be opened to the public.

The event will be held between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and has been dubbed “Party on the Plaza” by the Ludlow Heritage Museum.

There will be food and drink options and museum merchandise for sale including green tee shirts with an image of the caboose.