ConRail Cabooses

August 1988

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ConRail Cabooses
  • Title
  • ConRail Cabooses
  • Creator
  • Kobus, Ken
  • Date
  • August 1988
  • Identifier
  • 200618.2.2.86
  • Description
  • Two CONRAIL cabooses at the Conway Yard, in Conway, Pennsylvania. A caboose is used by the conductor as an observation point for the train in front of him. The two pictured cabooses, both featuring bay windows, were used by the conductor to monitor the cars in front of the caboose to look for derailments and shifting loads. The role of the caboose and the conductor was changed once the "FRED" system was introduced to the freight railroad community in the 1980s. "FRED", or flashing rear-end device, is a device used on freight trains in lieu of cabooses. This device is used for braking, preventing derailments, alerting following trains of the train in front of them, and monitoring for accidental car separation. The "FRED" is linked to the computer display system in the locomotive for the engineer to see, this computer system is referred to as 'WILMA" by most railroaders.
  • Type
  • still image
  • Genre
  • photographs
    slides (photographs)
  • Subject
  • Cabooses (Railroads)
    Railroad cars
    Railroad tracks
    Railroad yards
    Railroad trains
    CONRAIL
  • Geographic Subjects
  • Conway (Pa.)
  • Source
  • Ken Kobus Photograph Collection, 1980-1990
  • Contributor
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Collection
  • Ken Kobus Collection
  • Rights Information
  • In Copyright. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/