Caboose usage in the 1950's

Probably yes.  But, nothing is written in stone.

For years during the 1960's I would see the Congress Park Turn on the CB&Q 3 track racetrack coming back to Cicero's Clyde Yard from the Congress Park Interchange (4-5 miles away) with the IHB.  I don't recall ever seeing a caboose, just a red flag stuck in the knuckle of the last car.

Rusty

It seems to me that the GTW used cabs on most trains that left the yard limits. Back then, there were regs for crew members (brakees), markers, flagging capabilities, etc. There were no radios so hand signals were the norm. When yard limits were extended to mean most anything in the county, there were no regs that insisted on a five man crew (down to three. then to two) so everybody could ride the loco cab thus eliminating the need for the old crummies. Radios came along as did water closets on the locos and rear-end devices, so there were no further arguements to keep the cabs.

The most compelling arguement for the use of a caboose was safety. In territories that had regularly scheduled trains, the cabs were essential (rear brakemen, flagmen) to cover incidences where the train could be stalled. Without radio communications, everything was visual be it flags, lanterns, fusees, even in signalled territory.  

I do remember riding an old wood caboose from Pigeon to Brush Street Depot. After dark, it was almost spooky from the glow of the Aladin lamps. The ride was comfortable enough until we hit the Pontiac-Detroit corridor where the speed was increased to what must have been 50-60 mph. The ride turned into a bruising rocky bouncy affair all the way to Milwaukee Jct. That ride will never happen again; the cab, the steam loco, and even Brush Street Depot are now history.

Neil   

Generally any train would have a caboose at that time. But it would depend on several things. Some states required cabooses into the 1980's in state law. Some union contracts with the railroads stipulated when a caboose had to be used, and when a train required a conductor and brakeman. In general, railroads weren't required to use a caboose when inside yard limits (which could extend several miles beyond the actual yard), so you could see an engine taking a cut of cars from a yard to an interchange track without a caboose. However as a practical matter, having crewmen on the rear of the transfer would often be helpful so some type of 'transfer caboose' would be used.

GTW hit the nail on the head.  In addition to being the Conductor's office, it was required by rules that trains display markers on the rear and be able to provide flag protection to the front as well as to the rear, and the exact flagging requirement varied quite a bit, depending on the method of operation (CTC, ABS, Timetable and Train Order, Yard Limits, Block Register, etc.), and the flagging distance was normally specified in the Timetable.

A genuine branch line is still a Main Track, as defined by rules.  However a spur, siding, yard track "Secondary" or a "Running Track" is usually an "auxiliary track" and typically did not require protection by flag.  Also, to provide a way for a road switcher or a "drill" to operate on a portion of a main track without providing flag protection, there were train order Forms to allow the road switcher to occupy the track without flag protection.  Yard Limits (which is not on yard tracks, but is a method of being authorized to occupy the main track) would allow a train to occupy without markers or flag protection.

So, in the 1950's, trains doing primarily switching of customers within a short distance and returning to their starting point (instead of operating point to point) did sometimes operate without a caboose.  Locals and through freight trains did use cabooses, and there were union agreements specifying a lot of things about the construction and handling of cabooses on specific railroads or portions thereof.  The Caboose was very important to the freight Conductor of the 1950's, and they were reluctant to share them or give them up.