What is a bunk car?

Used by railroad Maintenance of Way crews, bunk cars provide a place to sleep when working in remote areas. I would not consider it a replacement for a caboose. It is, however a key piece for your work train.

 

Gilly

A bunk car is more like a boxcar, with bunks. It would not be used in place of a caboose.

A bunk car is a car where employees sit around and expound thoughts and

beliefs that are exaggerated, untrue or are just plain hokum. Being thrown from your chair or stool by fellow employees for crossing the line is being "de-bunked". These

cars afford an attractive opportunity for companies L or M to expand their "chatter"

offerings.

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Just came back from watching "MIB 3"; Emma Thompson is still pretty hot.

 

 

Ok, but I've seen pictures of old boxcars converted to cabooses. Don't cabooses have bunks for sleeping in? Some cabooses are also called cabin cars right? You sleep in a cabin right? It's just weird. The terms and uses of railroad equipment. Today, there are cabooses, but they are not called cabooses. They are called Shoving Platforms.

 

Here's one made from a converted WWII Troop Sleeper. As mentioned before, they look more like a box car. Barry has a nice K-Line one for sale on the forum now.

 

Gilly

A caboose was designed for a conductor and a rear brakeman and a flagman - 3 or 4 people. It was a rolling office that enabled a crew to keep an eye on the train for anything out of the ordinary - a "hotbox" (overheated axle bearing), shifting loads, cars that were not tracking well for some reason. It came in handy when cars were set out and picked up.

A crew could sleep in a caboose but somebody had to keep an eye out for trouble and perform duties en route.

 

A bunk car was designed to provide sleeping quarters for a number of men, as explained in previous messages. It didn't have steps and platforms for easy access like a caboose, so it would not serve well in that role.

 

That said, a bunk car or two probably served as a caboose now and then, and vice-versa. Over the years just about anything could happen.

This link shows a pic of a ATSF boxcar converted to a caboose. http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfr46.jpg It kinda looks like a bunk car.

The late, great, Pennsylvania Railroad called their cabeese "cabins".

My Grandpap used to quip that the worst thing the rear brakeman could do was to show up for work fully rested. Meaning, to him, (a conductor) that getting some sleep in the cabin during a shift was an "expectation". 

 

Bunk cars were even made from out- of- service passenger cars....usually baggage and combine cars.

 

During WWII the PRR made cabins out of boxcars. Railroaders were very resourceful.

 

As everything they touched was heavy, tricks to handle everything from couplers to ties,to rails were taught as "the correct way to lift"

BTW ....there are no stupid questions....ask away ....this is the place to learn.....the guys on this forum are very well informed! Tom

Custom MTH Railking Bunk cars with my modifications –

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m looking to find more of these to paint.

Anyone wants to sell me some, please contact.

Flash

 

Reading Fan gave you a good explanation of the purpose of a caboose.

 

A caboose was designed for a conductor and a rear brakeman and a flagman - 3 or 4 people. It was a rolling office that enabled a crew to keep an eye on the train for anything out of the ordinary - a "hotbox" (overheated axle bearing), shifting loads, cars that were not tracking well for some reason. It came in handy when cars were set out and picked up.

 

The train crew was responsible for the safe operation of the train.  In the era prior to computers, radios and roller bearings that took several men and many pieces of equipment.  The caboose was their office and workshop. 

 

Every car in the train had associated paperwork to track it so it could be delivered to it's destination and the customer billed.  Without that paperwork the railroad would not know what work had been done and who could be billed.  If anyone from the flagman to the railroad president to was going to get paid the paperwork had to get done and the caboose was the conductors place to do it. 

 

The plain bearings used in interchange service prior to the 80s failed with some regularity.  The crew in the caboose kept a lookout for sparks or smoke and could often smell a hot bearing.  The caboose held tools and material for lubricating a failing plain bearing.  Bay windows or cupolas were designed to assist crews in looking for signs of failing bearings along with shifting loads or dragging equipment. 

 

The caboose also provided a place to monitor air brake pressure at the rear end of the train and make an emergency brake application if necessary. 

 

The caboose also had brackets to hold markers, lights at night and lights or flags in the day, to provide a visual indication of the end of the train.  If the train stopped at a time of place where another train might approach from the rear the flagman would walk behind the train a sufficient distance to provide visual stop signals to an oncoming train.  The flagman's torpedos, fusees and flag were carried in the caboose. 

 

The caboose would also be equipped with other tools and parts to make simple car repairs on the road as well as other safety equipment including a first aid kit.  It would also have drinking water, a toilet and a stove for heating an cooking.

 

If a bunk car was equipped with all of the above it might be pressed into service as a caboose but would likely be restricted to local service.

 

The photo you linked to is quite interesting.  It is an old truss rod underframe box car in service as a caboose.  It lacks a bay window, cupola, end platforms or corner steps.  However, it has had steps added below the open side door.  It has markers and a stove.  Note the trainman keeping a lookout forward from the rear window.  The interior is likely rather spartan but would be tolerable in balmy southern California in the 1930s or 40s and has adequate space to carry the required equipment.  During WWII many railroads dealt with equipment shortages in creative ways.  Turning an old box car or MOW car into a bare bones caboose for local service could free up a proper caboose that had been on a local for work on mainline trains.

 

Cabooses would often have long bench seats that could serve as a bunk for two or three men.  There was usually not enough bunk space for the entire train crew let alone the engine crew.  Train and locomotive crews would usually bunk in a hotel or find other accommodations if off duty and held away from their home terminal. 

 

Since the 1980s plain bearings have been banned from interchange service.  EOT devices serve as markers and to monitor brake pressure and report it to the locomotive.  Radios are used to report a stopped train to dispatchers and other trains.  Automated detectors monitor for hot boxes and dragging equipment.  The functions served by a caboose are performed in other ways.  Some cabooses continue in use in local or work train service.  Those in use as simple "shoving platforms" lack the equipment required to truly function as a caboose.

 

As stated above, bunk cars were used to provide sleeping space and usually a lot of it.  They were not normally equipped to perform the functions of a caboose.

 

Another type of car with sleeping accommodations was a drovers car.  A drovers car was provided by some railroads to stockmen accompanying a shipment of animals.  They were typically converted from an older car, often a passenger car or caboose.  Here is a former box car converted to a bay window caboose and then converted to a drovers car

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Believe it or not this former 36 foot box car remained in service into the 1970s on the Burlington Norther!  By then not even cattle on their way to the slaughter house would sleep in a railroad car. 

Ted,

 

If by plain bearing you mean solid journal or friction-bearing, you're actually off by about a decade.

 

The first friction bearing interchange ban started in January 1991 when they were prohibited for cars carrying hazardous materials.  Non-hazardous cars followed in  January of 1994, then trucks converted from friction to roller bearing were banned from interchange the following year.

There were a few exceptions made for shippers under financial hardship that couldn't meet the mandated deadlines.  This resulted for a brief period in which some friction bearing cars could be seen in interchange service after the ban, but eventually everyone was in compliance.