Western Pacific Railroad 428

Western Pacific 428 was part of Western Pacific's first order for steel-body cabooses, replacing the railroad's earlier wood-bodied cabooses with steel underframes. Western Pacific liked these cars so much that all future cabooses on the railroad were built by the same company, International Car, and shared a very similar design. Number 428 and its sister cars continued the bay window design of the railroad's later wooden cabooses, with large bays on either side of the body's center where crew members sat instead of riding in a traditional cupola on top of the car. Bay window cabooses first appeared on American railroads in the early 1920s, and Western Pacific built its first bay window caboose in 1942. The caboose had once served as the conductor's and trainmen's home away from home, where they slept and cooked meals until called for the return trip, but in the 1960s railroads began running cabooses through terminals and putting train crews up in motels and hotels, eliminating the need for sleeping bunks and food preparation areas. By the 1980s, technology allowed remote sensing of many aspects of the train, ending the last duties of the rear-end crew, and conductors began riding in locomotive cabs while cabooses, with only a few exceptions, were retired. Built by International Car Co. in November 1955, this steel bay window caboose was 37 feet long overall, weighed 49,500 pounds, and was donated by Union Pacific.

Portola, California · United States