After the stock market crash of 1929, the Burlington decided to build a new set of steel waycars to help replace older wooden waycars in mainline service between Chicago and Denver. Between February and April 1930, twenty-five steel-bodied waycars were constructed at the Aurora shops in Aurora, Illinois, and were classed NE-10. While most railroads in the United States called the car at the end of a train a caboose, the Burlington used the term waycar, a name believed to have originated around the turn of the century from older passenger cars converted for use as Way Freight Rider Cars or Way Freight Cabooses, then shortened to a single word. The term was adopted by Burlington employees, and Burlington cabooses thereafter became known as waycars. The waycar originally provided space for additional crew members needed to operate a train, especially before air brakes, when one or more brakemen had to go over the top to manually set brakes on each freight car. The conductor used the waycar as a mobile office for waybills and paperwork and as lodging during layovers away from home; at one time, waycars were assigned to individual conductors, who could personalize them, and some were even retired when their conductors retired. Waycars also carried passengers on local mixed freights and served as drover cars with extra bunks for men accompanying livestock to market, who helped unload, feed, and water the animals on long trips as required every 28 hours by government rules. From the cupola, the crew helped protect the train by watching for smoke from hot-boxes, dragging equipment, boxcar doors that had opened, rough or defective track, and hobos or other non-ticketed passengers trying to board at stops for fuel or water. Railroads used waycars for business, safety, and public relations, but with the arrival of the electronic age, satellites, and rear-end telemetry, the need for waycars became obsolete.