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Description

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Type I-5 wooden-bodied steel-ended caboose C-2222 was built in 1929 at the B&O Washington, Indiana workshop rather than by a commercial builder. In 1957, it was converted to an I-5d caboose, whose floor was reinforced with concrete to prevent the car from breaking in half* when coupled to a pusher engine. The Chessie System repainted it yellow at the Chillicothe, Ohio workshop after taking over the B&O and operated C-2222 in West Virginia mining traffic until 1975, not too long before the 1980s saw the federal and state governments remove caboose requirements and let railroads replace them with end-of-train devices. In the 1980s, a private owner donated it to the B&O Railroad Museum, where it was repainted red and put on display. I wonder if an end-of-train device will ever make it to a museum -- it's an efficient piece of technology, but much less evocative of railroad history than an old red caboose.

* An actual hazard -- as dramatized in The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends when Douglas (as James's pusher) destroyed the Spiteful Brake Van

Description

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Type I-5 wooden-bodied steel-ended caboose C-2222 was built in 1929 at the B&O Washington, Indiana workshop rather than by a commercial builder. In 1957, it was converted to an I-5d caboose, whose floor was reinforced with concrete to prevent the car from breaking in half* when coupled to a pusher engine. The Chessie System repainted it yellow at the Chillicothe, Ohio workshop after taking over the B&O and operated C-2222 in West Virginia mining traffic until 1975, not too long before the 1980s saw the federal and state governments remove caboose requirements and let railroads replace them with end-of-train devices. In the 1980s, a private owner donated it to the B&O Railroad Museum, where it was repainted red and put on display. I wonder if an end-of-train device will ever make it to a museum -- it's an efficient piece of technology, but much less evocative of railroad history than an old red caboose.

* An actual hazard -- as dramatized in The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends when Douglas (as James's pusher) destroyed the Spiteful Brake Van