03-10-2009, 10:25 AM
Josh, if you go to the So Cal Railfan Forum and search for "Santa Fe or BNSF caboose" you will find a post I submitted a few years ago titled "I saw a caboose." There is some interesting information that was contributed by members on that site. BNSF still runs a caboose on the Corona local and I think they have 2 cabooses on the La Mirada local. The Corona local runs backward into the Corona siding where the local is tied up at night. I'm not sure how far out they run, but I would guess they go forward out of Corona and when finished they run backwards to get home. I also found out on that thread that other railroads may call them "shoving platforms," but the BNSF still calls them cabooses. I'm not sure about the practice of the U.P., but the S.P. used to use cabooses for the railroad police. They had RAILROAD POLICE stenciled on the side of the caboose in large letters. I suspect they used the caboose to transport the police to an area, they also might have used it as a temporary holding cell for people they arrested.