Remote Control Shoving Platforms

[Mike Kieran]

Interesting example of a short local doing a reverse move. There is of course no doubt whatsoever that shoving platforms are used for lengthy reverse moves for local switchers. That is the express purpose for taking along a caboose as a shoving platform.

The move seems to be faster than I would have thought safe - if that train had hit a truck at a road crossing, the odds for survival without injuries for the conductor on the caboose would presumably not have been all that great?

Not very relevant for the question of taking a unit train of say 50 or 100 cars (give or take a few) hundreds or miles (or more) caboose first to avoid having to run the engines around the cars, going through a balloon track, or to have the engineer move to the cab of a locomotive at the other end of the consist.

Thanks for the videos.

Smile,
Stein

Actually, The Milford-Bennington Railroad runs the entire length of its mainline caboose first because there's no sidings on its entire route. The train runs empty caboose first up to the quarry in Bennington and returns engine first to the interchange at Bennington. This is where it would make sense to have a remote controlled caboose operating in a push-pull capacity. If it's a unit train running the same cars, you could conceivably run the MU lines the length of the train and operate the caboose as a cab car, just like on commuter trains (which operate with the engine pushing at high speeds).