Today's image was taken near the Topeka Kansas train station as well. You can catch a glimpse of it to the left. This Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe caboose was sitting there the day I went to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Shops. It seemed a bit odd at the time because you don't see many around these days and in looking at my photo there seems to be something else odd with it. I see nowhere on it in the photo that it is marked for BNSF. Makes me wonder if it is one someone has purchased and is in the process of being delivered? A note as well, Passenger Trains never used cabooses, they were only used I freight trains.
Great find.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that it is used as a "shoving platform." Down where I am at, CSX has a caboose that has all the windows welded up, like this caboose, and they use it when a train is shoved down a local branch line. A crew member stands on the caboose's platform and watches the path of the train since the engineer cannot see. It is entirely possible that the caboose has just never been officially patched for BNSF.
Thanks Tom! Very interesting info. Sounds logical.
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