On Aug 21, 2006, at 10:42 AM, ed_mines wrote:

Last Friday night I taped a program on PBS about the canteen for
WWII soldiers in North Platt, Nebraska; the soldiers got off the
train when the locomotive took on coal and water and then reboarded
10 minutes later.

They showed one train consisting of 2 troop sleepers, 2 conventional
passenger cars and a caboose. I wonder how the caboose fit in?

Ed,

There are several possibilities -
1) The cars were so full of troops that the train crew needed the extra space.
2) The cars may have been destined to be dropped somewhere and the train crew needed a place to rid for the trip back.
3) The train may have been carrying additional freight cars with equipment, or due to pick up freight cars with equipment and the caboose would have carried the markers (and rear end crew) behind those cars. Note that after early 1943 this "mixed" MAIN was unusual but certainly possible.
4) It may just have been a convenient way to get a caboose where it was needed as the MAIN doesn't sound like it was even close to tonnage <G>.

Regards
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith
Auburn, AL
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Some days you are the bug, some days you are the
windshield."
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