For more than a century, the caboose rode at the tail end of the train — part office, part kitchen, part bunkhouse for the conductor and rear brakeman who kept watch over the cars ahead.
From the raised cupola, the crew could see the whole train and spot trouble: a hotbox smoking on an axle, a shifted load, a dragging brake. Down below were a coal stove, a coffee pot, fold-down bunks and a desk where the conductor kept the waybills that told each car where it was going.
Our restored Virginian Railway caboose #308 still wears its road markings. Step aboard and you can see exactly how a crew lived and worked the line — the narrow galley, the red-painted floor, and the lamp that lit their long nights on the rails.
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