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Drover's Caboose

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#22 ·
prrfan said:
Those cars were not just used for drovers. They were also utilized in mixed train service as combination caboose and baggage car, hence the sliding doors. A full sized baggage car would not be necessary for the small passenger compliment of a mixed train. IIRC, there are some models with REA lettering.
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Yes, the photo in post #9 shows a drover with the REA lettering and your explanation makes sense. But if the primary purpose of these cars was for the shipment of livestock, the sliding doors must have something to do with the drovers themselves. Maybe they needed special equipment to handle the livestock? Just guessing, I'm a city kid from the East.
 
#23 ·
Gramps said:
But if the primary purpose of these cars was for the shipment of livestock, the sliding doors must have something to do with the drovers themselves. Maybe they needed special equipment to handle the livestock?
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One explanation I saw was that it was to accommodate the drovers’ horses. I know they carried horses in full sized combination cars, but these seem a little small.
 
#24 ·
They weren’t all that small….
Image


The drovers’ caboose was a unique part of American railroading tied to the shipment of livestock such as cattle and sheep. In 1906 Congress passed a law that required the feeding and watering of livestock on trains every 28 hours. Since most such shipment took longer than that, the railroads had to carry drovers, men who handled the livestock, along with those trains to comply with the law.
The drovers’ caboose was much longer than a typical caboose, because it served not only the train crew, but also the drovers assigned to watch after the livestock in shipment from the ranch to the processing plants. These cabooses had two separate sections. The rear section was the standard railroad crew portion with cooking and sleeping accommodations as well as the cupola or bay window. The front section was reserved for the livestock drovers.
These cabooses appeared usually in stock trains where the entire train was made up of livestock cars. They were also used on occasion when large shipments of livestock were mixed in with other freight. The drovers’ cabooses were always kept on the rear of the train since the cars’ primary purpose was still to serve as quarters for the conductor and brakemen and only secondarily as quarters for the drovers.
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Discussion starter · #26 ·
Gramps said:
But if the primary purpose of these cars was for the shipment of livestock, the sliding doors must have something to do with the drovers themselves.
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My guess... tack. It would be a lot easier to throw a western saddle through that sliding door vs. carrying it up the narrow steps a through the narrow end doors.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Nice Roundhouse caboose, Stumpy. I think you need to reverse the roof!

Back around 1976 I built two similar Roundhouse cabooses, non-drover style. Came in the same style box, has truss rods, etc.

Looks like the cupola roof and sides are different, but other parts are probably similar or the same. It looks like the overall dimensions are the same, too. Could be two "variations" they created from one basic kit.

Here's a pic I took a few minutes ago, with 45 years of age on it:
Image

I never bothered with decals. I think of it as a "generic" red caboose. Goes with anything...!
 
#30 ·
prrfan said:
One explanation I saw was that it was to accommodate the drovers’ horses. I know they carried horses in full sized combination cars, but these seem a little small.
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Bear with me, I feel like Alice going down the rabbit hole. I did a search for this and found nothing. Why do they need horses on the train? I wouldn't think they let the livestock off the train to feed and water them and when they get to their destination wouldn't the livestock go from the cattle car to a fenced in corral? Obviously I know nothing about railroads transporting livestock except for the fact that it happened.
 
#31 ·
Gramps said:
It seems that you would need these things on every caboose so why the sliding door only on drover's cabooses? :unsure:
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Side loading doors were optional. Some were wide “baggage” type, some were standard 36” doors. Some were on the Brakeman’s side, so e on the Engineers side, some had them on both sides. They were not uncommon, just seldom represented by the popular model makers.
 
#33 ·
Some examples of side loading cargo doors I mentioned in post 31.

FEC with a 36” door

BAR with a 36” door

IC with what I can only call a half-dutch 36” door

These are examples of side doors, the presence of which doesn’t make them Drover’s. Drover’s Caboose is an assignment for which a caboose is specifically outfitted as a bunk/camp car. On Drover’s the side doors were used the same as other side cargo doors, loading from a platform… in the case of Drover’s service I assume feed and whatever tools the handlers used for handling/wrangling the livestock in question (sheep, cattle, horses, hogs are handled differently). Again, it’s a rolling office for personnel. The livestock were transported in appropriate cars, not in the caboose.
I always liked side doors, but never saw one on a steel car until finding that BAR photo. I thought the side doors were outlawed around WWII for safety reasons. Speaking of that one, the BAR car is assigned to Drover service, the bunk windows are a dead give away. Looks like an 8 bunk arrangement.
 
#34 ·
Gramps said:
Bear with me, I feel like Alice going down the rabbit hole. I did a search for this and found nothing. Why do they need horses on the train? I wouldn't think they let the livestock off the train to feed and water them and when they get to their destination wouldn't the livestock go from the cattle car to a fenced in corral? Obviously I know nothing about railroads transporting livestock except for the fact that it happened.
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Yep, agreed, the horse explanation is unlikely or at best probably uncommon. Cargo and baggage are the most likely reasons for the sliding doors.
 
#37 ·
I used to see a crew member in the IC cabooses with the door/window open hanging out on the arm rest. They always waved.
 
#39 ·
Yep. I remember the times very well. Not too many drovers in Southern Illinois in the late 60s.
 
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