WHY ARE CABOOSES/CABEESES RED?

[NW Mailing List]

Caboose: Websters International says for first definition:
Caboose: that is is probably from the Dutch kabuis, kombuis or Middle Low 
German kabuse; 1.also Camboose: a: a deckhouse where cooking is done: ship's 
galley b: an open-air cooking oven: 2: hut 3: a freight-train car usually 
attached to the rear of a train mainly for the use of trainment in the 
performance of their duties although sometimes used to transport passengers, 
esp livestock caretakers.
Second definition: Caboose, slang calaboose.

Interesting word source isn't it.
Cal Reynolds.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: WHY ARE CABOOSES/CABEESES RED?



>> Plurals: Absolutely, "cabeeses" is not correct. Please drop that final 

>> "s".

>>

>> Actually, "cabooses" is correct, but who wants to be tongue-tied trying 

>> to

>> speak about trains? If "geese" is good enough for the goose, it surely

>> should be good for a caboose. Write to your legislator!

>

> I'm not sure that there was ever an officially correct plural of caboose. 

> My 1900 Webster and 1954 Funk & Wagnals do not give any plural at all. 

> Wikipedia suggests that the proper term is generally accepted as 

> "cabooses", with "cabeese" being a more playfully used word.  For what 

> it's worth, my spell checker is fine with "cabooses", but doesn't like 

> "cabeese".

>

> In John H. White, Jr.'s "The American Railroad Freight Car" there are 23 

> pages about cabooses.  He uses the term "cabooses" a handfull of times, 

> including a quote from 1883.  For the most part, he uses the term "cabin 

> cars" to describe the plural.  This may be a reflection of the earlier 

> name for the car, however, since he uses "caboose" and "cabooses" with 

> more frequency as the subject date progresses.

>

>> Color: Wild guess, same reason barns were red. But don't remember why -

>> probably cost vs protection of wood from weather.

>

> I found this Trains article about cabooses. 

> <http://trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=276>

> Here is an excerpt, dealing with the color:

> "Most railroads painted their cabooses "boxcar red" for high visibility. 

> However, after World War II, the "little red caboose" showed up in many 

> different colors, typically associated with the paint schemes found on the 

> railroads' new diesel locomotives. The colorful caboose with its 

> railroad's logo and paint scheme presented a rolling image for everyone to 

> see."

>

> Many cabooses were boxcar red, if for no other reason than red oxide paint 

> is about the cheapest paint to manufacture, being basically ground up rust 

> in some form of carrier (usually linseed oil at the time).  This is the 

> same reason that oxide red became known as "boxcar red." Railroads, 

> especially in the earlier years, were usually more concerned with getting 

> equipment on the road as cheaply as possible, with the minimum of 

> decoration, fuss, or bother.  A caboose was (eventually) accepted as a 

> necessity on most roads, but there was no reason to make it fancy or 

> pretty.  The car shops already had lots of red oxide paint around, so why 

> not paint the caboose that color as well?

>

> Bright red cabooses became more common later on, which I suspect has 

> multiple causes.  For one, a brighter color increased visibility, and 

> therefore safety.  Around WW2, paint in any color became more widely 

> available (on a commercial scale), so there was less of an economic 

> incentive to use oxide red.  Red, being seen as the "traditional" color 

> for the caboose, would have gone from oxide red to bright red.  Bright, 

> colorful diesels and a hopeful age called for more colorful equipment all 

> around, and what more fitting symbol than the little red caboose? Also, a 

> train was (and still is today) required to carry a red marker on the 

> rear - anything red by day, and a red reflector or light by night. A 

> bright red caboose served as a rear marker, even if it wasn't displaying 

> any lights at all.  To a railroader, red marks the rear of a train.

>

> That said, as mentioned above a caboose could be almost any color of the 

> rainbow.  The very earliest cabooses were often decommissioned box cars or 

> flat cars, done by the train crew, and therefore might have had no paint 

> at all, or whatever color they had handy.  Yellow and cream were popular 

> colors for early cabooses built by railroads - very possibly to make them 

> more visible, as well as matching common passenger car colors.

>

> Kenneth Rickman

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