Vol. 18 No. 1
January, 1988
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Make Tomorrow Happen
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Cabooseless Trains
Permitted by RTC
Operations Subject to Conditions
CPR steel caboose number 438730.
Ottawa - The Railway Transport Committee (RTC) of the Canadian Transport
Commission (CTC) last month gave Canada's two major railways qualified approval to operate freight trains without
cabooses. However, the operation of cabooseless trains will be subject to numerous conditions and safeguards.
The decision permits the railways to replace the caboose with an End-of-Train Information System (ETIS),
an electro-mechanical monitoring device, and relocate the caboose crew to the locomotive cab.
In reaching its decision, an RTC panel, which examined the cabooseless train issue, pointed to the "vast
number" of technological developments in the railway industry that have taken place during the last two decades.
Advances such as the introduction of hot box and dragging equipment detectors, hot wheel indicators, roller bearings,
and modern signal and communications systems have had a cumulative effect on the traditional role of the caboose and
its crew, the panel said.
"Taking all this into account, we are convinced that the railways have now reached a stage in the development of
technology which permits the removal of cabooses... without overall additional risks to the safety of the employees
and the public, providing certain conditions involving the use of modern technology and changes in operating
practices are met", the RTC said in its decision 14 Dec 1987.
CABOOSELESS OPERATIONS TO BE MONITORED
The railways must meet a total of 37 conditions before allowing cabooseless train operations to occur, it said.
For example, in addition to the ETIS, trains also will be required to be equipped with an end-of-train
emergency braking feature and a distance-measuring device. Marshalling of cabooseless trains will be
controlled and limited, especially those carrying dangerous commodities.
Cabooseless trains will not be allowed to operate over a distance in excess of 96.5 kilometres without having passed
an operational hot box and dragging equipment detector or without an employee inspection.
A cabooseless train will not be permitted to leave a crew change point unless all the components of the ETIS are
functioning properly. If any component should fail enroute, a cabooseless train must proceed to the next crew change
point at a speed not exceeding 40 kilometres an hour, the RTC said.
The RTC will monitor cabooseless train operations. Any reportable accident or incident will have to specify whether
the train or trains involved were equipped with a caboose.
The RTC decision follows a public hearing on cabooseless trains. The panel sat for 54 days and listened to 232
witnesses in eight locations across Canada. The hearing began 2 Sep 1986, and ended
11 Jun 1987.
This CP Rail News article is copyright
1988 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with
their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company.
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