I loved waiting for the caboose, too, and was saddened when they discontinued using them. Now, though, I wave to the engineer as the train approaches, flash my car lights at him, and usually get a nice smiling wave in return. I lived within easy sight of a double-track line of the Lehigh Valley RR, and the cabooses were always that strong red and in good shape. Sometimes I'd see two trains going in opposite directions at the same time!
" I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done...." So miss the cabooses....I still wave as the last car goes by when I get stopped by a train on my way t work.
Ah, Dave...I do so miss cabooses. What fun is it now for kids to count those train cars? All too many now are homogeneous container cars (or tankers) with much less variety. (Yes, I do understand the rationale.) We loved it when the caboose approached: invariably, the men would lean out the windows or stand on the porch and wave to us children. Level crossings were never an annoyance to young children...the longer the train, the better. The anticipation of the approaching caboose was palpable! Riding down the rails to the sidings of times gone by.... ;-D
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