A caboose was the last car on a freight train, crewed by a conductor, a brakeman, and in earlier days a flagman.

This bay window caboose was built by American Car & Foundry for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1947. It had a desk, crew seating, bunks, stove, and a toilet, and carried spare parts and equipment. It served on subsidiary Texas & New Orleans Railroad until that company merged into the Southern Pacific in 1961. It was retired in Tucson in 1982, and was donated to the Arizona Chapter, NRHS.

The NRHS chapter brought it to the museum for display in 1987, and donated it in 1994. It has been extensively remodeled to serve as a "crew car" for volunteers. Some of the upgrades include a refrigerator, microwave, TV, lockers, shower, chemical toilet, and air conditioning.

American Car & Foundry built this steel caboose as one of 50 in class C-30-4. In Southern Pacific nomenclature, C is for caboose, 30 for axle load in tons, and it was the 4th design of its class. It was originally numbered 512 for lease to SP subsidiary Texas & New Orleans RR. When the T&NO merged into the SP in 1961, the car was renumbered to 413.

Cabooses usually carried a conductor, one or more brakemen, and in earlier days a flagman. These cars were replaced by end-of-train devices in the 1980s. The EOTs monitored the braking system and the integrity of the train using advanced technology, and the conductor and brakeman could now ride at the front of the train. And because of modern signaling systems, a flagman was no longer needed to protect the rear of the train when stopped.

After retiring the car in Tucson in 1982, the Southern Pacific donated it to the Arizona Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Phoenix. It was brought up from Tucson, transferred to the Santa Fe and parked next to Russ Joslin’s "Desert Valley" passenger car on an unused spur near 39th and Montecito Avenues. In 1987, when the museum had enough track to accommodate it, the Santa Fe moved the caboose to Phoenix, then the Southern Pacific delivered it to a point alongside the museum′s Armstrong Park location on Erie Street. The deal with the trainmaster was to leave it on the branch overnight and the museum would have it craned over the fence. If that didn′t happen, the SP could "push it off the end of track." Marco Crane lifted it onto museum trackage with an hour to spare. (The Chandler Branch became a branch line in 1964 when the main line shifted over through Magma Junction to Poston to Tucson. The Armstrong Park switch was not installed until 1993.)

The chapter donated the caboose to the Museum in 1994. It was moved south by the now Union Pacific Railroad to the museum′s new Tumbleweed Park location on Ryan Road, along with the rest of the fleet, in 2006. (The Union Pacific acquired the Southern Pacific in 1996.)

5/23/2003 - Photo of SP caboose at old museum location.

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