A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo, and overheating axles.

They were popular until the 1980s when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. It wasn't just modern technology such as defect detectors and end-of-train devices, railroad companies also wanted to cut corners and save money by laying off "unnecessary" train crews. Very sad when you think about it.

But these modern technologies are not foolproof. If a device on a railcar stops working, the train could be in danger of derailing, or worse, a collision could occur. Case in point, one of the worst disasters of this decade was the 2023 Ohio train derailment when 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States. All residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius were evacuated, and an emergency response was initiated from agencies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. That would not have happened if cabooses were still mandatory.

Cabooses are still used in switching, plus heritage railroads for tourism purposes. And there are a few Class II and III railroads that still use them, such as the Alaska Railroad. CSX Transportation is one of the few Class I railroads that still maintains a fleet of modified cabooses for regular use. Employed as "shoving platforms" at the rear of local freight trains which must perform long reverse moves or heavy switching, these are generally rebuilt bay-window cabooses with their cabin doors welded shut (leaving their crews to work from the rear platform). BNSF also maintains a fleet of former wide-vision cabooses for a similar purpose, and in 2013, they began repainting some of them in heritage paint schemes of BNSF's predecessor railroads.

We need to bring cabooses back to stop further accidents.