re: Did we ever get a good explanation on why they got rid of cabooses?

quote:

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Cost cutting measures. Railroads lobbied to have fewer crew members, congress took the money and made it so.

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This is only about half accurate. It was not a situation of the filthy rich railroads trying to pocket more money and underhandedly spreading the wealth.

The largest bankruptcy before Enron was the Penn Central railroad. Concurrently in the 1970s, most trains required 5 men to operate. Also concurrently, there were perhaps 10-15 railroads in bankruptcy.

If you look at the regulatory climate for railroads at the time, it was awful. Five man crews were required. Rates were set by the government. Ability to add and drop service frequency or entire routes was also fed regulated. Meanwhile, the states knew the railroads couldn't exactly cut and run, so they set up very high tax rates. Ergo the bankruptcies. Penn Central. Erie Lackawanna. Milwaukee Road. Rock Island Lines. Delaware & Hudson. New Jersey Central. Lehigh Valley. Philadelphia & Reading. Boston & Maine. Quite a few others very close to it.

It took nationalization (as an operator of last resort) of the Penn Central and a few other lines, then egregiously large subsidies to run parallel routes and over-crewed trains before Bob Dole's wife and a few others realized the railroads should manage their own affairs in terms of crew size and rates.

Most trains run very safely with two men in front and a radio-controlled device at the back.