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Post by Star Zip on Feb 6, 2011 13:29:35 GMT
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Post by Dioschorium on Feb 6, 2011 16:24:39 GMT
When Dinah Shore was recording, trains appeared in popular songs with greater frequency than they do now, so it's within the bounds of the imagination that a red caboose would appear in at least one song of hers. Still, that's a cute coincidence.
(Why is a caboose coupled to the end of what seems to be a passenger train?)
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Post by Star Zip on Feb 7, 2011 18:05:39 GMT
It seems to be a common misconception that cabooses were on all trains. If you look at any children's media, this is prevelant. For example, there's this one show on PBS called Dinosaur Train, which is supposed to be an educational show, but they have a caboose at the end of the train in at least one episde. (My inner-geek facepalmed itself.) Similarly, if you look at cartoons or pictures meant for children, you'll see a steam engine, some passenger cars, and then a caboose at the end.
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Post by Dioschorium on Feb 7, 2011 23:22:53 GMT
It gets worse. The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See" opens with the first-person narrator announcing his plan to "take a freight train down at the station," the logical assumption being that he intends to ride in a box car, as in Roger Miller's "King of the Road," Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia," and the folk song "Big Rock Candy Mountain." However, in the third verse, said narrator says, "Gonna buy me a ticket as far as I can." He intends to buy a ticket for a freight train ride.
If memory serves, the 1991 animated Little Engine That Could special avoided the caboose fallacy. So did the Thomas the Tank Engine program, although I blame it for causing me to think that all locomotives were steam-powered until I reached the age of eight or so.
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Post by Star Zip on Feb 8, 2011 21:54:29 GMT
I know that in Oklahoma! they had an interesting set-up when Will arrives. There was the engine, then a mail/baggage/passenger combine, a flatcar, and then a caboose. I'm not sure if they did that because they thought it would look interesting or if this is one of those exceptions to the rule. In any case it seems that if you see a steamer, then you'll a caboose regardless of the function of the train.
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Post by Krissi on Feb 9, 2011 9:05:53 GMT
It apparently wasn't so in the US but in other parts of the world (at least in Norway) cabooses were used both on passenger and freight trains. Just a little factoid before you all go of on a rant about the steam/caboose combo.  |
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Post by Star Zip on Feb 9, 2011 20:29:04 GMT
Not ranting. Just observing American culture. ^_^
I'll have to look up Norwegian cabooses now. Thanks for the tip.
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Post by Kitten on Jan 16, 2012 20:29:23 GMT
sadly, you don't see much of Cabooses in the US any more on trains, though we do have a green one for BNSF company here in Washington State. i saw that the other day while out with a friend.
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