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The extensive legacy of Contributing Editor Andy Sperandeo continues in his final episode of this series. In this MRVP exclusive video, he imparts information about the prototype, before demonstrating how to perform specific caboose movements on a model railroad of any size or scale.
like the end of the train so ends The Operators. So Long Andy and thank you for the tips and the fun of Model Railroading. RIP Andy.
I grew up with the Indiana Harbor Belt RR in my back yard. There was a small yard that served mainly as a transfer yard with the CB&Q. Imagine a seven year old boy being invited up into a caboose, getting to climb up into the copula and looking down a whole train of freight cars. It was exciting.
My best experience was when a friend of my father had to wait to get permission to shove a load of cars around the curve and up onto the side of the CB&Q. He stopped at our house and had coffee, then he took me along for the move. Not only did I get to ride in the engine, he let me DRIVE ("Push this lever up two clicks") I still remember it today, 58 years later, as if it happened yesterday.
Great learning for me, I knew they did that.
I add my delight to that of others in seeing Andy school us on caboose operations. What is even more thrilling is the demonstration of what Andy is talking about using the Virginian Project layout. THAT's the way to get the point across! Well done Andy, well done MRVP crew. Thank you. Andy IS missed for sure.
Always enjoyed Andy and his the information he has to share with us.
What a fitting tribute for Andy! Always leanred from his well written articles. The operations series was one of his best and we all will miss him! God bless you Andy!
God Bless, regardless of Era there will always be a caboose running on my railroad in memory, right behind the Engine, my new sixth crewman.
To Howard Sarquist – Great addition to the conversation! It sounds like a great time in history to have been living and working on the railroad. Thanks!
Great one, Andy! I'd really like to see more of that! So I had to watch it two more times to get a taste. That would make a great movie. Do you know where to find one that showed the life and activities of the men who "lived" on cabooses?
In some railroads, high seniority conductors had their own caboose assigned to them. RIP Andy.
The Crescent City Model Railroad Club in Metairie, Louisiana is renaming it's Crescent City Intermodal Facility to now be known as the Sperandeo Intermodal Facility in memory of one of the club's founding members.
Often wondered about these operations with cabooses. I can hear Paul Harvey saying, 'Now you know the rest of the story.' I run two or more cabooses on some of my trains just as a transfer from one yard to another. Andy is surely missed and I learned a lot from him!
Allan
What a treat to have one more of Andy's operations videos. His video series and his many articles on operations have influenced the operational design of my model railroad-in-progress. Thanks Andy!
Can you continue this series even though Andy is gone? And then have Model Railroad Operations in memory of Andy Sperandeo.
It seems so appropriate that Andy's final video would be about the final car in the train. And both are now gone. We will always remember your casual, likable style, Andy. God bless.
Did many a caboose change at my yard. I was a yard conductor for the Lehigh Valley RR in Manchester New York. We were a classification yard and were nearly half way between Buffalo New York and Sayre Penn. Most of the loads we shipped to Sayre were New York and New Jersey. We made up consists of upwards of 100 cars in an 8 hr. shift. I enjoyed working on the railroad and was very upset when yhe powers that be decided they no longer needed Manchester. They moved the classification to Sayre and it was a night mare. The yard was considerably smaller and not maintained as well as it should have been. I
really still miss the yard work and it has been 45 years since I worked there.
Good video. We will miss you Andy. One thing I wish MR would do is add links or references as to where you can get more information on the subject.
RIP, Andy. The World's Greatest Hobby is missing you already!
Always the teacher, always the gentleman, always a model railroader at heart, what a lasting tribute to a friend of all modelers and hobbiests alike. Just like Andy himself we have lost a human piece of railroading that will never return. RIP Andy
Aww I feel bad watching this, I am really going to miss reading his articles and seeing him on video.
How fitting that his last installment is about caboose operations. I will miss him.
Andy and his wealth of knowledge will be missed.