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This is a short body style caboose built by International Car Company in December, 1980. It served on the Missouri Pacific Railroad for only a little over two years before the "MoP" was purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad. It was later retired, still wearing its MP colors. Due to its short body, it looks like a style of caboose known as a transfer caboose, which was used for short "transfer" runs. However, this is in fact a full road caboose.
At one time a railroad conductor had a caboose assigned to him. At his home and away-from-home terminal the caboose was put on or taken off the train he was called for. The caboose was the conductor and trainmen's home away from home where they slept and cooked meals until called for the return trip. In the 1960's the railroads started running cabooses through terminals and the train crews were put up in motels. The need for sleeping bunks and food preparation areas were no longer needed. Some railroads, in a cost cutting measure, redesigned the caboose to provide only the bare necessities for comfort of the crew. Union Pacific donated this caboose to Feather River Rail Society in 1990. The outside benches were added by FRRS.
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