Two men sitting on either side of a crew car at Kent.

The work train crew posing on the tracks at Kent, 1918. "Often a work train of the 1880s consisted of just the machine and the locomotive, as cabooses were still too scarce to warrant using one on what many managers saw as unnecessary service. As the years went by, it became common practice to attach a caboose, and/or a tool car, to the train. An extra water car was frequently attached to pile driver trains to reduce the number of times the train...