On a winter day in 1964, 10-year-old John Hall shifted the controls from the engineer's seat of a Reading ALCO RS-3 train locomotive and directed the engine a short distance through the Reading Railroad's Wilmington freight yard.

Today, 37 years later, the Network and Systems Services technician can still recall the day that had such a major effect on his life, planting a seed that resulted in his recently published book, Reading Company Cabooses.

The 270-page, hardbound volume is a railroader's dream, containing 335 photographs–with 86 in full color–plus engineering drawings, foldout diagrams, rosters and assignment lists. The book also contains information on wrecks, paint and lettering and structural modification and improvements. It also lists where the remaining more than 60 Reading cabooses are located–from the Red Caboose Motel outside Strasburg, Pa., to train museums to private owners' backyards.

A member of the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society (RCT&HS) since 1978, Hall also is assistant editor of the Bee Line, the organization's quarterly magazine.

An admitted Reading Railroad train fanatic, Hall said the idea for a book had been discussed at the Reading Company historical society since 1992. When the project was abandoned, he decided to finish it on his own. He worked on the book for more than a year–from early 2000 until January 2001.

Readers seeking stories of train wrecks, yarns and anecdotes from bearded ex-engineers and tales from the end of the line will not find them in Hall's pages. Instead, the book offers a detailed history of the Reading caboose, from the wooden cars of the early 1900s to the high tech, safety-feature–filled models of the 1970s.

Those with only passing interest in the caboose who can recall nothing more than it fading from sight on the tail end of a train, will learn about its specifications, construction and maintenance costs, paint colors, structural additions, wrecks and derailments and travel over "foreign" (another company's) railroad lines.

"This information," Hall explained, "is important for railroad historians, enthusiasts and even model builders. For example, they need to know the date, or year, when the company changed the colors of its cars to be sure their layouts are accurate."

Hall said he examined mountains of documents at the RCT&HS and worked closely with members of the organization's Caboose Book Committee. Along the way, he traveled on and beyond the Reading Railroad's route to locate cabooses and take their photographs.

"I traveled from Hagerstown, Md., to Ringoes, N.J.," Hall said. "That's were I found the oldest Reading caboose in existence. In its day, the Reading Company went from Wilmington in the south to Williamsport, Pa., in the west and had traveling rights to go to Jersey City, N.J. In the late 1800s, then known as the Philadelphia and Reading, it was the largest corporation in the world. It ?owned rail lines and thousands of acres of land and rail rights, plus sea shipping companies. It was a major business enterprise."

Hall's book indicates that the cost of a caboose in 1916 was about $978. In 1936, the price was $2,889, and in 1970 the cost had risen to $26,700. Similarly, the cost of obtaining an old caboose in recent years also has increased. In 1980, he said, you could pick one up for about $3,000. Today, the cost would be closer to $10,000, plus transport to the owner's site.

The book's photographs–many by Hall and others from historical societies, private collections and museums–spotlight wrecked and operating cabooses. Early 1900s pictures show the cars' difference in size and shape from those last built in the 1970s. Interior pictures of the crew's living area also are included in the book.

In Reading Company Cabooses, the author also explains the main reason–increased government safety regulation–that meant the end of the line for the caboose.

To Hall, the most enjoyable part of writing the book was "finding documentation that answered questions that we already thought we had the answers to."

On the other hand, the most difficult aspect was "spending hundreds of hours on the computer cleaning up old engineering drawings," he said.

Using the latest communication tools to share and seek information from other railroad experts around the country was critical to the completion of the book. "Ten years ago," Hall said, "I could not have done this without the benefit of information I was able to secure through the Internet."

Why the continuing fascination with the caboose?

"The general public has an interest in the caboose because it was a human connection with the railroad. It was the last car on the train, and the crew members would offer a friendly wave as it pulled out of sight," Hall said.

A portion of the proceeds of Hall's book, at $49.95, benefits the RCT&HS. It is available at Mitchell's Trains Toys & Hobbies Inc. in Wilmington, at the Strasburg Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad museums, both in Strasburg, Pa., at the University Bookstore or from John Hall, P.O. Box 281, Newark, DE 19715-0281. Visit his web site at [www.rdgcocab.com].