Before railroads, "caboose" referred to a small cookhouse on the deck of a sailing ship. Nobody knows for sure, but it was likely the 1850s before the first railroad caboose gave a train crew shelter from the weather. The Civil War era marked the emergence of boxcar-like cabin cars or conductor's cars in the style of our model, with side and perhaps end doors, windows, a heating and cooking stove, bunks, and roof lanterns to mark the end of the train.