Hi folks, just a quick question from over the other side of the pond.
Is it always neccesary for the caboose at the end of a freight train to be from the same company as the Locomotive hauling it?
Yes other wise your train will self destruct. 
Common practice says yes they match, but depending on which road and time period you model you may well find off road equipment in use. As when B&O, C&O, WM combined you would see any combination of head end power with any caboose
I remember many mis matches in the 80’s…Conrail and Chessie was the most common from memory.
PENN CENTRAL!!! 
Geoff said:Depends, Like the mergers mentioned above. Or, I model American west narrow gauge and if I want to run a Rio Grande Southern on a Denver & Rio Grande freight, I will. And perfectly happy doin' it. It's prototypical on my railroad. :)
Hi folks, just a quick question from over the other side of the pond. Is it always neccesary for the caboose at the end of a freight train to be from the same company as the Locomotive hauling it?
Generally speaking…a company’s caboose fleet was just a little less distinctive than their locomotives. Course in the steam era, a flashy red cabin was more eye catching than a sooty black steam engine. Remember too back in the heyday that a crew was assigned their own cabin, and they took care of it accordingly. So in answer to your question by and large a cabin should match the head end power, at least until the coming of pool powering diseasels in the mid 80’s or so…
It’s your railroad run it the way you want!!! Hah LOL The Regal
I think Geoff was asking what the prototype practise was.
In the toy train world, many don’t care…but give Geoff, who is across the pond, the true picture, so that he can make his own mind up, please.
Geoff; Bart’s answer was probably the best you can get. Please note that Cabooses (Cabeese !!) were called all sorts of names. Here in Eastern Canada, around Ottawa, at least; they were called vans. Bart knew them as cabins…crummy,and shack, were another names…In England a close type of car was called a “Guards’ van”
I usually match the caboose to the engine, figuring that both would be supplied by the same railroad. I always have the freight cars mixed. At the Botanic, we don’t have cabooses to match all the engines since people often donate a specific loco, but we can’t find a caboose to match. The setup crew loves to put a big german loco on the front freight with a Santa Fe caboose
Fred & Bart have given you the straight goods, Geoff.
I would merely add that even in the golden age a road would occasionally use an engine leased from another railway, so there be a mismatch in this case. They would almost without exception run with their own crew and caboose. It is most unlikely that you would ever see a foreign caboose on the line other than behind a foreign train running over the line. Note that in this context ‘foreign’ only means another railroad. Such ‘running rights’ contracts with foreign roads were not uncommon, especially with directly connecting lines. I suspect that Tom’s Botanic operation may be infested with LGB fanatics. We all have our little troubles sent to try us.