Photos of Our Town’s “New” Caboose
Bob Olvey provides the photos below of the caboose that will soon be moved to Pocahontas for restoration and display at our old train depot. The depot is undergoing restoration to its former beauty. It takes a little imagination, but it looks to me like the caboose, once restored, will be a great addition to our town and our efforts to make this a more enjoyable place to live and to visit.
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3 Replies to “Photos of Our Town’s “New” Caboose”
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That one looks to be in pretty good condition on the outside; I suspect the inside is a different story. Where is it currently located?
They had a photo of the inside in this week’s Star Herald. It’s all “modernized” with 1970s style plywood paneling. Looks to be in pretty good shape, but who knows what’s under that paneling. Rotten wood? Termite damage? We’ll see.
I think it has been used as an office for some business. I heard it’s down in the Little Rock/Conway area and will be transported here on TWO flatbed trailer trucks. Can’t imagine how they use two trucks. Maybe one has to BACK all the way to Pocahontas!
The County Judge of Lawrence County is a retired railroad man and he has volunteered to lay the track at the depot to put the caboose on. We hope to eventually get other cars, even an engine. Also hope to get pie in the sky by and by.
When moving a caboose, you need two trailers. One is for the large, main section, sometimes called the “doghouse,” or “cabin,” the other for the wheel assemblies, which are called “trucks.” The cabin is typically lifted off the trucks with a crane and placed on one trailer, then the trucks are loaded onto the second trailer. A long, lowboy trailer is required to provide adequate overhead clearance for the cabin when it has a cupola on top of the car, as this one does. At the destination, the trucks are unloaded and positioned on the rails first, then the cabin is set down on top of them. Of course, this means that the ties and rails need to be in position before the move is started, as you don’t want to pay for two tractor trailers to be hanging around waiting for a bunch of volunteers to be laying rails!