All aboard the Blue Caboose – Donated caboose arrives at Greensboro Railway Depot Museum

Wednesday, February 7 was a red-letter day for the West Gadsden County Historical Society.

An eagerly anticipated delivery of a historic caboose, donated by Mark Moore of Chattahoochee back in May 2023, finally arrived for restoration and display at the Greensboro Depot Railroad Museum in.

The caboose, designated CRR-1075, was originally built in 1948 for use by the Clinchfield Railroad, the caboose was attached to trains which traveled between the coalfields of Virginia and Kentucky to textile mills located in South Carolina.

After the Clinchfield Railroad was bought out by what would become CSX, the caboose saw service in South Georgia and North Florida until cabooses became obsolete in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

CSX then donated CRR-1075 to a retired railroad employee, who kept the caboose on his property in Chattahoochee, Florida.

“Mark Moore, a preacher at a local church in Chattahoochee, eventually acquired the property and he reached out to us and asked if we would like to have the caboose,” explained Jane Clark of the West Gadsden Historical Society. “ He said we could have it, but we would have to cover the cost of getting it moved here.”

The transportation from Chattahoochee to Greensboro ended up costing around $15,000, which was entirely covered by donations to the historical society.

“We have had fabulous support, and people have really stepped up, and they are excited about it,” said Clark. “We’ve had several businesses step forward and donate the rails, the rocks, the railroad ties, and those people are Johnson Farms, Stone’s of Quincy, TCC Verizon of Blountstown, Anderson Columbia of Midway, and one of the biggest was the Bayline Railroad in Panama City, who gave us the antique rails and helped us set them up.”

On Wednesday, February 7, the caboose arrived at the Railway Depot on a large trailer, where it was raised on hydraulic jacks above a special display designed to look like a section of railroad.

The caboose was then slowly loaded onto the display track, in a process that lasted approximately two hours.

The next step will be the restoration process, in which the caboose will be repainted from its current gray to match the blue color used by the Apalachicola Northern Railroad that ran through Greensboro from 1907 until 1966.

The inside of the caboose will also be cleaned out and restored so that visitors can see how railway personnel lived and worked in that era.

“This is going to be a slow process, done by us,” Clark continued. “We have applied for a couple of grants with the State of Florida, but we have no idea if we will get them, and if we do, it will be 2025 before the funds would be awarded. We have applied for one with the National Railway Historical Society, and we will know about that one probably in May or June this year if we get that one. It would help tremendously in painting the exterior or doing some of the work inside.”

Eventually, the exhibit will also feature a plaque listing those who donated $500 or more to the project.

If you are interested in donating funds, time, or materials to this ongoing project, please visit the West Gadsden Historical Society online at https://westgadsdenhistory.org or on Facebook.

St ephen Klein

All aboard the Blue Caboose – Donated caboose arrives at Greensboro Railway Depot Museum

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All aboard the Blue Caboose – Donated caboose arrives at Greensboro Railway Depot Museum

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Three-peat – Robert F. Munroe Day School’s girls basketball team are the district champs for three years straight.

CAT TALES – Do They Love Me?

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