By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com
The historic Santa Fe caboose acquired by city of Cleburne and stationed adjacent to Layland Museum for 20 years will be moved this morning to its permanent home on land north of the Intermodal Depot on Border Street.
T&T; Crane Company will do the heavy lifting. It submitted a low bid of $9,994.
The operation is expected to begin at about 8 a.m. and conclude either this afternoon or Monday morning.
“From what I gather,” Assistant City Manager Rick Holden said, T&T; “will shore up the caboose with piers and use cabling to literally raise it above the [power] lines. Then it will swing the caboose around and place it on a trailer that will be moved down Wardville Street to the new site. The new track is in place. I don’t know if T&T; will set the caboose on the new track Sunday or wait for Monday morning.”
Holden said he was unsure why T&T; opted for daytime hours instead of nighttime hours for the move.
“I know they were looking for a day with the least amount of traffic. Daylight may have been a consideration from a safety standpoint.”
The move will aid progress in the renovation of the Smith Building behind Layland Museum. A number of commemorative bricks at the caboose site have already been removed and stored for safekeeping.
“A crew removed and shrinkwrapped all the bricks,” Holden said. “A few are broken but not many. We made notations of the ones that were. For the most part, we were able to get them all out with manual labor and air hammer work. The old bricks will be placed at the new caboose site. We’ll let 4B decide the layout for that.”
All museum-quality artifacts were removed from the caboose in anticipation of the move.
All those have been secured, and the electricity to the caboose has been disconnected, Holden said.
A railroad museum will ultimately be constructed near the Intermodal Depot. There is no ironclad timetable, largely because of limited sales tax revenue.
“The current (4B) budget does have a $100,000 allocation for the railroad museum,” Holden said. “That’s likely for architectural-type work. The dynamics of the 4B board have changed significantly over the last month with the appointment of three new members. They will have some input into the process.”
The Santa Fe caboose has served as a miniature railroad museum.
According to Layland Museum archives researched by local historian Jack Carlton, “Cleburne’s Caboose Museum originated from an idea of [former] museum curator Mildred Padon.
“In early 1989, Ms. Padon met and discussed her desire to exhibit railroad memorabilia with retired Santa Fe train conductor Carlton. By the middle of June, after a successful three months showing over 1,000 railroad artifacts, many donated, it became necessary to look for a permanent facility to display the items. Because of the limited space on the museum grounds, a standard rail car or passenger coach was ruled out. It was decided that a freight caboose would make an excellent annex to the popular museum.
“In early June 1989, contact was made with Mr. J.R. Fitzgerald, vice president of Chicago Santa Fe Operating Department, concerning the donation of a caboose. Mr. Fitzgerald was receptive and directed his assistant, Bill Lancaster, to help our cause. Mr. Lancaster advised us to have the city make a formal request so as to be in position to accept a caboose.
“Ms. Padon discussed the matter with the council and city staff. She agreed to write a letter requesting a caboose be donated. The museum promised to maintain the caboose as an extension to the museum, to be done neat and orderly. With the city’s agreement, the curator drafted a formal letter, signed by mayor J.T. Bass, a longtime former Santa Fe station agent. The letter dated June 15, 1989, was sent from the city of Cleburne.”
Santa Fe agreed to donate the caboose to the city on Aug. 8, 1989. A caboose steering committee selected the display site for the caboose.
“After making ready for the caboose,” Carlton wrote, “it arrived on the morning of Oct. 22, 1989, from Brownwood. Maurice Alexander, Robbie Alexander, Mable McCall, Ms. Padon and Jack Carlton witnessed the train’s arrival that carried caboose 999457,”
The caboose was transported from the rail yard to the museum by way of Wardville Street.
“Arrangements were quickly made with Cleburne Car Shops [the old Santa Fe Shops] through Ms. Padon for sandblasting and paint work on the caboose,” Carlton wrote. “While waiting for this to begin, the interior was finished with the help of Mr. Tom Fields, an active Santa Fe clerk on vacation from New Mexico. Mr. Fields assisted Mr. Carlton in this work.
“Santa Fe brakeman Tony Massingill donated $500 of paint and delivered it to the Cleburne Car Shops for exterior painting. Yard switch conductor Nelson and crew next came to our aid, saving the museum hundreds of dollars by his availability. He moved the caboose from the shops, back to the spot next to Wardville, allowing a schedule with some element of timing the removal of the caboose by the moving company.”
Gunderson Southwest performed a face lift on the caboose in 1996.
