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The MOVE!
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A Little Background: When I first saw the caboose in the spring of 2000, it was located in Morton, MN on
the Minnesota Central line. Before I finalized the purchase, the owner needed to move
the caboose out of Morton since the line was in danger of going out of business (it since has)
so it was moved to Hanley Falls, MN (near the South Dakota line) to a BNSF yard. Before
I could finalize my purchase, I almost lost the caboose to a group in Hawaii (!!!) that
was ready to buy the caboose .... provided they could move it to Hawaii! Obviously, that
fell through, so I completed my purchase in January 30, 2001, and we were ready to move! Yes:
the caboose is still rail-worthy so getting it to Wisconsin was going to be considerably easier
since it could travel via rail.
I love trains ... but working with the railroads was a lot of work! I enlisted my friend
Herb Skalaucks who owns the Colfax Railroad Museum in Colfax, WI to help me deal with BNSF and
the WC since he can "speak the lingo." After months of wrangling around (including having the Wisconsin
Central cash my check for the move and then telling me they never received it!) the caboose
was FINALLY ready to roll in March of 2001.
Two months go by ... no caboose. Herb checks with BNSF who informs him ... they've lost the cabooose!
As Herb said at the time, how do you lose a caboose?!? BNSF tells Herb that the last place they saw it
was on a siding in Wilmar, MN ... which is not very far from Hanley Falls where it started out.
Another week or so goes by with no sign of the caboose, so I ask Jim McLean, the man I bought the
caboose from, to see if he can find it. You see, Jim works for BNSF, so I figure he can pull a few strings.
Jim starts by calling the Wilmar yard to see if it maybe is still there ... and what do you know: when
the guy at the yard actually goes out and checks for it, there it is! What a waste of time THAT
was!
Now that BNSF knows where it is, it isn't long before they manage to get it to Minneapolis
where it is transferred to the WC. This is mid-May, 2001. By now, it's been so long since the original orders came
in to move the caboose, the WC sends it back to the BNSF yard since they don't know what to do with it!
In the meantime, somebody breaks into the caboose and breaks a few things, but luckily the damage
is minor. A few more phone calls and FINALLY the Wisconsin Central picks it up and it's on its
way to Wisconsin! And THAT is where our photo essay begins ....
First Stop: Chippewa Falls, WI - June 6, 2001
The Algoma Central 9517 caboose arrived in Chippewa Falls, WI, on June 6, 2001 ... traveling via
Wisconsin Central from their yard in Minneapolis. That was the easy part of the move!
Caboose arrives in Chippewa Falls!
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Lonely caboose in WC switching yard
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Not very pretty, but it's here!
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Jim gets a closer look
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Caboose Arrives in Colfax, WI - June 7, 2001
Wisconsin Central leaves the caboose about 100 yards away from where it needs to be!
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After some manual labor and pushing the caboose with my 1978 Dodge pickup's plow blade,
the caboose is finally in position next to the other cars at the Colfax Railroad Museum!
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Preparing the Caboose Site
The trees come down Labor Day Weekend 2001!
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A space in the woods ...
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The land has been cleared!
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Preparing to unload 22 railroad ties on 9-22-01!
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Thanks to Alan Lay for the help with the ties!
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Nice landscaping and gravel work was done by Kevin Fane of Colfax!
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Al and I lay out the ties roughly in the driving rain!
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A few days later, I rearrange the ties and roughly level them out.
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Time to prepare to lay down some rail!
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Plates are carefully arranged .... ready for some rail!
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Who would have thought that finding rail would be so tough! Actually, finding the
rail was easy .... finding someone who knows who owns it or is willing to sell it is
another matter! Finally, after weeks of searching, Herb at the Colfax Railroad museum
feels sorry for me and agrees to sell me some of his rail ... thank GOD!
October 7, 2001: We're in Colfax loading the rail!
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It pays to have friends with big trucks and forklifts ... thanks Al!
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We arrive at the site ... forklift and rail in tow! The forklift just barely fit in between the two rails on the trailer!
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Lucky for me, Al is still all smiles!
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My neighbor Dale stops by with a great idea for positioning the rail over the ties ...
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... we attach a rail with chain to the end of one tine ...
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.... and then swing all 33 feet and 950 pounds of rail around ...
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... until we're over the ties ...
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... and Al can accurately position the rail ...
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... and drop it right where it needs to go .... great idea, Dale!
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Less than an hour after arriving, the rails are in place!
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Official notice: a Dunn County zoning permit for a caboose!
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October 21, 2001: This took about eight hours over two days: pounding in 92 spikes!
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I took a lot of breaks!
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October 24, 2001: Kevin Fane stops by ....
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... loading up some gravel ...
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... to fill in the space between ties ...
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... and complete the railroad bed!
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We discover a problem with trucking the caboose from Colfax: there are 13 very
low powerlines across Highway 170 between Colfax and my house on Highway D. The
trucking guys tell me that taking them all down will be VERY expensive (actually, we had NO idea ... more on
that later.) So .... is there
another route? After investigating some alternative routes out of Colfax, we decide
that moving the caboose via rail once again 12 miles west to the village of Wheeler would
involve far fewer powerlines ... so once again, it was time to call the railroad!
Since the last move, the Wisconsin Central was sold to the Canadian National (CN),
but fortunately the same people handled things so we thought this would be a simple
move since they had moved it before ... right? NOT! When the CN showed up (with
a WC locomotive), they informed us they couldn't move the caboose since the
brakes on the caboose no longer worked! WHAT?!?! How could this be? They just
worked a few months ago?? No brakes, no move so the crew left without moving the caboose.
After some serious head-scratching, we finally figured out the emergency brake
inside the caboose had been pulled .... so no wonder the brakes wouldn't work. Another
call to the WC/CN and the caboose was on its way!
A complete lineup of cars in Colfax!
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The 9517 sits among the cars for just a few more days ...
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November 8, 2001: The WC .. err .. I mean CN shows up to move the 9517 to Wheeler!
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Away it goes!
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Hey .. I want a ride!
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Away she goes ....
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Final journey along the rails for the 9517 ...
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Next stop: Wheeler!
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A lonely caboose sits on the siding in Wheeler
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November 23, 2001: a little late evening carpentry work ....
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building "skids" so that powerlines can "slide" over the caboose rooftop!
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One last picture before the sun goes down!
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The saga never ends! After setting up the date for the move, the last thing we
needed to take care of was calling Dunn Electric Cooperative to have them help move
the five powerlines that might possibly be in the way along our route. Last we had heard,
the fee the cooperative charged for moving powerlines was $100 per line so we were looking
at a $500 charge. Or so we thought. Dunn Electric informs us that yes indeed: it IS
$100 a line .... but that's $100 for every line the caboose passes under ... whether or
not they even need to touch the line! Since there are 68 powerlines .... that
means a fee of $6800!!! Obviously, we needed to find another alternative! We finally
decided to take the caboose box off its trucks (wheels) and transport it in two
pieces (actually, it is quite easy to remove the box portion of a rail car from its trucks.)
Taking the box off the trucks would drop the height down almost 2 feet .... just enough to
clear the powerlines and totally take Dunn Electric out of the equation (THANK GOD!) We're
ready to roll!
November 27: first snowfall ... and just a few days until the big move ...
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... and we're ready to go!
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