Help Save the Caboose
September 7th, 2010 | By: Erica Maniez
The old caboose needs critical repairs to preserve it for future generations.
The historic caboose is parked by the Depot
A little yellow caboose sits on the tracks outside the historic Issaquah depot. You may have noticed it on a visit to the Depot Museum. The caboose was once used by the Weyerhaeuser Company, and it is a visible reminder of Issaquah’s railroading and logging history.
When the Issaquah History Museums bought the caboose in 1990, it had been abandoned for some time, exposed to the weather and vandalized. Volunteers moved the car to Issaquah, cleaned it up, painted it, and opened it to the public. Today the caboose is visible from the Rainier Trail and walkways around City Hall, and it draws visitors to the Depot Museum. It is also the highlight of children’s tours.
Volunteers have worked hard to slow the car’s deterioration, but its early years of neglect have made it susceptible to moisture and recurring leaks. Last year the museums’ Facilities Committee was faced with a choice: Retain the caboose and raise funds to pay for its rehabilitation and repair, or remove it from exhibit. The committee decided the caboose must be preserved because of its universal appeal to visitors, its potential use for exhibit space, and the difficulty of finding another caboose to replace it.
Thanks to a generous grant of $18,000 from 4Culture, the Northwest Railway Museum has been hired to renovate the caboose. It will benefit from their experience in restoring other rolling stock. When the project is complete, rotten wood in the floor and walls will have been replaced, damaged and rusty areas on the exterior repaired and repainted, and roof leaks eliminated. The caboose will also be filled with new hands-on activities and interpretive elements.
Imagine kids dressed up in engineer’s garb, exploring small closets and cubbyholes filled with signal flags, spare pins and coupler knuckles, rerailing frogs, and other trainmen’s tools. Picture a working conductor’s desk covered with waybills and switch lists, showing visitors the caboose’s role as a moving office. The restoration project will make these things possible.
The 4Culture grant will fund more than half of the cost of restoring the caboose and installing exhibit elements and signage. We hope that community members will contribute another $7,500 to the repair and restoration efforts.
This project will benefit everyone in the community for years to come. Help us save the caboose!
To help save the caboose, visit issaquahhistory.org to donate.
