The Lucinda caboose is heading home.
For years, old railroad cars sat behind the Lucinda Service Station on Route 66. And now, through the efforts of volunteers, the caboose will again reside at the old Lucinda train station.
“That’s where it came from and we feel that is where it belongs,” said Vince DiStefano, president of the Route 66 Country Bike Trail.
The caboose was purchased at auction from Eugene “Puffy” Landers.
“We bid on it to make sure it didn’t go away,” said DiStefano.
The caboose will be on rails at the station, but beyond that there are no definite plans for the caboose.
“In the future we might develop some use for it but right now it makes a good photo op for people,” said DiStefano.
Gene Lander of Lucinda preserved the original Lucinda Railway Station with help from history teacher Terry Moore and students from North Clarion High School.
“It is a cupola, accommodation caboose. I seriously doubt that this caboose ever operated on this line,” said Kovalchick.
Tim Huebert, a former township supervisor, said the interior of the caboose appears to be in very good shape.
“I don’t think we will need to do anything to it. We will probably keep in locked to prevent any vandalism,” Huebert said.
Huebert added that when Lander moved the caboose from the train station it required a bulldozer, a couple of school buses and, eventually, state police.
“It was quite a production,” said Huebert. “When it got stuck for a couple of days people would bring their cameras over and pose their kids on the caboose. It was quite an attraction.”
The Rail 66 Country Trail is a non-motorized, 4-season trail that currently extends 20.1 miles through the countryside of northern Clarion County near Lucinda on the historic Knox-Kane railroad bed.
The corridor starts at Clarion Junction (Route 322) in Paint Township and stretches north along Route 66 to the Clarion/Forest County line in Vowinckel.
For more local news, visit TheClarionNews.com.