LORAIN, Ohio — Gail Bonsor, who is the treasurer of the Lorain Growth Committee, said she wanted to honor the city’s rich train heritage by restoring caboose number 3855.
“We got it started because this is a train yard (and) when you walk through the grass here, you still had coal coming up on your feet. That’s how embedded this is. People don’t realize how this area in Lorain was so industrial,” said Bonsor.
The Caboose will stay on the historic grounds that were once coal yards of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and will be used as a learning tool.
This land back in the day was the Baltimore and Ohio’s coal yards, and millions of tons of coal came in and then was taken to a coal dumper right on the lake. It was then put on ships and exported.
“And when we get it restored, it’s going to be used for civic and educational programs. So we hope to get Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to come in schools. I’ll be honest, unless you are our age—my age—you don’t know what a Caboose is and what it was for,” said Gary Schaefer, chairman of the committee.
Jim Dembiec and Don Glass were conductors on this caboose for more than 40 years.
“These cabooses were the conductor’s office so he could do his paperwork and observe defects while riding on the back of the train,” said Glass.
“It was just part of our job was to ride the caboose. You watched your train as you were going down the railroad. You looked for any problems with your train as you were going,” said Dembiec.
There were less than 100 B&O cabooses built so it will take some time to find the original parts and complete restoration.
“We wanted to bring that history back, and when you go to the Historical Society here and you look through the picture of this area, people can’t believe it’s the same place,” said Bonsor.