Lorain caboose restoration hopes to educate public on the city's railroad history

LORAIN — A rusted caboose is getting a new life behind the Lorain Palace Theater. A subcommittee of Lorain Growth's tourism group is working to restore a 1970s caboose No. 3855 from the B&O railroad. The museum-quality work includes repainting the outside of the car and finding original fixtures for the inside to honor Lorain's railroad heritage. On Wednesday morning, subcommittee Chairman Gary Schaefer, Treasurer Gail Bonsor, and members Don Glass and Jim Dembiec gathered to continue their work stripping the paint from the outside of the car. But the project started well before this summer, Schaefer said. The caboose was donated by CSX, and it was one that serviced the city. Once restored, the group will move it from the track behind the Palace Theater to closer to the Transportation Center at Black River Landing. "It'd been sitting there and cabooses have gone by the wayside," Shaefer said. "Long and short, we contacted CSX and within two months they said 'Sure, no problem.' " Schaefer said the group initially thought it would take two years to get a caboose to restore, but CSX's donation came within two months. It was brought to the city from Medina County and kept near the steel mill, where the windows were broken out. It was then moved to an area off 14th Street before its current home behind the Palace. "The land that's here was at one time the Baltimore and Ohio railroad coal yards, which played a huge part of Lorain's history," Schaefer said. "So millions of tons of coal came in, they got taken, there was a dumper out on the edge of the river out here and it was put on ships and was taken all over and vice versa taconite for the steel mills came in and then was shipped out to Pittsburgh and Youngstown." Volunteers are stripping the lead-based paint using an ecologically friendly paint stripper, rather than sandblasting the car. While it takes more time — requiring workers to apply the chemical and let it dry before scraping the paint off by hand — it does keep costs down. From there, they are priming the bare metal and will paint the outside the original bright blue and gold of the B&O line. The paint was donated by PPG. "Basically what we want to do is get it as close to original as possible," Schaefer said. "The inside, the chairs and such some of it was original, some of it wasn't but that's all in storage right now. That'll be the fun part, trying to find that type of stuff because there were less than 100 of these built of this model." They originally hoped to have the painting done by the end of summer, but coronavirus has put them behind schedule. Once the weather turns, the group will turn to working on the inside of the car and hunting for fixtures found in the original. There are also plans for having a deck and ramp on the back of it to better allow visitors in. "We actually have somebody that wants to rent it for a grandchild's birthday party and it's not even done yet," he said. "They'll be all kinds of events hopefully centered around it. Lots of historical things." Glass, of Vermilion, and Dembiec, of Amherst, worked on the caboose before they retired from CSX in 2009 and 2018, respectively. By the end of their careers, cabooses had been replaced by technology. But before that, the cars brought up the rear of the train — carrying lighted markers and flagmen to keep following trains from hitting one another. It was also a place for the crew to sleep, as initially trains ran on 24-hour shifts before they were shortened to their current 12 hours. Once restored, the caboose will include bunk beds, a table and chairs, a sink and stove. What was a bathroom was torn out to make way for a closet. "You have to be of a certain age to even remember cabooses being on trains," Dembiec said. "So, to be able to bring that to people younger they understand what it's all about when they get it in their toy train set." Getting the car more than 20 months ahead of schedule put the group behind on its fundraising activities. There are sponsorship opportunities on the caboose's website. Schaefer said their goal is about $15,000. The group also is looking for volunteers to help in the restoration. Volunteers must be 18 or older, due to the chemicals used in stripping the paint. For more information on how to get involved with caboose No. 3855, visit loraincaboose.org. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.