VOLUNTEER EFFORT PUTS CABOOSE IN PLACE

It took more than one volunteer effort to move a 24-ton caboose from the railroad tracks running through Scott City to its last stop as a tourist center just off Main Street.

The caboose was donated to the city by Southern Pacific Railroad and delivered July 13 with just one condition, it had to be removed from the tracks within five days. And while the Scott City group that has been working on the plans for this railroad car did not quite meet that deadline, it did manage to move the caboose off the track and onto a stand about 20 feet from the line. There it will be remodeled, additions will be made and it will be advertised as a vantage point for tourists to enjoy the railroad history of Scott City.

"This is a piece of history just like a Model-T Ford," said Ronald Mason, a conductor for Southern Pacific. "This is a railroad town and we wanted to preserve a piece of railroad history."

Mason was one of several men in charge of trying to move the caboose to its permanent stand, which is a 20-foot line of track set apart from the main line. And while there was a host of experienced men working on the move, none of them were positive as to the best way to move the railroad car.

A preliminary attempt to lift the 14-ton car off its wheels with two fork lifts from Rose Concrete Co. was unsuccessful as one of the machines was unable to compensate for the slope it was on and hoist its end.

That was a disappointing setback for Shirley Young, one of the main motivators behind bringing the caboose to Scott City and the plans for remodeling it. It appeared at first that Young's group would have to go back to shuttling the caboose between tracks to keep it out of the way of passing trains until they could come up with a crane large enough to move it. But a quick phone call from Terry Herndon, another volunteer who was on site, to Lanny Koch of Girardeau Stevedores Inc., saved the day.

Herndon was able to convince Koch, who's company contracts with the port authority and uses just the equipment needed, to bring out one of their cranes and a low-boy trailer. A half hour after Koch and his team arrived the car of the caboose was suspended six feet off the ground over the trailer and a front end loader, donated by the Scott County Highway Department, was moving the 5-ton wheel trucks over to the new tracks.

After those were in place the crane swung the caboose around and set it gently back onto the wheels.

"Isn't it just amazing what a volunteer effort can accomplish," Young said.

Local business owners should feel a boost from the caboose's presence, even before the final touches have been added.

"It'll bring people back home who haven't been home for a long time when they find out about this," Bob Carr, who's daughter, Karen Sanders, owns Country At Heart which is located just across Main Street from the caboose, said. "It's a railroad town."

Young said she has already had a number of people volunteer to help clean and paint the caboose. When it is finished, the caboose will have a covered deck extending out behind it, a garden supplied by the Garden Club, railing and a handicap-access ramp.

Young said she hopes to have the project finished before 1998 when the city will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a railroad town.