116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Marion’s iconic caboose to be in new park in October
Caboose is at a Cedar Rapids facility to finish its restoration
Before it reaches its final destination this October in a new park, Marion’s iconic caboose that evokes the city’s rail history is making its final stops to be repaired, revamped and repainted — all with keeping its past in mind.
When the work is done, the caboose will make its first public appearance in about 16 months after being removed in June 2023 from City Square Park to make way for an $8.35 million re-imaging of the site into “Central Plaza.”
The caboose now will become the focal point of Draper Park, a pocket park about a mile east named after the late City Council member Paul Draper, and will have an interactive element.
“The trail users will be able to push (a) button and the signal lights will go on, on and off, and they'll flash,” said Marion Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Brent Neighbor. “They even have an audible bell that'll go off, too, but we're only going to make that active during certain times of the year.”
According to the city, the CRANDIC Northeastern caboose was located in City Square Park in 1992 and was painted at the request of some residents in the Milwaukee Railroad colors — even though it never used that railroad’s lines in Marion. In preparation for its move to the new park, the caboose has been in for refurbishing — first at a Wabtec Corp. facility in Albia to be repainted, and now at Wabtec Rail Electronics in Cedar Rapids. Wabtec is a global company that includes freight and passenger rail technology and equipment.
Plant Manager Justin Klendworth said about 40 percent of the caboose’s skin is new.
“We did keep the bow structure and the original tubing from the mid-cab and then just rewrapped it with new material,” Klendworth said, standing next to the caboose outside Wabtec’s Cedar Rapids warehouse. “So the whole entire roof section is all brand-new. All the rivets, everything else, is custom modified to meet the existing rivets that were already on there. We added in new windows (and) new window frames for support.”
Klendworth said the city of Marion may do an interior restoration in the future, but for now, the caboose will be a “static display” with interior lighting and protected by new steel doors. The city could also equip vandal guards if deemed necessary.
The caboose also has new serial number and Milwaukee Road decals, and has been repainted to mimic the orange it had been.
“I know there was a lot of stuff with the city and you know people like, ‘Oh, we don't want a new one. You don't want this. You're taking away from the nostalgia of it.’ So we did our best to match the paint and grade of color as close as possible to the original and that's what we came up with,” Klendworth said.
The caboose will remain in Cedar Rapids until it is moved to the new Draper Park, where it will be placed alongside educational boards about the train history in Marion, according to Neighbor.
The observation deck was eliminated after the caboose was subject to the elements. The city hopes to extend the longevity of the rail car with this refurbishment.
“From where that decking was is kind of like a viewing platform, and below that was very corroded, so most of that metal had to be cut away, and from the midline of the train down, is all new metal,” Neighbor said.
So far, the city has spent about $59,000 on the project — including planning and design and crane service to remove the caboose from its former location and to deliver it to Wabtec, among other items. The City Council has approved another $49,552 for the estimated cost of the repairs. Building the new park will cost $289,500.
At its peak, 53 trains — both passenger and freight — went through Marion every day, said Robyn Ireland, executive director of the Marion Heritage Center.
In 1865, the year the Civil War ended, Milwaukee Railroad purchased an uncompleted westbound line that began in Chicago and built it through Marion and onto Omaha, and then to the West. The city became a crossroads with a coinciding route from Minneapolis to St. Louis.
“Most of the businesses in town supported the railroad — the hotels, the eating places, everything like that was kind of built around the railroad and, honestly, Marion wouldn't have survived if we had not had that connection through it,” Ireland said.
At the turn of the 20th century, the railroad industry declined in Marion as it did across the country with new modes of transportation and shipping, according to Ireland.
The last train departed in 1980. And in 1992, the city received the caboose from the former Marion Depot Pride committee. It was painted the Milwaukee Railroad orange color by volunteers.
Now the caboose will find its new home in Draper Park. Ireland described Draper as a train fanatic and a “doer.”
“Paul was instrumental in saving the depot when it was going to be torn down. So he got the community together to move that across the street,” Ireland said.
Draper served two full terms on the City Council and died in 2020, three months after being elected to a third at-large term.
Comments: (319) 265-6828; cleo.westin@thegazette.com
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