Followed by Heritage Village annual meeting
Update: Due to the forecast of approaching snow and blizzard winds, the date for the Soup Supper Fundraiser to restore the Great Northern Caboose on the tracks at the Village grounds has been rescheduled. The fundraiser will now be held in the Welcome Center at Heritage Village – and will kick off a full evening on Thursday, February 4. Free will donations will be collected. The fundraiser will be served from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Soups will include chili, ham and green bean, chicken wild rice, cheeseburger, chicken noodle and ham and navy bean.
Providing entertainment will be Aaron and Nikki Petersen of Mountain Lake. In addition, a bake sale highlighting ethnic specialties will be held.
Following the supper, the Heritage Village Board of Directors will hold its annual meeting for members and guest, beginning at 7 p.m. Current board members include President Mike Nelson (who replaced the late Alvin Dick), Erland Braun, Bill Baerg, Jim Crawford, Curt Fast, Harvey Buller, Jim Dick, Marilyn Feil, Martin Quintero, Betty Lou Ratzloff, Geneva Stoesz and Miranda Stoesz.
The Restore the Caboose project began last summer with the sale of pins featuring the caboose. Once upon a time, the “Little Red Caboose” was the traditional “end-of-the-line” for every freight train traveling the tracks. Estimates for the restoration are approximately $10,000. Matching funds/grants for the project will also be sought.
“Back in the day,” the caboose provided shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were required for switching and shunting, and to keep a lookout for load shifting, damage to equipment and cargo or overheating axles. Designs were originally modified box cars or flatbed cars carrying a cabin, but later became specialized vehicles, with projections above or to the sides of the car so crew could observe the train from shelter. The car also served as the conductor’s office, and on long routes, included accommodation and cooking facilities.
Cabooses were used on every freight train until the 1980s, when safety laws requiring the presence of cabooses and full crews were relaxed. Developments in monitoring and safety technology, such as lineside defect detector and flashing rear-end devices (FREDs), combined with the desire for railroad companies to save money by reducing crew numbers resulted in the phasing out of caboose cars.
The Great Northern Railway caboose on the tracks at Heritage Village weights 20 tons. It served the Burlington Northern Railroad for many years and was moved to its home at Heritage Village in 1978. The local “Little Red Caboose” was listed in the Minnesota Railroad Guide in April 2001.
It sits in a perfect setting adjacent to The Depot – the original Mountain Lake Depot that was once located just south of First Avenue – and the railroad tracks – and near 10th Street.. When the Northwestern Railroad closed its southern Minnesota route in 1973, the City of St. James wanted to purchase the building for use as a depot. The Heritage House Board, however, believed the depot should remain in its home city of Mountain Lake. A trade was negotiated, and a depot from Amboy, which was heading to Mountain Lake, was instead moved to St. James. The Mountain Lake Depot indeed remained at home – albeit just shifting location a bit south and east to the site of Heritage Village.
