Waite Park Group ‘Welcomes Home’ Old Caboose [AUDIO]

By Jim Maurice November 21, 2011 12:19 AM

WAITE PARK – The buildings are all closed-up and the railroad cars are long gone, but there are still a lot of families in the Waite Park and St. Cloud area that have a connection to the old “car shop”. And now there’s a plan to make sure the memory of the railroad lives on.

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If you’re a new comer to the area you probably wouldn’t know it, but Waite Park and St. Cloud were built on the back of railroad workers. Railway tycoon James J. Hill bought a piece of land in what is now Waite Park back in 1890 and built a rail car manufacturing plant. It operated on that site all the way up to 1986.

Barry Schreiber is a member of the STARail organization. He says almost everyone in town was connected to the railroad.

Now, the STARail group has a plan to keep the town’s history alive. They’ve bought a Great Northern X240 caboose that was built in Waite Park in 1943. Len Jagelski says she’s in tough shape right now, but with a little TLC they’ll restore it back to just like new.

The caboose sits on a short track along 3rd Street in Waite Park, a short distance from the building where it was built. Ron Euteneuer says the caboose is just the first step in an ambitious plan.

The total project is probably a few years away, but someday they even have dreams of buying the old car shop building, which BNSF still owns.

The STARail group will host a “Welcome Home” ceremony for the caboose this Friday at noon. Anyone with a love for or a connection to the railroad is welcome to attend.