MINNEAPOLIS – The Iron Horse Central Railroad Museum has acquired a 110-year-old Soo Line caboose that has been a landmark in Minneapolis for 46 years. The caboose was owned by the Broadway Bar Pizza Restaurant, and has stood at the intersection at Broadway Avenue and East River Road since 1975.
In 2020, the pizza shop’s owner announced plans to sell the land to a developer for a seven-story affordable housing apartment building. He was willing to give the caboose away, provided the new owner moved it off the property. Iron Horse Central, a railroad museum based in Chisago City, Minn., owned and managed by Erik Thompson, stepped up to acquire and move the caboose to the museum.
Soo Line caboose No. 99111 was built in 1911. As built, the car had vertical wood “car” siding. During the 1970s, plywood sheeting was applied inside and out at the carshops in Stevens Point, Wis. The windows in the cupola were also blanked out soon after the sheeting was applied.
Later assignments for caboose 99111 were as follows: July 1, 1971, in Schiller Park, Ill.; in the Stevens Point shop on July 15, 1971; and then transfer service in Superior, Wis., on April 1, 1973. It was officially retired during summer 1974.
Eddie Peck purchased the caboose for display at his new Broadway Pizza location in 1975 at 2025 West River Road in Minneapolis. “It’s definitely iconic,” current Broadway Bar and Pizza owner Jim Kruizenga told KSTP-TV. “My goal for that caboose was to preserve it and to have it live on.”
The caboose will be moved off the property next month, with the restaurant scheduled to close by the end of the year.
The preservation plan for this caboose could be a little murky given that it was a sign, and apparently an iconic sign at that, for nearly half its existence. If it is going to be on static display, is there an argument that it should retain its “Broadway Pizza” decoration? We will take this for ten rounds, or TKO… 😉