NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — The Mid-Continent Railway Museum received Milwaukee Road steel bay-window caboose No. 02091 (later No. 992091) as a donation to its collection today. The donation came from Ken and Ruth Rupp.
The caboose was built by the railroad in its Milwaukee Menomonee Valley shops. It is known to have run in Western Wisconsin on the Milwaukee Road’s Sparta to Viroqua, Wis., branch line for a number of years. Once retired, the Rupps purchased the caboose and restored it. In recent years, it has been on static display in Westby, Wis., about 25 miles southeast of La Crosse, Wis. Westby is along the Sparta-Viroqua branch.
To receive the caboose, the museum posed it with Milwaukee Road Alco RSC2 No. 988, already part of the collection, and currently undergoing restoration. The museum plans to use the new caboose as part of its operating fleet, affording patrons the opportunity to experience what it was like to ride in a bay-window caboose. The interior, says Andy Spinelli, museum president, is in great condition.
“This will be an ‘in-service’ car,” says Spinelli. “We hope to have people learn the importance of a caboose and experience a bay window caboose along with our cupola caboose.”
With the new caboose being in good condition, it will not take long to make it operational. “Our plan is hopefully sometime next year to operate the caboose,” Spinelli says. “It currently needs the stairs put back on. They were removed for transport. We also have to replace the brake cylinder and rods and control valve that we do have.”
No. 02091 is the fourth Milwaukee Road caboose in the Mid-Continent Railway Museum collection and the 19th caboose overall. The other Milwaukee cabooses include:
- No. 01524 — Built in 1923 by the railroad at its Milwaukee shops, this is the road’s last wooden caboose. It is a typical raised-cupola style.
- No. 01601 — Believed to be the first steel cupola-style caboose on the Milwaukee Road. This caboose was also fabricated at the road’s Milwaukee shop. In later service, it was converted to a mobile residence for the scale test car inspector and was outfitted with a water heater and shower.
- No. 01855 — This caboose is distinguished by its ribbed sides, a feature the Milwaukee Road designed into its home-built cabooses to add strength and reduce weight. This caboose was also built in Milwaukee at the railroad’s shops in August 1939. The Milwaukee Road had two series of the ribbed, home-built cabooses.
For more information about the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, visit its website.
