Local Move your caboose: local business undertakes train car restoration project

The idea to buy a caboose came from his father, according to Juani Carregal. He and his partner Stevie Plummer have run Great Northern Cabins for several years, and recently, they added a caboose.

The couple told WTIP that they try to provide the guests of their vacation rental business with unique stays in each of the four accommodations that make up Great Northern. By the end of next summer, they hope to have a renovated caboose available, as well.

Carregal said he was inspired by his father’s dream to one day live in a caboose for his retirement. “The idea got stuck in my head,” he said. He added that when he suggested the idea to Plummer, she was on board immediately.

While they said they were able to find listings for cabooses available through auctions, the question of how to transport them to Grand Marais was a sticking point. Eventually, a friend let them know about a caboose already located in Cook County. Carregal described the excitement of going to see the train car as making him feel like a kid.

The train car is a transitional caboose built in 1948. Carregal said transional cabooses were built from 1948 through 1953. They were built with wooden insides and steel outsides, shifting from the all-wooden cabooses pre 1948 to the all-steel cars after 1953. He added that this point in railroad history also marked the transition from steam to diesel locomotives. This particular caboose was once part of the Great Northern Railway, and ran on the route between Minneapolis and the west coast. It was pulled from service in the 1970s, though Carregal said beyond that, they have not been able to find out more of the caboose’s history before it arrived in Cook County.

Once Carregal and Plummer agreed to purchase the caboose, the question of moving it came back into play. While they were only looking to move it about 15 miles, they explained that they struggled to find a Minnesota-based company to move it, and companies outside of the state gave them prohibitively expensive quotes. The caboose weighs roughly 45,000 pounds, meaning special equipment would be necessary to move it.

However, after over two years of research on how to move the car, a connection made at a local wedding led to the answer. In the end, they were able to work with a local family, the Berglunds, to move the caboose. Plummer said she was impressed that even the younger family members helped and understood operating the equipment it took to tip the caboose onto large, round hay bales, back a trailer into place, and then tip the train car onto the bed of the trailer.

With the caboose now in place on their property, Plummer and Carregal will undertake an effort to renovate the inside, and restore the outside. While they plan to do a lot of the work themselves, they hope to be able to contract with local tradespeople for some of the specialized work. Carregal said they plan to restore the outside of the car as exactly as possible, recalling its past use by the Great Northern Railway.

Plummer explained that the caboose has undergone a lot of interior changes since it was last used by the Great Northern Railway in the 1970s. In Cook County is has served as an antiques store, a cafe, and an art gallery. In this next era for the caboose, the couple plans to try to tap into an old-fashioned train feel, while also making the space usable as a vacation rental. She added that as they have begun this project, she has heard stories and memories from people who grew up in the community.

“I would like to honor it in a way that we can also offer that back to the community,” she said, “So it’s not just a private stay.” What form that might take is yet to be determined, but Carregal and Plummer said they would like to hear more memories and stories from anyone who has interacted with the caboose in the past.

As the restoration and renovations take place, Plummer and Carregal will be documenting the process and sharing it through the Great Northern Cabins and Caboose website, and their social media.

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Stevie Plummer and Juani Carregal, the owners of Great Northern Cabins and Caboose. Audio of that interview, including more details of the process that went into moving the caboose, can be found below.