L&N 6497 - Bowling Green, KY
N 37° 00.032 W 086° 26.271
16S E 550017 N 4095079
Caboose on display at the Historic Railpark and Train Museum in Bowling Green, KY
Waymark Code: WMPEQ4
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 08/19/2015
Views: 3
This caboose is located in Bowling Green, KY at the Historic Railpark and Train Museum. It is on the northeast side of town on Kentucky St.
This is taken from the website for the Railpark/Museum.
(
visit link)
"L&N Caboose #6497
Our Caboose was donated by CSX Transportation and is a Chessie Class C-27. It is one of 62 cabooses built for the B & O Railroad by the Fruit Growers Express Company at their Alexandra Virginia Factory between February and Many of 1978. The Fruit Growers Express was a company owned by several railroads including the B & O. They had produced refrigerator cars for a number of years. During the 1970 era, the decline in shipment of goods in refrigerator cars caused the company to branch out into manufacture of other types of cars.
This caboose was delivered in May of 1978. It was a “pool” caboose built to replace aging cabooses on the B & O. It was originally numbered C-3980. The B & O renumbered their cabooses in 1982 dropping the “C” and adding “90” becoming 903980.
Restoration efforts began in March of 2002 and now wears the L & N colors and has been renumbered 6497. Our caboose honors L & N Flagman Rayburn Wills who was riding in that caboose when he was shot and killed near Bucklodge, Tennessee on November 6, 1980.
The cupola caboose was developed to allow crews to be able to see over the top of the cars. Variations of this style caboose served until freight cars began being built higher during the 1950’s. At that time, the bay window caboose like this caboose was developed to allow crews to watch the cars ahead from the side."