OTTAWA — Beginning Tuesday morning, the Franklin County Historical Society’s “Move That Caboose” campaign will become the caboose on the move. The Taylor Crane and Rigging Company, Coffeyville, was to be in town making the preparations for lifting the caboose off its trucks and loading it and its trucks onto a trailer, said Mark Cation, of the historical society and who raised a little more than $7,500 in a week to pay the expenses of moving the rail car from the Ron and Deanna Kimes home from the 1100 block of East Ninth Street to the Old Depot Museum. “This is a project I have been working on for more than a year,” Cation said. “Recently everything fell into place for this move to become a reality. I am very thankful for the donors who have stepped forward to help fund this project.” The Kimes agreed to donate the caboose, which was in their yard. Cation and the company scouted about eight different routes before approaching the city to get the appropriate permits. The caboose will be hauled by truck trailer beginning at about 9 a.m. on a route from the Kimes’ home west on 9th Street to Cherry Street, north to 7th Street, then west to Cedar Street, north to First Street, then west to Main Street, over the Marais des Cygnes River bridge, and west on Tecumseh Street to the tracks on the west side of the Old Depot Museum. The trip is scheduled to take approximately two hours, Cation said. The group coordinating the effort will move into Phase II of the project, which includes fencing, landscaping and a handicapped-accessible ramp, he said. Later phases include painting and Santa Fe stenciling, installing exhibits aboard the caboose, and adding another freight yard car, he said.
Monday, March 12, 2 p.m.
