Canadian Railroads > The Erie caboose of Southern Ontario

Perusing through the Canadian Trackside Guide a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by an entry indicating that there is an ex. Erie caboose on display in Chatham, ON. I found it on Google street view, and was happy that I was able to find it, but appalled by the gaudy paint!  Last weekend while returning home from a week at a cottage, we took a break off the highway to go check out the caboose; mainly to see if it was still there and in hopes it looked a little better. Nope, still horrendous. Although, the body of the caboose looks to be in fairly decent condition under the circus-like paint scheme.  I'd love to know the story of how this Erie Dunmore caboose (and a fire truck) ended up on display next to an End of the Roll carpet store on the north side of Chatham. I suppose it could have come off the Canada Southern (CASO) when it was still operated by Conrail, but it was obviously trucked to this location. The Trackside Guide lists the car as "No #". It'd be easy to figure out the car number had the "KarTrak" barcode tag not been painted over on both sides. Shortly after I took the attached photos it started to pour rain, so I wasn't able to check it out much. The interior looked mostly gutted, with a card table and chairs inside. Usually you see cabooses on display that are local to nearby railroads, so this Erie caboose sure isn't what you'd expect to find in Southern Ontario.  Photos taken Saturday July 24, 2021 beside Hwy. 40 at the north end of Chatham, Ontario.

Rob Smith
Hamilton, ON

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Yikes!

Well, for a wood caboose in Canada, it seems to be holding up well

Posted from Android

P Wrote:
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> Yikes!
>
> Well, for a wood caboose in Canada, it seems to be
> holding up well
>
> Posted from Android

Doesn't look like a wood car to me. Looks like a steel car.

Wonder if Conrail paid a duty for leaving American-based equipment in Canada. 

> Doesn't look like a wood car to me. Looks like a
> steel car.

Correct, it's a steel caboose.

Rob Smith
Hamilton, ON

PHall Wrote:
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> P Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yikes!
> >
> > Well, for a wood caboose in Canada, it seems to
> be
> > holding up well
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Doesn't look like a wood car to me. Looks like a
> steel car.

Zooming in on my phone shows that it is a steel car. Initially, on my small screen it looked like wood. My bad