A steel caboose built in 1934 for the Atchison,Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad has arrived in Williams. It is the newest addition to the collection owned by the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation.
The caboose was acquired by the foundation in September of 2020. It has taken 2 years to get it to Williams as it was buried deeply in a string of hundreds of stored surplus fright cars that reportedly stretched for 10 miles. A few months ago those freight cars started making their way to the scrap yard, allowing the caboose to finally be moved from Kansas to Williams.
The caboose was refurbished in 1967 and served the railroad until it was retired in 1990. It was last in operation on the Midland Railway excursion operation in Baldwin City, Kansas until 2019. It remains in original and fully operational condition, with fresh paint applied in 2018 making it ideal for museum preservation. The interior is also in excellent original condition.
It will be stored at the Grand Canyon Railway yard until the museum foundation is ready to put it on public display.
