All Aboard: Chester, N.S., heritage society to restore donated caboose

Any train enthusiast knows, the only thing better than a model railway is the real thing.

After years of searching, a decades-old relic of Canadian rail history is now the prized possession of the Chester Municipal Heritage Society – a caboose.

“We finally found a caboose,” said Danny Hennigar of the Chester Municipal Heritage Society, who is leading the restoration project. “A family member of our chair found this caboose in Moncton, and the family donated to us.”

The caboose is valued at more than $10,000 and weighs over 60 tonnes.

The society operates in the building that was once the Chester Train Station – a Mackenzie-Mann design, it was erected by the Halifax and South Western Railway circa 1903.

“Chester back then was a resort town. People came from America and across Canada to stay here for the summer and of course they arrived by train, because the drive from Philadelphia by car would have been quite the undertaking,” said Hennigar.

Due to the rugged topography, locals say the rail line earned another moniker - the “Hellishly, Slow and Wobbly.”

Hennigar believes the last train to role through town was in the 1990’s.

“It was a thrill to see it go by, but people don’t understand that anymore,” he said. “Now [visitors] can come and stand next to the caboose to get an appreciation for just how big it is.”

At one time, cabooses were the home away from home for railroad crews in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hennigar says the next step is securing funds and finding help to restore the exterior and interior of the caboose, but there is no shortage of enthusiasm for the project that’s expected to take several years to complete.

“A village like this can’t have an ugly caboose, you need have a nice looking caboose!”

Eventually the caboose will be hoisted up onto a set of train tracks, making its final resting place, or last stop, in the heart of where it all began.