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NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — A small group of train restoration volunteers has begun a yearlong process of renovating a 1942 Union Pacific caboose.
Volunteers are hopeful they will have enough money to pay for the project, even though they don't yet have enough cash to pay for the estimated $15,000 restoration price tag, the Idaho Press-Tribune, a newspaper in Nampa, (http://bit.ly/1PTdaLu) reported.
The group currently has raised $6,000, but it hopes to acquire grant funding and private donations to help pay for the rest of the restoration.
"Everything here is just as it was when it was in use," volunteer Eriks Garsvo said. "Even the conductor's cigarette butts."
The project will include sand-blasting and painting the exterior and interior of the train, restoring the flooring and refurbishing the caboose's windows.
The caboose has been out of commission since 1983. It was the donated to the Canyon County Historical Society, where it remained unused, and largely ignored, at the Nampa Train Depot.
The train car originally served as living quarters for freight staff, but it also included a tall, windowed cupola for brakemen to monitor the length of the train.
On Thursday, volunteers had already dismantled most of the interior —removing the stove, chairs, bed boxes and other items to be placed into storage.
Fellow volunteer Aldis Garsvo said he hopes the restoration will attract other train enthusiasts to visit Nampa.
"If I'm going to be frank with you, most people don't care about cabooses unless they're train people," Garsvo said. "The bottom line here is economic development through tourism. They come here and spend a few dollars at the museum, and then where's lunch? It's somewhere downtown. Then there's hotels, and you really start to see the ripple effect."
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