HawkinsRails - Southern Bay Window Survivors

Location	State	Number	Status	Notes
Calera	AL	X201	in service	Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum
Calera	AL	X332	museum	Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum
Calera	AL	X458	museum	Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum
Chase	AL	X3087	display	North Alabama Railroad Museum
Chase	AL	X775	museum	North Alabama Railroad Museum
Collinsville	AL	X561	display	Veterans Memorial Park, Main Street
Fayette	AL	X658	display	Fayette Depot Museum
Fort Payne	AL	X246	display	Fort Payne Depot Museum
Huntsville	AL	X408	museum	Historic Huntsville Depot
Irondale	AL	X500	display	Irondale Train Watching Platform
LaFayette	AL	X403	display	Central of Georgia depot, 2nd Avenue SW
Leeds	AL	X245	display	depot, Thornton Avenue
Montgomery	AL	X572	classroom	Highland Avenue Elementary School
Nauvoo	AL	X513	display	depot, Nauvoo Road and Third Street
Opelika	AL	X427	display	Stern Dog Park, North 5th Street
Piedmont	AL	X769	display	Piedmont depot, Southern Blvd
Red Bay	AL	X325	storage	ex Norfolk Southern MW #500008
Satsuma	AL	X416	display	Lions Park, Old Highway 43
Sheffield	AL	X414	display	Norfolk Southern Sheffield yard office
Trinity	AL	X692	display	Caboose Park, North Seneca Drive
Tuscumbia	AL	X373	museum	Tuscumbia Depot and Roundhouse
Tuscumbia	AL	X399	museum	Tuscumbia Depot and Roundhouse
Valley Head	AL	X243	private	Claudia's Caboose cabin, along Route 117

Article

Retired Caboose Up and Renting in Valley Head

September 17, 2024

A recent open-house and ribbon cutting showcased a unique property — Claudia’s Caboose.

It is a railroad car newly renovated to serve as a guest lodging rental property.

The caboose is located in Valley Head between the main thoroughfare (Highway 117) and the active train track that runs through Valley Head. The owners of the caboose are Robert and Claudia Pike.

claudia24 When cabooses were built, they were given an identification number. Based on the number on Claudia’s Caboose, it is the sister caboose (built approximately at the same time) to the one that resides at the Fort Payne Depot. Claudia’s Caboose was found in Georgia and traveled by truck hauler over the Interstate system and through Collinsville to its current home.

Claudia’s fascination with trains began when she was just a youngster. “My cousins and I would jump on a boxcar and ride a little bit and then walk back home when I grew up in Corinth, Mississippi,” said Pike. “We also played ‘damsel in distress’ with our Barbie dolls, mimicking what we saw on the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.”’

When Pike found out her husband had never ridden on a train they booked a vacation rental caboose in Georgia. “He loved it and the idea was hatched to purchase our own,” said Pike. The process was a huge undertaking and took over two-years to complete. The Pike’s caboose was built in 1971 and is known as a yellow-belly, because it stayed close to Alabama and did not travel across the country.

The caboose the Pikes purchased was moved to Valley Head and placed on a small section of train track by a crane. “Just getting the train track level and placed on built-up ground was a project on its own,” said Pike. “Then the caboose had to be gutted and restored. We decorated in midcentury, industrial style to reflect the era when the caboose was in service. We still maintained some of the original features of a working caboose.”

The 290 square-foot carriage offers a mini-fridge, dishwasher, toaster oven/air fryer, microwave, coffee bar, small dinette, bedroom with queen-sized bed, full-sized sleeper sofa in the living room, 32-inch smart television, heat and air, indoor restroom and shower, train memorabilia, and all the charm of yesteryear.

Cabooses were used on every freight train in the United States and Canada until the 1980s when the Staggers Rail Act deregulated the American railroad industry and replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. When the safety laws were relaxed train companies decided it was more cost efficient to eliminate the caboose and the five or so employees who rode in the caboose. Currently there are only about 150 cabooses still in existence, making the experience of staying in one a special treat.

“When cabooses were no longer required, Southern Railway found themselves with hundreds of them and many were donated to museums, sold or donated to municipalities, and some were sold into private hands like the one in Valley Head,” said Ralph Hawkins. Hawkins has a web scrapbook featuring 75 years of railroad photography, shared by three generations of Hawkinses (his deceased father, himself, and now his adult daughter). Hawkins found Claudia’s Caboose on Facebook. He shares his train memorabilia finds on Facebook and on his website hawkinsrails.net. The sites highlight locomotives, lines, and locations across the southern and eastern United States. Claudia’s Caboose was posted on his Facebook page on Aug. 28.

The main purpose of a caboose was to allow train personnel to observe any problems at the rear of the train before uncontrollable trouble occurred. Lineside defect detectors and end-of-train devices eliminated much of this need. The caboose also served as the conductor’s office, and on longer routes served as sleeping accommodations for train employees. The caboose crew could watch for load shifting and look for overheating and potential fire. Older freight cars had plain bearings with hot boxes (overheated axle bearings, a serious fire and derailment threat). The crew was able to spot the problem by either watching from a cupola (crow’s nest) or out of bay windows on the sides of the caboose. The bay window cabooses gained favor with many railroads because it eliminated the need for additional clearance in tunnels and overpasses the way a cupola needed. Claudia’s Caboose has bay windows on each side. Claudia’s Caboose is now taking bookings.

Marla Ballard / Times-Journal