By: Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
The little red caboose, that for decades has sat in Hop Brown Park along US 60 in Olive Hill, made the trip to its new home in front of the Olive Hill Welcome Center last week. The move, which took specialized gear and knowledge to conduct, was finished within a couple hours. But the roots of the move go back to earlier this year, when students from Morehead State University gave the community their recommendations for improvements to the pocket park that could prompt more use of the space.
One of the things discussed during those meetings with the Morehead students was a small basketball court on the site, but the caboose took up much of the usable space in the park.
The idea of moving the caboose to make room for other attractions was first raised during those meetings, Trail Town’s Jesse Oney explained, and the Brown family was immediately behind the idea.
The caboose was not donated by the Brown family, and was originally installed in 1978 to house a collection of Tom T. Hall memorabilia. But despite that, it’s become associated with the park, and Oney said neither he nor anyone else would have supported moving the caboose if the Brown family weren’t in favor of the change.
“When Sharon (Brown) said that she would like to have it moved, then I said, ‘Ok. If you’d like to have it moved, then I will try to have it moved,’” Oney recalled.
Oney talked with Lisa Messer Conley, a volunteer at the Welcome Center which houses the city’s current Tom T. Hall collection, and after determining they could make space for it, he reached out to Rick Porter with R&D Railroad Construction, who had the type of gear and expertise required to move the caboose.
After determining that it could be safely moved, Porter told Oney he’d volunteer his time and labor to have the caboose moved.
“They came to me… and asked, and I said yes,” Porter said. “And they asked me how much and I said, ‘Well, I’ll do it for nothing.’”
The reason, he said, was because of how much the city has done for him. When his business lost their office space in a fire a couple of months back, he said, the city fire crews fought the blaze tirelessly, and though they weren’t able to save the main building and office space, they did stop the fire from spreading to other buildings.
“Our volunteer fire department really did a tremendous job putting out the fire,” Porter said.
And, he said, as someone who works with the railroads, and grew up in Olive Hill when the railroads were still a vital part of the downtown, he wants to preserve that heritage.
“That caboose has been up there since I can remember on that hill,” he said. “(But) I’d rather see it down here (and restored) than torn down and done away with.”
That was a real possibility with delays in refurbishment and the continuing deterioration of the exterior of the caboose, he said.
Now it’s in a place where Trail Town and other organizations can focus on fundraising for repair and refurbishment, and, Messer Conley pointed out, where more people can visit and enjoy it.
It’s also, as Porter noted, in a spot with a more direct historical link to the railroad.
Not only is it near the old train depot, Porter said, “It’s sitting right in the middle of where the (train) yard used to be. This used to be railroad yard all the way to the (creek). Right here in the middle of this. I remember when the yard was there and the train stopped up there at that station, picked up passengers, and went on.”
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
