Vintage caboose is first display at Lewes Junction

There were plenty of smiles to go around among members of the Lewes Junction Railroad & Bridge Association Dec. 19. After a year’s restoration work – including a professional paint job – a historic 1917 Pennsylvania Railroad caboose was moved from the former Delaware Coast Line Railroad work building to its new display site in Stango Park in Lewes.

It’s the first of three pieces of railroad history destined to be displayed on a 210-foot track section between the Lewes Public Library and Rollins Community Center. One of the pieces, a historic Wilmington & Western engine, has been donated to the organization.

Some work remains to be done on the caboose, said board member David Ludlow, who was also one of the organizers of the project. The work includes stenciling on the outside and some interior renovations.

The caboose was on the last Delaware Coast Line Railroad train that pulled through Lewes in 2017.

The work to move the caboose started at 7 a.m., Dec. 19, when three Coastal Towing trucks and two Delaware Cranes showed up to load the caboose and two wheel assembly sections for transport from Georgetown to Lewes. In just four hours, the move was complete.

It’s been a busy year for the organization. On Feb. 15, the historic hand-cranked railroad swing bridge was lifted from the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal crossing to its new home at the end of American Legion Road in Lewes. That project, a collaboration among the organization, City of Lewes and Delaware Department of Transportation, saved the bridge from being scrapped.

Dating back to the 1850s, the rail line through Lewes was decommissioned in 2018 and is now the location of a section of the Lewes-to-Georgetown Trail.

For more information, go to lewesjunctionrr.org.