Planned renovations coming soon for iconic 100-year-old train caboose

INVERNESS, Fla. — A unique piece of Citrus County history is getting some much-needed renovations. 

Dozens of people gathered at the Inverness Trailhead of the Withlacoochee State Trail on Monday, learning about revival plans for a 100-year-old train caboose.

“Historic, iconic, maybe even charming,” said Citrus County commissioner Rebecca Bays. “Low maintenance is not one of them.”

At the start of the Inverness Trailhead, proudly stands a relic of Citrus County’s past.

“Today marks the kickoff of the restoration of this 1925 Megor Car Company caboose,” said Bays.

This 100-year-old train caboose has stood in that very spot since 2003, standing as a monument to the history of Inverness and local area. With its red exterior, it’s pretty hard to miss.

“We put it here as a symbol of rail commerce that came through Inverness,” said Thomas Craig, President of the Friends of Withlacoochee State Trail.

Craig says it’s thanks to donors, annual ride sponsors and members of the Friends of Withlacoochee State Trail Citizens Support Organization that they have enough funding to start phase one of restoration.

“It’s turned into a presentation of what we can do and what we’re going to be doing to finish the exterior of this caboose.”

Painting of the caboose’s exterior has already begun, a process that Craig said has required careful consideration. Ensuring it remains historically accurate.

“We worked with a Macon, Georgia, museum that has an exact duplicate of this, and we all agreed that the color that it came off the line, because it was made for a seaboard, is this color,” said Craig.

More work is yet to come, such as that on the interior. It is work that Craig said he does not take for granted.

“Inverness being a ‘small town done right,’ the caboose is just a natural part of that. And to be able to fix it and preserve it for the next 50 years and be personally involved in it, that’s something that I can be proud of.”

So that this buggy may stand for another 100 years and more.

Craig said the next renovations on the list will be painting the metal and replacing the roof. He says once they finish painting the caboose and fixing the roof, they would like to fix the interior.