Trains were important for many transportation needs. In addition to the shipping of produce and freight, many children wanting a high school education used the “milk trains” to get from their homes in outlying areas to the cities where high schools were located. These trains featured many different kinds of cars including box cars and flat cars for hauling freight, cattle cars, and passenger cars. A caboose always signaled the end of the train and was pulled by an engine with tender.

​

The cab of the locomotive is the place where the engineer and the fireman sit when the trains were running. The engineer has a seat on the right side and the fireman is on the left. It is the responsibility of the engineer to start and stop the train and to always be alert, making sure that the track ahead is clear of other trains, animals, and people.

​

At intersections where the train tracks crossed a road, the engineer would blow the whistle to alert people that the train was coming and that they should wait until it had passed before crossing the tracks. The engineer assumed the responsibility for the safety of every passenger aboard the train and for all of the freight being transported.

​

The fireman saw to it that the locomotive had enough steam to pull the load it was hauling. To do this, it was his responsibility to keep the boiler filled with water which, when heated, would convert into steam to power the engine. The fireman saw to it that wood, and later coal, was supplied to the fires in the boiler to keep it hot enough to convert water into steam. The tender was located behind the locomotive as a source for the water, wood or coal. A fireman on a run from Manitowoc to Milwaukee (approximately 80 miles) would be required to shovel about 20 tons of coal.

​

On passenger trains, a conductor or brakeman was also a member of the train crew. The conductor was responsible for taking the tickets of passengers as they came on board the train. It was also his job to go up and down the aisles announcing the name of the next stop to alert passengers who had tickets for that town that they were approaching their destination.

​

The #321 steam locomotive was purchased by the Wisconsin Central Railway from the Rhode Island Locomotive Works in 1887. The 44-ton locomotive was one of four of the first 6-wheel switch engines they owned. #321 was used to assemble trains in the Shoreham Rail Yards in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

​

In 1932 the tender was removed, water tanks installed alongside the boiler and a coal bunker was installed in the left side of the cab. The locomotive worked in the roundhouse area moving dead engines into the repair shops and roundhouse until 1955.

In 1957 Robert Miller of Miller Compressing Company, Milwaukee purchased the engine. Mr. Miller donated the engine and coal tender to the Manitowoc County Historical Society in 1967.

​

The engine was moved by the C & O Railroad aboard the car ferry “S.S. Badger” from Milwaukee to Ludington, Michigan, then to Manitowoc aboard the carferry “S.S. Midland” free of charge. The Central & Northwestern Railroad made a stall available in the Manitowoc Roundhouse where the Clipper City Model Railroad Club of Manitowoc began to restore the locomotive to its original configuration.

​

According to Larry Bohn, a member of the Clipper City Model Railroad Club instrumental in bringing #321 to the Village, it was noticed during the restoration process that the rear frame cross tie, a heavy steel casting, had been badly broke during some previous mishap. Although it had been bolted back together with heavy straps and bolts, the socket for the front end of the draw bar was almost completely gone, making it impossible to pull a tender and string of cars.

​

This may have been the reason that #321 was converted into a “shop goat” with a coupler in back. Further checking showed that portions of the left side of the engine were not original, with many of the parts being numbered for the #323 and #324 engines.

Many other parts were obviously from other engines as well and it was evident that the wheel center at the main rod crank pin had been cracked and repaired with a heavy steel strap forged around the wheel center and crank boss. These repairs indicated that at some point the engine had been involved in a serious accident, probably a sideswipe.

​

One story was that the engine had fallen into a turntable pit at some undetermined times, but there is no verification of this story to date. If that story is true, it would account for the broken rear frame cross tie, but not the left side damage unless it also rolled over while falling into the pit.

A flat car, which was used for hauling freight, was donated by the Allis Chalmers Company of Milwaukee. The locomotive, tender and flat cars were moved to Pinecrest Historical Village in 1975 where they were placed on Manitowoc & Northern Traction Company street car rails originally located in the City of Manitowoc.

​

Caboose #99006 was built in 1886 by Barney & Smith of Chicago for the Wisconsin Central Railway, predecessor of the Soo Line. It is one of eight original wooden cabooses of its class delivered to the Wisconsin Central that year. Six more were built the following year by the Ohio Falls Car Company and another 24 were built in 1890 at the Wisconsin Central shops at North Fond du Lac. The original numbers assigned to these cabooses were in the hundreds, but when the Soo Line took over management of the Wisconsin Central Railway in 1909, all caboose numbers were changed to the 99000 series.

 

Caboose #99006 was one of the long ones—42 feet long, by 9 feet wide, by 15 feet high. The 16-ton caboose originally had 33 inch cast iron wheels, which were later exchanged for steel. The original color was box car red. This was later changed to cherry red for greater visibility and to warn the engineer of the train ahead. During restoration the caboose was repainted a shade of red that closely matches that of the original Wisconsin Central Railway.

 

The caboose was the living quarters and office for the train crew. The interior of the caboose features an original coal-burning stove, sink, toilet, sleeping berths and storage closets for railroad lanterns, tools, safety flags and personal items. It was hot in the summer, cold in the winter and noisy all year round. The cupola has 8 windows where crewmen could sit and view the train and track.

​

Caboose #99006 traveled the entire Wisconsin Central system and accompanied many freight cars and trains. In August of 1963 it was involved in a train wreck near Camp Lake in Kenosha County. The train was rolling along at about 75 miles per hour when, for unknown reasons, it went off the rails and on the ties.

 

A box car ahead of the caboose went end over end and hit the caboose, causing it to tip over on its left side. Ballast, or gravel, came scooping through the windows, and the crewsmen were badly shaken up and bruised by the bouncing. At the time #99006 went in for repairs resulting from the Camp Lake wreck, the siding was removed and replaced with plywood. This, of course, strengthened it considerably, but changed its appearance.

 

In 1974, after 88 years of service, #99006 was moved to the Oshkosh Public Museum where it was used to exhibit railroad memorabilia on the museum grounds for 16 years.

 

On November 13, 1900 the caboose was donated to the Manitowoc County Historical Society and moved to the Village by Eis Structure Movers (Two Rivers) where it joined the 1887 Soo Line steam locomotive, tender and flat car at the Collins Depot.

​

The caboose was laid on an additional 45 feet of track constructed by a volunteer crew, including retired Chicago & Northwestern railroad employees from Manitowoc. Restoration work was completed over a four year period. It included replacing exterior tongue-and-glove siding, badly deteriorated window trim, a side wall and a leaking roof, and the painting of the caboose.

​

It was opened to the public in the summer of 1994 and officially dedicated on May 21, 1995.