MOVING a caboose BY HAND? Plenty of brawn needed! This "special move" was accomplished by tough-as-nails Adirondack railroaders on June 5, 2024 when a caboose, painted in Conrail colors, was hand-pulled out of a siding in Thendara NY. The caboose was to be used as a shoving platform (once the Utica-Tupper Lake tie train reached Sabattis) for a twenty mile shove to Tupper Lake.
This video captures the caboose-pulling episode together with views of the train crossing the Mohawk River, Utica, on Remsen Hill in Prospect, in Forestport Station and, finally, in Thendara, the half-way point on the route to Tupper Lake.
The first 23 miles of the trip were on the rails of the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern and two of the MA&N's engines were up front. Behind them: two Adirondack locomotives. Once Remsen's Snow Junction was reached, the MA&N engines were uncoupled and the freight then entered Adirondack's home rails for the journey to Tupper Lake, the end of the tourist hauler's line.
The ties will be used in the reconstruction of the Tupper Lake wye and other projects around the Adirondack town's handsome station.