Grand Trunk Western

Caboose #77137

Toronto, 1979

Smith Falls, 1998

     Completed on February 15, 1891 in Port Huron, Michigan for the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railroad as #90724, this caboose is one of the few to survive with its original arch bar trucks. Grand Trunk Western replaced the trucks on many of their cabooses in the 1950’s.

     At one time all the GTW cabooses were mineral brown. In June of 1944 the railroad adopted Canadian National orange. The maple leaf logo was applied in 1954, and in 1957 the lettering was changed from black to white.

     The cupola on top of the caboose was shortened at one time to allow passage through the original St. Clair Tunnel, from Sarnia to Port Huron, for London to Chicago service.

     In 1964 it became the property of Sarnia’s Bayview Railway Museum, which never materialized, then the Toronto and York Division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1974, where it stayed until 1990. Mr. Ross Robinson then moved it to Smith Falls, Ontario where he restored it, then donated it to the Elgin County Railway Museum in 1998.