The Little Red Caboose in the Back Yard – June 6, 1971

If you spend a lot of time driving around in the country, eventually you’re bound to see some unusual things in the back of some farmyards, repurposed from their original use.

For instance, a few farmers in Northern Ohio bought old Lake Shore Electric interurban cars for use as storage sheds. Lake Shore Electric enthusiasts often know exactly where these are today, having researched who bought the cars when they were all sold in the late 1930s. (That’s an LSE trailer at right in retirement out on Joppa Road in Vermilion Township.)

Occasionally, you see a little red caboose. A landscaper that I hired a few years ago kept one on his property on Harris Road in Sheffield Village for use as an office. As far as I know it’s still there.

And here’s the story of another caboose, and how it ended up in the backyard of a farm out in Milan, outside Norwalk. It’s an interesting story, especially how the Elfers family acquired it, and arranged to have it moved to their property on Milliman Road. The article by Staff Writer Kathy Myers appeared in the Lorain Journal back on June 6, 1971.

As the story notes, Carol Elfers had told a friend that she would love to have a caboose for use as a playhouse for her children, as well as a place to ‘get away from it all.’ As it turned out, her friend had seen an ad in a Cleveland newspaper advertising the sale of several cabooses.

It took some convincing to get Ben Elfers to agree, but in the end, his wife and children got their wish. The family even bought some old track from a quarry in Marblehead to set the caboose on, once the Slessman Brothers were able to transport it to their farm.

It’s an impressive accomplishment. Here’s hoping the family had many years of enjoyment of their unique getaway.

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Like me, you’re probably wondering: is the caboose still there?

I did a little online research, and came up with a possible address for the property on Milliman Road. I didn’t see a caboose in the Google Maps aerial view though, so I decided to do a ‘drive by’ in the street view mode.

I went back and forth a few times before I caught a glimpse of the caboose through the trees.