Caboose #1208

The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad is often overlooked in the history of railroads in South Dakota. Absorbed into the Chicago and Northwestern system in 1960, the M&StL was one of the first of the Midwestern "fallen flags" in the merger era of the 1960s to the 1990s. While the railroad is long gone, there are many remnants of the "Tootin' Louie" across the Midwest. One of which is right here in the South Dakota State Railroad Museum.

#1208 is a bay window,steel underframe, 25 foot long caboose built in 1947 in the M&StL shops as one of a fleet of fifty six cabooses of the same design. These small cabooses were perfect for the shorter trains that ran on branch lines all throughout the Louie's system. An interesting feature of #1208 is the wooden superstructure that was built to save money for the railroad. At the time, most cabooses being produced were being made out of steel due to the lower maintenance costs and increased longevity. After the M&STL was purchased by the CNW in 1960, this caboose continued to see service until 1970 when it was officially taken off the roster and set aside to be scrapped.

Jeanne Bauder, whose father worked for the Chicago and Northwestern railroad, purchased caboose #1208 and moved it to her home in Huron just before the scrapper's torch could get to it in 1971. Jeanne, with the help of friends and family, lovingly restored the caboose and used it as a private museum. In 2016, seeking to give the caboose a new permanent home, Bauder reached out to then-director of the South Dakota State Railroad Museum, Rick Mills, with an offer to donate the caboose to the museum. Seizing the opportunity, Rick Mills arranged for the caboose to be brought to the museum by truck and later organized volunteers to give the caboose a cosmetic restoration.

Today the caboose sits proudly in the museum where thousands of tourists get to walk through the interior and catch a glimpse of the life of a conductor on the railroad.