If you drive along the bypass in Lehighton, you will see a caboose sitting on a section of track.

The caboose was donated to Lehighton in November 2022, transported using cranes and two large trucks. A section of track was installed near the pavilion for the car.

The plan is to restore the caboose.

The Lehighton Downtown Initiative will lead the refurbishment of the caboose.

On Saturday, the group held a Railroad Day in conjunction with the Lehighton Downtown Farmers Market to show people their plans for the caboose, which will begin with repainting the car.

Bambi Elsasser is the treasurer and community operations director for the LDI.

“This is our big project for the year,” Elsasser said. “We hope to have it painted by the end of the year.”

The cost of painting the caboose will be approximately $25,000. The LDI received $5,000 matching grant from the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau. That means they have to raise $5,000 as the matching part of the grant, plus the rest of the money for the project.

“Part of our fundraising is that we are raffling off a vacation,” Elsasser said. “There will be 1,000 tickets sold. All proceeds go to the caboose project. The prize is a $6,000 vacation to any place they want to go.”

Eventually, interior work will be done, and they plan to do some landscaping on the land surrounding the caboose.

Vendors and railroad organizations had tables and tents set up; some selling items, other showing railroad memorabilia.

One group was the Lehigh Valley Railroad Association.

“We’ve been in existence for 104 years,” George Hollock, president of the association, explained. “It was instituted in 1921. At that time, it was mostly for veterans of the Lehigh Valley Railroad who had at least 15 years experience with the railroad. We don’t have many members now, so we adjusted our membership requirements to accept members from just about any railroad, those who worked on any railroad in the Lehigh Valley system.”

Hollock said they were invited to attend this event not just for their connection to the railroad; they also have experience in refurbishing a caboose.

“We had refurbished a caboose, which is in Mountain Top,” Hollock said. “It took us two and a half years.”

There was a book and a 2026 calendar that featured photographs on their process to restore it.

The Lehighton Area Heritage Alliance was present as well. Todd Weaver and Neil Stubits had several model train sets on their display.

“It’s a good thing,” Stubits of Towamensing Township said of the caboose project. “We actually have a train diorama that we just finished refurbishing, about 18 by 5 feet. A gentleman who grew up in Lehighton built the display in the 1930s and 1940s. His sons donated it back to us. We’re hoping to open that up to the public to view this fall.”

In addition to Railroad Day, LDI will also hold a Bingo and a basket raffle on Nov. 2 at the Orioles Community Center.