Caboose finds new home
CN rail car will become dining car at MJ’s Bakery in Tignish
Judy Morrissey-Richard says she had two items on her bucket list. She wanted to take a trip down into the Grand Canyon and she accomplished that the year she turned 50, and she wanted to own a railway car.
The second item on her list became a reality recently when a crane hoisted a caboose off a flatbed truck and set it on a short section of rail beside her Tignish business, MJ’s Bakery.
“Someone asked me, ‘why’d you buy a train?’ and I said, ‘People have bucket lists. Some people travel, some people buy vehicles; I buy a train,’” she said with a laugh.
For Morrissey-Richard, who let out a screech when she caught a glimpse of her acquisition on the Confederation Bridge’s live video feed, getting a symbol of CN’s rail days returned to Tignish was a long time coming.
She said she started lobbying for a train in 1998, when she first joined the Tignish municipal council. By then, preparations were well underway for the community’s 1999 bicentennial celebrations.
“I felt we should never have let go of the train; that a train should’ve been kept in Tignish,” she said.
After all, the terminus to the CN rail line in Prince Edward Island had been in Tignish, just across from MorrisseyRichard’s bakery on Church Street.
One recent evening CN caboose 79601 was firmly in place, barely 50 metres away from what had been the end – or the beginning – of the rail line.
Morrissey-Richard plans to have the interior of the caboose converted into a café for her bakery. All the food will be prepared in the bakery and staff will deliver orders to customers who wish to enjoy their meals in the caboose.
There’s work to be done to the outside of the caboose, too. The sides need to be sandblasted before being repainted CN’s traditional orange and black. The CN lettering will also be restored.
“Right now, we’re just looking at seasonal. It will operate spring until October, probably,” said the bakery’s owner. “If it goes over OK, I may look at something for the winter.”
Cabooses used in P.E.I. were traditionally wooden, Morrissey-Richard acknowledges, but the wooden ones she learned of were in poor condition. She believes the steel caboose in her yard still has a long life ahead of it. She hasn’t yet learned when it was built, but has seen photos of it from 1972 and 1974.
The owner’s sister and brother, Darlene and Tommy, did most of the work laying the ties and the rail to accommodate the caboose, starting that project Wednesday afternoon and finishing up just in time for the caboose’s placement.
“There were a lot of people here looking; a lot of older people reminiscing and talking about their memory of the train, and how much they enjoyed the train,” she said.
She’s still getting people dropping in for a l ook.
Tommy Morrissey had been looking for a caboose for his sister since last fall after Morrissey-Richard decided to go about restoring the CN symbol to Tignish. She pointed out she received no government funding to assist with the purchase, delivery and restoration of the caboose.
When Tommy found CN 79601 in Truro, the owner had no interest in selling until he learned Morrissey-Richard wanted to turn it into a café. Now, he’s looking forward to coming over for a meal once it’s open.
The opening date isn’t set yet. Morrissey-Richard said she initially wanted to have it open in time for her bakery’s 30th anniversary on June 12, but now she’s hoping to have it ready in time for the Irish Moss Festival at the end of June.