Caboose #700

Caboose #700 serves as the Chamber’s Visitor Information Center. It was built in the 1920s in Shelton by the Peninsula Railway Company, a subsidiary of Simpson. It is a side-door caboose, which is unique in that it was used to haul less-than-carload freight bound for the various camps. The caboose was also used to carry passengers to and from logging camps where the railroads were often the only means of transportation available. Simpson’s Camp #5 was the last of the Simpson camps to be accessible by automobile as it did not have a road connecting it with the outside world until 1935.

Number 700 served the Peninsula Railway until 1936 when it became a part of Simpson’s private logging railroad. In 1938 and 1939 it was converted for night service by the addition of lights powered by batteries, which were recharged when not in a run. In 1946 it was equipped with a phone mounted on the window below the cupola. One trainman would reach out a window with a long pole to connect the telephone to the telephone line alongside the railroad right-of-way, while the other trainman operated the phone itself.

Long after other railroads had abandoned this type of caboose, Number 700 remained in service through the late 1950s and was retired in 1965. It was then purchased by the Puget Sound Railroad Historical Association and moved to Snoqualmie for display.

Number 700 remained in Snoqualmie until May 26, 1983, when it was loaded by a stacker on two low-boys, brought to Shelton and set in place behind “Tollie” by a large crane. Caboose #700 worked behind Shay for many years, traveling over this location on Railroad Avenue.

At one time, the side-door caboose was very common on most large logging railroad systems and branch lines. Caboose #700 is probably one of the last surviving examples of this historic style of caboose. Number 700 is used by the Shelton Mason County Chamber of Commerce as a visitor information center and also serves as a monument to the logging history of the area.