Caboose Hop at Fish Point. A Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company "Guest Engineer" caboose hop sails past the rocky bluff known as Fish Point, en route back to the Portland Marine Terminal.
The MNGRR recently began to allow customers for their "Guest Engineer" program to operate the steam locomotive with a caboose in trail. Unlike many similar programs at other railroads, which only allow the student to operate a light locomotive, this program permits family members to accompany the student and take photos and videos of the event. It also gives the student some experience handling a "train", albeit a short one. The caboose you see here is a restored 550-series unit from the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, which was the largest of the Maine 2-foot operations. There were 3 such cabooses built, 2 of which survive in the MNGRR collection. These cabooses are unusual in that they have baggage doors, passenger seats and windows. In addition to being the home of the conductor and brakemen, these cabooses hauled express, baggage and even passengers, when loads were light and it didn't make sense to burden a freight train with a full coach. You can still experience riding in these cabooses. During the summer months, the museum's tourist trains typically include one of them in the consist.
