At "Golden Hill" which is on the Alaska Parks Highway just past the Ester turn-off and the Dot Scale House, next to Tesoro Gold Hill gas station. Gold Hill Express Photo courtesy of Casey Durand 9/6/12 In September 2024 Ronald Simpson bought caboose 1091. On October 1, 2024 Ron told me, "It had been set up as an espresso. Much of the equipment was still in place. We will also use it as that, plus baked items from an adjacent kitchen, soft ice cream and a variety of mostly-Alaskan and Russian teas. It will be painted in a more traditional dark-red caboose color and relettered as "Copper River & Northwestern Railway. This is an extension of the railroad theme that is the Copper Rail Depot http://unclenics.com/." Casey Durand adds, "The former ARR Caboose #1091 has full filled its life as a coffee shop in Ester and is getting picked up today for a trip to it's next home in Copper Center, Alaska. Historian, Businessman, and direct descendant of the tribe who first discovered copper at Kennicott, Ron Simpson, is right now getting his new toy loaded up to take home. The 1091 will get placed on the property of The Pub at Copper Center, Uncle Nick's Inn. Ron has plans then for next season to lay track, source a set of trucks and place the Caboose for use at his business on that property. More to follow... Thank you Precision Crane & Timberline Excavation of Fairbanks, Scott of Glennallen Towing, Kevin Valentine and Casey Lee Durand. These are the people who made the caboose move from Ester to Copper Center ~~270 miles-- possible in the most professional, expeditious, and friendly and helpful way possible. Every ONE of them played a crucial role in a move involving 21 1/2 tons of a 44 foot long steel caboose. A note: our local end guys were especially cooperative in working within our relatively-tight time frame. Casey Lee Durand came up from Fairbanks, as my AKRR operations and rolling stock expert, to ensure that the caboose was safely and securely set in place on our tight schedule. The caboose at The Hub, where I joined up with Timberline Excavation, to ride with the driver for the duration of the trip. We passed Kevin Valentine, already on his way down with his 966 loader. Scott of Glennallen Towing, showed up to complete the job a few minutes later. Casey Lee Durand showed up from Anchorage just ahead of Scott. On the Fairbanks end: Precision Crane operators lift the caboose into place and set it on Timberline Excavation Company's lowboy. 43,000 pounds. Under 16 feet for road hauling purposes. It's on it's way to a truck yard today. Tomorrow morning, the caboose resumes its journey all the way to the CRD property at Copper Center. It weights in at 43,000 lbs and is 44 feet in length end-to-end. 10/2/24 The only question now is “can they keep it upright?” Scott of Glennallen Towing and Kevin Valentine carefully lift the caboose so that the lowboy (Timberline Excavation) can be pulled free from underneath, under the direction of Casey Lee Durand. The hauler is now freed-up. I just KNOW you all want to see the interior of the caboose. This is how it looked the first time I entered it while it was still in Ester, Alaska.