PHOTO PROVIDED Pictured are Luther Gette, right, of Philipsburg, and John Gummo, left, of Beech Creek. Their handshake is evidence of the alliance formed to rescue/relocate and restore the old wooden “Cabin Car” New York Central Caboose 17909.

CENTRE HALL — A Beech Creek resident, and train enthusiast, is set to help rescue/relocate and restore an old wooden “cabin car” caboose.

John Gummo and Luther Gette, of Philipsburg, shook hands recently and formed an alliance to rescue the New York Central Caboose 17909.

“Their intention is to see the “hack” visualized in a historic setting. They are currently working through the logistics of complete exterior restoration,” a release from the pair said. “Followed by another over-the-road transport to a historical society location existing with an existing New York Central (NYC) rail station from the 1890s.”

The train is currently in Centre Hall and will be moved to Beech Creek at a restoration center on Sept. 19.

The old wooden caboose, built around 1900, was in operation until the 1960s on the New York Central’s Pennsylvania Division, a conduit for NYC locomotive coal, both north and west from the Clearfield Bituminous Region of Central Pennsylvania during the glory days of steam power.

The wood cabooses, with their classic cupolas, were gradually replaced by all-metal vehicles with bay windows, but quite a few survived in branch line service up to the time of the Penn Central merger in 1968. After which, most were ruthlessly scrapped by the railroad, leaving only a few rare survivors today.

“I kept track of the caboose for many years, because to me it’s an absolute classic of the era of steam railroading. I’ve been riding freight trains for a long time and I had one of the greatest freight rides of my entire life in a caboose just like this on the old Clearfield Southern line of the NYC in October 1961,” Gette said. “This was courtesy of an old friend, engineer Gus Pelka of Philipsburg, who was the total hero of my life when I was a kid.”

“The crew let me sit up in the cupola for the entire ride from Irvona back to Clearfield, on a chilly fall evening, with heat from the old potbelly stove drifting up to keep me warm. Doing only about ten miles per hour, on very rickety track, we bounced and swayed along Clearfield Creek, following every curve and bend of the old line, soon to be abandoned,” Gette concluded.

John Gummo has a long history with the Centre Hall caboose.

Gummo discovered it around 1985 on a siding near Cammal, Pa., on the NYC line through Pine Creek Gorge, where it had been thoughtfully sequestered in the weeds by an old NYC section foreman, and thus escaped the scrapper’s torch.

At that time, the caboose rested on the summer home lands of Leonard LaPlaca of Princeton, N.J.

LaPlaca, knowing of Gummo’s interest in preservation, sold the caboose to him, making it available when his friend, Dick Fuller, began creating the Whistle Stop Restaurant, in 1990, in the old Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Centre Hall.

Gummo’s other railroad restorations include Pennsylvania Railroad Car 427041, now at Castanea; Lehigh & New England Cabin Car #2606, now at the Railroad Museum of PA, in Strasburg, Pa.; an early wooden Boxcar, Delaware & Hudson #35245, now at Motocylopedia Museum, in Newburg, N.Y.; D & H Caboose #35850 and D & H Boxcar #35244, now at Thurmont, Md., behind Whitcomb-Baldwin 0-4-0 Locomotive; historic Milton (ACF) Tank Car (1895-1896 replica) at Milton, Pa. town square; Delaware & Hudson caboose #35840, now at Hudson, N.C. town square.

Luther Gette and John Gummo share a common interest in their affection of early steam railroading, and hope that their efforts will encourage a new generation of interest “in our Nation’s rich railroad and industrial development/history.”

The NYC Cabin Car 17909 shall leave Centre Hall for the Gummo yards near Beech Creek, with restoration to follow through the winter of 2022-2023.