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. October 27th: CLOSED for the season. The two will operate together and in close proximity to each other UNTIL we can officially open the diner that does not yet exist. All food prep will be in the new kitchen. The caboose will house the espresso, the coffee machine, the soft ice cream machine, a selection of special Alaska and Russia-themed teas and baked goods from the kitchen. The AKRR 1091 caboose where it sat next to the Gold Hill gas station in Ester for the last dozen years prior to being moved to The Pub at the Copper Rail Depot property in Copper Center, Alaska, on October 2, 2024. The stage area, about half of which is undercover, will have outdoor picnic tables for eating during lunch time. This is a great use of our bandstand that was only used once in 2024 and just twice in 2023, as this is our live events stage. Oct 3rd: retired Alaska Railroad caboose #1091 @44 feet long, 16 feet in height on this lowboy, and 43,000 pounds: Final stop at TheHub in Glennallen prior to me joining the driver for the final leg of the journey to the CRD property in Copper Center. Any of you ever wonder why I chose the name Copper RAIL Depot as the new new for the old Copper Center Bar (now more of an Inn with the bar being a lounge for overnight guests in 2024)? Maybe now you have a CLUE! Overview The caboose will be the center of food operations for the 2025, and possibly the 2026 season. It is there that customers will place their food orders, pay the cashier and take their coffee or other non-alcoholic drink, baked goods, espresso, and more. The order for the main meal, such as burger & fries, will go through the caboose, with the cook in the adjacent kitchen receiving the specific order(s) on their remote screen. The cashier, who is to be the front person shall have the honored and historic designation of "CONDUCTOR." Theirs is the crucial role of dealing with our public. And we expect to have a MASSIVE group of customers because we WILL BE THAT GOOD! Tentatively the hours will be as follows: Caboose: 6 AM to 4 PM. This is for an espresso morning continental breakfast. At 11AM the kitchen begins taking food orders for lunch, closing at 2PM. Espresso service continues until 4PM. Salads, including a rich chicken salad, and possibly some cold sandwiches will be available after the kitchen closes until 4PM. At 6PM the bar opens and will then be available for food service until 10 PM except Friday and Saturday when the bar will remain open for food orders until Midnight. The early menu (6PM until 8PM) will include a selection of burgers, our special French dip, a Signature chicken salad, Tacos, and, what we believe will be our potentially biggest seller: HALIBUT fish 'n chips. On those two weekend nights the bar will remain open until 1AM to accommodate late customers--like those who come for a midnight breakfast order of either our biscuits & gravy; our special omelette, or our premier steak & eggs. Since COVID, MOST places anywhere in the USA are no longer open for food service THIS late. Try finding a family restaurant open in Portland after 9PM. You won't. But at the CRD you can come in for a late order of steak & eggs! Assuming we can get the Alaska DEC inspections done and licensing in place on time, we'll be doing this from Memorial Weekend through Labor Day until about mid-September when the bar closes for the season. The dedicated people who are slated to bring this to you include Klutina Kate; James McCord Chudocken IV; and John Pepper. Sound good to all you potential customers? It should. Nothing like this has happened in nearly five decades (Pipeline Construction days) here in this valley. There you have it. This IS the tentative plan.