Read time: 8 min.

We love our ice cream here in Muncie. Hunnicutt’s and Hum-Dingers have supplied us over the years, not to mention all manner of Milk Houses and Dairy Barns. We could even grab a cone or a cup from a red caboose in the seventies and eighties! It’s hard to believe, but the wayward railcar is still making memories today.

The story of Muncie’s ice cream caboose began in 1846 when the venerable Pennsylvania Railroad was founded. By 1882, Pennsy was the largest corporation in the world¹! Hereabouts, the company snapped up the Muncie Branch of the flailing C, I, & E in 1907².

Cabooses joined the railroad early on. Initially altered box cars or flatcars retrofitted with cabins, they provided accommodations for conductors, brakemen, and flagmen who needed to observe the train from the rear³. Historians believe that T. B. Watson of the Chicago & North Western line was the first to add the caboose’s iconic cupola in 1863⁴.

Cabooses were wood for nearly seventy-five years before the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced steel versions as part of its N5 class. The company began manufacturing an improved generation called the N5B in 1941⁵, and it was 1977 when Muncie businessman Dick McIntire purchased one, sight unseen, for $3,000.

It’s not so easy to buy a caboose today, and here’s how I know: I just clicked through the Rail Merchants, Cabooses 4 Sale, and Ozark Mountain Railcar websites. A whopping none of them advertise their prices, which means a caboose is too rich for my blood! The late 70s were different, though, especially as far as ex-Pennsy stock was concerned.

Unlike its transcontinental rivals, firms like the Pennsylvania Railroad were confined by geography and couldn’t ship commodities long distances. By the 1950s, new interstate highways made cars, trucks, and buses more viable means of transport than Pennsy’s short-haul services⁶. PRR officials proposed a merger with the struggling New York Central in 1957⁷.

The combination took years and was a historic disaster. Once the world’s largest company, the new organization suffered the nation’s biggest bankruptcy in 1970! Most of the Pennsy assets wound surrendered to Conrail, an entity created by the government in 1976. Leftovers like the old caboose Dick McIntire picked up were deaccessioned at fire-sale prices.

McIntire opened Muncie’s A&W restaurant at the corner of McGalliard Road and North Elm in 1974⁸. The caboose arrived in Muncie three years later. Workers with Delaware Trucking and Machinery Moving loaded it from track to truck⁹ and stuck it behind the new Pay-Less Casual Shoe Store that adjoined McIntire’s drive-in.

People wondered what the red caboose was doing there. At the time, McIntire wondered too! He figured he’d turn it into an ice cream parlor or a play area for kids¹⁰ before settling on the former. To prepare the it, he cut about 2,000 pounds of steel from the car’s interior and carved out a wide entryway beneath its cupola¹¹.

After the caboose was ready, McIntire petitioned the board of zoning appeals to give him more room for parking by easing the distance required between McGalliard’s commercial stretch and the residential areas between Walnut Street and Granville Park¹². The request was approved, and the caboose finally opened in 1978.

Muncie’s ice cream caboose opened just as the railroads were phasing them out. New technology meant the iconic cars were obsolete, and the industry believed electronic devices called EOTs or ETDs could be viable replacements¹³. The government agreed in 1982, and cabooses began to fade away¹⁴.

Meanwhile, Muncie’s caboose was just getting started! The business featured a vintage aesthetic- employees dressed in bibbed overalls to ring up orders on an elderly mechanical cash register¹⁵. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last. McIntire put the business up for sale in 1979¹⁶. Hilbert Dobbs bought it around 1981¹⁷.

Hilbert Dobbs was an entrepreneur who left the world of construction work to learn the beauty trade around 1968. Eventually, he bought a property on West Jackson Street before building a small strip mall for his business in 1974¹⁸. His building grew to feature his beauty shop, a shoe store, a small manufacturing firm, and several other businesses¹⁹. The caboose sat nearby.

The caboose was set to prosper thanks to its prominent location across from West View Elementary, but the business was again short-lived. Just after it reopened, the stand’s vintage cash register -valued at $250- was stolen²⁰! The railcar was in Gaston by 1982, when It was one of seven ice cream stands in Delaware County to sell Joy brand cups and cones²¹.

The old car was open from 1-9 every day during the summer of 1984. Unfortunately, that’s where the road turns rocky. In 1986, Red Caboose Ice Cream in Gaston was advertised for sale in the Muncie Evening Press²². It was a landmark on State Road 67 in the late 1980s²³. Around 2005, the venerable caboose was acquired by its present owner²⁴.

A friend of mine happened past the old caboose four or five years ago on a delivery drive. He met its owner, obtained permission to see it close up, and invited me out. As improbably as ever, Muncie’s old ice cream caboose still delights the best of us from a yard just west of Cardinal Hills. It’s been a long time since brakemen or carhops worked inside, but the old caboose has served as a playhouse for its owner’s grandchildren for nearly twenty years.

Sources Cited
1 Churella, A.J. (2012). The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 1: Building an Empire, 1846-1917. University of Pennsylvania Press [Philadelphia]. Book. 
2 Sulzer, E.G. (1998). Ghost Railroads of Indiana. Indiana University Press [Bloomington]. Book.
3 The Caboose’s Early Uses (n.d.). Union Pacific Railroad [Omaha]. Web. Retrieved February 19, 2024. 
4 DeFeo, T. (2018, January 19). A Quick History of the Caboose. RailFanning [Atlanta]. Web. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
5 Hebner, J. (2023, June 26). Contrail Caboose Photo Archive: The ex-PRR N5B Class . Web. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
6 Geisst, C.R. (2006). Encyclopedia of American Business History, Volume 2. Infobase Publishing [New York]. Book.
7 Drury, G.H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. Kalmback Media [Waukesha]. Book. 
8 A&W Changes to B&K (1984, June 22). The Muncie Star. p. 25. 
9 McIntire, D. Lost Muncie (2019, September 10). I bought the caboose in the winter of the blizzard of 78 from the RR. It was in Pennsylvania and [Comment]. Facebook.
10 A Lone Caboose (1977, June 7). The Muncie Star. p. 8.
11 McIntire, D. Lost Muncie (2019, September 10). It was red when I got it on outside and light green on the inside. We probably cut 2000 pounds of  [Comment]. Facebook.
12 Bales G. (1977, September 23). BZA Will Consider Ice Cream Parlor, 5 Other Requests. The Muncie Star. p. 9.
13 Barry, S. (2008). Railroad Rolling Stock. Voyageur Press [Minneapolis]. Book. 
14 Coates, R. (1987, 2009). “RF&P 923” The Chesapeake Railway Association [Silver Spring]. Web. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
15 Dorman, D. R. Lost Muncie (2019, September 23). I started working for you at the Caboose when you first opened it. We wore bobbed overalls if I remember right. [Comment]. Facebook.
16 For Sale (1979, February 8). The Muncie Star. p. 34.
17 Low Investment (1981, February 23). The Muncie Star. p. 17. 
18 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2023). Parcel ID: 1107480006000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
19 Peterson, L. (1981, November 29). Muncie Man Tries to Keep Local Business Community Alive. The Muncie Star. p. 20.
20 City Police Probing Burglary (1981, April 9). The Muncie Star. p. 25.
21 Joy Cups and Cones (1982, July 3). The Muncie Star. p. 8. 
22 RED Caboose Ice Cream in Gaston (1986, March 18). The Muncie Star. p. 22.
23 Antiques: (1987, June 29). The Muncie Star. p. 14. 
24 Google. (2005, September). [Google Maps Red Caboose location]. Retrieved February 20, 2024, from Google Earth Pro.