A decade of work brings caboose alive at Willamette Heritage Center

Caboose 507 is open to the public on Wednesday, Nov. 5, after a decade of work was put into the project. Volunteer project manager Christopher Hackett said it was his largest project yet at the museum. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter)

Christopher Hackett has “no interest in trains at all.”

But thanks to a decade of his work, visitors to Salem’s Willamette Heritage Center will get a chance to explore one.

Hackett, 82, has been the volunteer project manager overseeing the new Caboose 507 exhibit, which opened on the property Sept. 19. 

The caboose is the museum’s first new permanent exhibit since 2007. Located on the west side of the property, backed up to the train…

More from our Newsroom

Western University of Health Sciences Lebanon Oregon