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Moving day for the 1927 Norfolk & Western caboose that is being donated to the town of Windsor ended up being two days due to an unexpected development, leading to some additional expense.

Windsor Town Council voted 5-0 at its Tuesday, April 8, meeting to adopt a resolution amending the town’s fiscal year 2025 budget by the expenditure of an additional $4,000 from the Contingency Expense line item of the General Fund to Barnhart Crane and Rigging, which moved the caboose.

The tally of votes cast on the matter did not reach six because Councilman Edward “Gibbie” Dowdy was not present for the meeting.

During his capital projects update to the council on April 8, Windsor Town Manager William Saunders said, “The relocation of the caboose was conducted on Thursday, March 27, and Saturday, March 29. Barnhart Crane and Rigging transported it to Repair Tech, near Franklin, Virginia, for exterior repairs and refurbishment.”

Saunders expanded on these details later in the meeting when presenting a budget amendment to the council relevant to the caboose relocation from Suffolk to Repair Tech.

The council reached a consensus in December to pursue a process aimed at acquiring the caboose with the hope of ultimately putting it on display in Windsor as a tribute to the locality’s history as a train town.

During the April 8 council meeting, Saunders noted that at the council’s Feb. 11 meeting, it authorized contracting with Barnhart Crane and Rigging to relocate the caboose, with the original bid price for the task being $8,350. 

“The caboose was not loaded onto a lowboy trailer as intended but placed on a flatbed due to an unexpected kingpin configuration on the caboose,” Saunders said. “This necessitated an amended oversize load permit, which put the move off until the following Saturday. Due to this, an extra day beyond the estimate was required for the crane and five employees.”

He noted that Barnhart had billed for an additional $4,000 for the extra man hours to accomplish the move. 

“They did, however, waive the overtime rates for the Saturday move, as well as the crane cost for the additional day, which would have been another $6,290,” he said. “In this regard, I’m enclosing a resolution for your consideration to authorize the expenditure of an additional $4,000 from the Contingency Expenditure line item of the General Fund for the relocation of the caboose.”

He recommended adoption of the resolution.

Councilman Walter Bernacki added up the expenses related to the caboose, acknowledging the original $8,350 approved for the move, then highlighting the $45,000 maximum approved in March for exterior refurbishment that also came out of the contingency line item.

“With this additional $4,000, what’s left in contingency?” Bernacki said.

Saunders said, “Before the caboose project, it was about $75,000, and I think there was only one other small item taken out of it before the caboose. So basically everything that’s come out of it this year so far has been what you know of for the caboose.”

The specific numbers Bernacki mentioned add up to $57,350, which subtracted from $75,000 leaves $17,650.

“Do you see any potential items between now and the end of the budget period … that we may be short because of that?” Bernacki said.

“It’s hard to say, but we’ll see,” Saunders said. “The contingency was kind of a way to just expeditiously use some funding that’s in the budget without applying more unappropriated fund balance. But if there were an issue that a contingency item was needed, that’s the time at which unassigned fund balance could be attributed to it, if there’s an emergency.”

Councilman Marlin W. Sharp said, “For me, considering that the issue was not Barnhart’s problem, it was an unforeseen issue, and they are waiving that extra $6,290, I’ll make a motion that the resolution be accepted as presented.”

Councilman David Adams seconded the motion, and the 5-0 vote followed.