He especially likes the caboose cupola, he explained, because "they sit up there until the driver tells them something, and then they go on foot to see what is the matter." ...

A century ago, trains chugged through Citrus County carrying passengers, freight and even the U.S. mail. Today, a lone caboose in Inverness stands as a tribute to that bygone era.

When it was a working caboose starting in 1951, it carried a brakeman and a conductor. From the cupola they could watch for problems ahead — like smoke from a bad bearing — and radio the engineer.

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. -- John and Nellie Egan are at the end of the line -- and that's where they like it. The semi-retired train conductor and his wife spend their summers in a remodeled caboose ...