Tour the haunted Cooper Station caboose on the Butler-Freeport Trail in Winfield

The public can tour the caboose once part of Cooper Station Restaurant, bedecked in creepy decorations, along the Butler-Freeport Trail in Cabot, Winfield Township on Saturday.

Open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the tour of the 1940s caboose includes samples of Eat‘n Park smiley cookies, Soergel’s apple cider, hot chocolate and some history. Trail shirts and books will be for sale and an updated trail brochure will be available. Donations will be accepted.

Although it’s an antique, the slightly weathered cherry caboose looks right at home in the village of Cabot, where an American flag flies among neat country homes and a post office the size of a postage stamp.

Currently, ghouls and goblins fly on the outside of the caboose. There are no gory scenes so the decorations remain child-appropriate, said Dr. Betsy Kennon of Fawn, a trail volunteer. Kennon used her plentiful home decorations for the train display.

Much of the original fixtures remain in the former quarters of the train operators.

The beds, seating, tables and stove are intact as well as a small bathroom with a primitive toilet that once had a hole in the floor that went directly onto the train tracks.

The trail council bought the caboose last year from Cooper Station after the Winfield restaurant closed in 2019. The caboose was originally from the Lehigh Valley and had been at the restaurant since 1994, according to Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail Council.