News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The city of Sparta is getting set to pant the train caboose that was donated by a private business.
Sparta City Administrator Tonya Tindle said that the city is also in the process of designing a logo to be put on the caboose, with additional lighting set to accentuate the addition.
“It might be a draw and it’s the beginning the our parks project,” Tindle said. “So you can go there at the beginning of our cemetery and walk through several different sidewalks down by the river.”
Tindle said that the caboose has already received some work in preparing it to be painted hopefully next week.
“The gentleman that is actually doing our sandblasting used to do painting and got out of the painting because he said it was too hard to please people with the painting,” Tindle said. “So he loved Sparta when he came here, and he decided that he wanted to come back and visit, so he said ‘I’m coming out of retirement and I’ll paint it for ya if you want me to come back.’”
Tindle said that Sparta is looking to have an artist along with the painter to work on the caboose. She said that the painter coming in next week will be applying a base coat, while another artist for the design will be coming in when he has time available.
“I’m not exactly sure how soon he can get to it, but definitely before the end of this year before bad weather sets in we hope to have it accomplished,” Tindle said. “Maybe not the lighting, we may have to wait in the spring if we can’t get to the lighting. But we’re gonna just keep chugging along, no pun intended”
Tindle said that the caboose isn’t meant as an outside gym, though it will be open to the public. She said that the city does however hope to see citizens interact with the landmark in order to take photos or rest around it. She said that the city’s only ask of its residents is that the caboose remain respected and untouched by things like graffiti.
