WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers UNUSUAL BACKYARD AMENITY- A 35-ton caboose sits in the backyard of the Hitchings family in Thousand Oaks. The family acquired the caboose about five years ago. It took a crane to lift it into the backyard where it now sits, along with a train station and crossing signal. Not too many residents of Thousand Oaks have a genuine train caboose in their backyard.

The Hitchings family does. A bright red 1949 Santa Fe caboose arrived at their house in March 2002. Now a railroad crossing sign and a shed that looks like a train station also grace their backyard.

They purchased the 35-ton steel railroad car from a collector for about $17,000 and paid almost as much to have it transported to Thousand Oaks and delivered to their backyard. Fifteen former co-workers of Brian Hitchings, a retired Los Angeles city firefighter, then came and helped him move it the extra 100 yards to where it now sits.

"It took a lot of beer to move it," Brian Hitchings said.

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers 'ALL ABOARD!'- Members of the Hitchings family of Thousand Oaks share smiles at their backyard caboose. Clockwise from upper left: Linda, Anthony, Charlotte and Brian. "It took 10 firefighters to lift one 800-pound rail," Brian's wife, Linda, recalled.

"Everything connected to the railroad is heavy," her husband added.

To move the caboose to the back of their half-acre lot, they built a track.

"It's in perfect working order and could go back on track in service to the railroad," Linda Hitchings said.

"Not in my lifetime," her husband responded.

He won't even think about moving it again. The family has lived in Thousand Oaks since 1968, and they and the caboose are here to stay.

Their special-use permit is the only one the city has issued for a caboose, city spokesperson Andrew Powers said.

To get it to Thousand Oaks required many permits. It was supposed to go down Olsen Road, but the bridge by California Lutheran University wasn't high enough to allow the 16½foot caboose on top of a truck to pass under, so it had to be rerouted, Linda Hitchings said.

Then, to put it in the backyard meant an arborist had to write a $300 report saying the oak tree planted as an acorn in their neighbor's yard was not going to be affected.

Now, the backyard's charm includes a companion train station that serves as a shed. The station has a clock and a sign that changes throughout the year. Around Christmas it's Bedford Falls station, from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," and the highball is up. The highball is a red ball that dangles from a wooden tower's rope.

"When the highball was up, that meant put the pedal to the metal—no passengers, no luggage, no mail, no reason to stop— just keep on going," Brian Hitchings said.

The 42footlong, 10footwide caboose looks like a museum inside, with wellmaintained equipment used by the railroad in days gone by. The Hitchingses use it as a den. There is a second story to the caboose where the brakeman could sit and protect the train from sabotage or just have a really cool seat with a great view. Inside is a potbellied stove. The conductor would sit inside the car and do paperwork.

Roses and chickens in the backyard add to the countryliving, small-town look of long-ago charm.

Brian Hitchings drove firetrucks, another big red vehicle little boys dream of, for many years before retiring. He doesn't remember when he fell in love with trains or how he came to know he needed one in his backyard.

"I've just always been interested in trains," he said.