The Acrey family acquired this caboose around 1969 from a lot of 300 decommissioned cabooses, paying $50 for a rare wooden car that had originally entered service in the 1890s on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Later transferred to the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad, part of the Burlington Railroad family, it ended its rail career in Lubbock, Texas, on an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line. The caboose remained with the family until 2010, when it was offered to the Las Cruces Railroad Museum; during the family's stewardship, the interior was modified for residential living with a full kitchen and shower. Cabooses served as conductors' offices, storage for spare parts and tools, and, with kitchens and bunks, a home-away-from-home for railroad workers, who also commonly rode them from one job to another. The first caboose is widely believed to have been a converted boxcar built around 1840, and by the 1920s cabooses were being produced as a distinct car type, commonly featuring cupolas, porches or platforms, and windows. As communication and engine design advanced in the late 1970s and 1980s, separate offices for conductors became less necessary and cabooses became obsolete.