We Love Long Beach

“People know me as ‘the train man,’” says Greg Ruvolo, owner of El Dorado Park’s Caboose Corner. “My father and I opened this train park in 1995 after spending eight years restoring the train and five years negotiating the train’s park location.”

In the early 1970s, Greg’s father, Tony, was the owner of the park train at the Long Beach Pike. “My father loves trains, so growing up I was always around them,” he recalls. When the Pike closed in 1977, the two chose to sell the train and to move on. A few years later, though, they found a tattered park train, originally built in Virginia back in 1946 and powered by a live steam engine, inside a piano store in Colton. “Every weekend we worked on the train, rebuilding it back to working order,” Ruvolo says. In 1990, the duo was given the opportunity to operate the refurbished park train in El Dorado Park.

Today, the average attendance at the Caboose Corner is about 400 people per weekend. Open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., the train chugs along a one-and-a-half mile route through the park. Visitors can board for $2, and there are also Christmas Festival night train rides and kids’ birthday-party packages. “It’s rewarding for me to see so many kids around here enjoying the train. This hasn’t been a job—it’s been my passion,” says Ruvolo, dressed in his blue-and-white conductor’s overalls.

“We have been around for 14 years now. I love seeing the dream of my dad and myself come to life. The train has allowed us to become closer. We think that we are one of Long Beach’s best-kept secrets.”

More Information:

Website:  http://www.caboosecorners.com/