HAUSER — The Oregon Dunes KOA just off U.S. Highway 101 near Hauser is the end for the line for this caboose.

A 1929 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad caboose won’t be riding the rails anymore, but it will be delivering lunch — or breakfast, or dinner to campers. The out-of-commission railcar will live out its retirement as a kitchen at the campground. The goal is to provide guests a place to order food and have it delivered to their camp sites without having to head to town.

“A lot of people who come here have motor homes,” campground manager Frank Murphy said. “It’s hard for them to unhitch and go into town.”

Campground owner Fritz Gross said if everything goes as planned, Murphy, who is a professionally trained chef, will be doing the cooking.

“We’ll have a place for him to really have a good time,” Gross said.

Fritz and his wife, Kathy, had a short stretch of track built for the 80-year-old car near the campground entrance.

The red and yellow caboose and its wheels were loaded on two semi-truck trailers in Fairfield, Calif., and driven north to Oregon. Once here, a crane and crew placed the caboose and its wheels on the track.

The couple’s newest addition to the campground logged millions of miles before being officially retired in June 1987. Fritz tried to find the maintenance records documenting the car’s history, but was unable to locate them. He speculated that they may have been destroyed after the car was decommissioned.

“There’s an awful lot of information on the caboose itself,” he said.

A panel on the outside of the car provides an abbreviated history outlined in  letters and numbers that look like code. Fritz was able to translate the high points. The car was rebuilt in 1969 and reconditioned in 1979 before leaving the rails eight years later. Fritz said the car had been fitted with special wheel bearings that made it capable of running on any track in the country.

Fritz and Kathy followed their new kitchen’s home on its last journey — by freeway, not railway —from California, taking photos of the trip that was two years in the making.

The Grosses got the idea for turning old railroad cars into something more stationary about 30 some years ago while staying in railcar motel in Yountville, Calif.  Then a few years ago they stayed at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir, Calif. The park had 24 converted cars, including a Wells Fargo car that is now part of the restaurant and lounge.

“We thought: ‘Hey, this works. We can do it,’” Kathy said.

As operators of the KOA campground, they finally had a place to make it happen. They went searching for the perfect car and bought it about two years ago.

The couple moved to Oregon from the San Francisco Bay Area and in 1996 started working on the campground. It still is a work in progress. They brought another railcar that will serve as a deluxe cabin or honeymoon suite, Kathy said. It used to be part of Fat Tuesdays Mardi Gras Grill in Coquille.

Neither caboose will be ready for a while, Kathy said. The inside of the newest caboose is completely stripped and needs refitting to serve as a cook house. It needs cleaning and paint inside and out. After sitting for years in drier country, Kathy said the soon-to-be kitchen may need some weather sealing as well.

Kathy’s goals are to have the honeymoon cabin painted and refinished by Memorial Day 2010 and the kitchen ready that next Thanksgiving.

“That’s my mental goal,” Kathy said. “We’ll see.”