Train buffs and curious commuters snapped pictures as the 1947 red caboose at the Gaithersburg Community Museum in Olde Towne was loaded onto a flatbed truck for its journey to Hagerstown on Monday.

The 34-foot-long B&O Railroad ‘‘Wagontop" Bay-Window Caboose will be traded for a newer, bigger caboose from the Roundhouse Museum that is scheduled to arrive in Gaithersburg later today, said Rick Eyler, president of the Roundhouse Museum. The ‘‘Wagontop" will be refurbished and join its sister caboose for display in Hagerstown. The Hagerstown museum covered the $1,300 bill.

A second swap is under consideration, said Wendy Woodland, coordinator of the Community Museum. The 50-foot-long Defense Transportation Corps Troop Kitchen Car circa-1940 may be swapped with the Hagerstown museum for one of its refurbished passenger cars, she said.

But Monday morning, all eyes were on the red caboose. A flatbed truck fitted with wooden planks that mimic train tracks slowly lowered in front of the caboose. A chain was attached to the front of the caboose and a winch pulled the caboose onto the flatbed.

"I'm a little sad to see an old friend go, but I'm happy to see the new caboose," said Vicky Miller of Montgomery Village. "I think this one was falling apart."

Woodland decided to pursue the swap with the Hagerstown museum in 2006, after a review of the work that needed to be done to the 1947 caboose. At the time, city officials estimated more than $225,000 in restorations.

"One of the [museum] members told us about the many cabooses the museum in Hagerstown had and they agreed to swap with us," she said.

Refurbishing the 1947 caboose will take two to three months and about $3,000, Eyler said. The cost is for parts, and the work itself will be done by volunteers.The caboose coming to Gaithersburg, which is about seven feet longer than the 1947 caboose, was built in the 1970s, Eyler said.

"It's already refurbished and ready to be put on display," he said.

Guests can enter new caboose in November, Woodland said, and the caboose will have room for some of the museum's older displays that have been in storage.

The Gaithersburg Community Museum is also home to the 1918 Buffalo Creek and Gauley No. 14 Steam Locomotive.

News of the caboose swap made Bob Monaco change his plans for Monday morning.

Monaco was in the area to attend the Gaithersburg High 50th class reunion. A self proclaimed train nut, Monaco said he rode on Amtrak for four days from his home outside of Sacramento, Calif., to Union Station in Washington, D.C. Friday when he visited the museum in Gaithersburg, he heard of the swap and prolonged his trip to Charlottesville, Va., by a few hours.

"I lived in Washington Grove from 1947 to 1962 and always liked watching the trains go by," said Monaco as he snapped pictures of a MARC commuter train stopping to load passengers. "I guess it was the train whistles that got me hooked?"

Madeline Perine-Brown, 2, said "bye-bye caboose" as the train was loaded onto the truck.

"For the last nine months, we would bring her by on Sundays after church and she would run around it and play on it for a while," said Madeline's mother, Lori Perine of Montgomery Village. "We can't come home from church without bringing her to see the trains."