Seen on a link at MSN.com. Many of you have already know of this:
http://www.bing.com/travel/content/search?q=Unusual+Hotels%3A+Caboose+Motel
I don’t have knowledge of the one you mention, but I do know of 1 for sure, and possible 2, similar places in Pennsy. One is near Lancaster PA, as I’ve looked into staying there and the other one escapes my memory right now but If I find more details, I can let you know. The one near Lancaster is called The Red Caboose Motel, I believe.
There are also 4 at the Izaak Walton Inn in Montana - see:
http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com/cabooses_cabins.html
I know there are others nationwide, too - perhaps as many as a dozen.
- Paul North.
P.S. - They can be pretty chilly inside at this time of year, too - at least in the northern regions.
The one near Lancaster looks cool on the outside. No great shakes to stay there. They basically built “modern” interiors inside of the caboose to the point your might as well be staying at a Motel 6. Not particularly clean, either, but that was a decade ago that I stayed there. The restaurant was a bit more fun. In an old diner. They had a motor with an eccentric weight to shake the car a bit to simulate motion. It was also nice that it overlooked the Strasburg RR.
Spent a comfortable night in a former SP baywindow caboose at a caboose motel in Dunsmuir, CA.
Mark
Pretty echoing much what Don said.^ ^ ^ Althought, I believe this one is under new ownership and management within the last couple of years - a local electronics repair guy helps out there some weekends. They also had issues with the PA DEP regarding the on-site sewage disposal system like 10 years ago, but that has to have been resolved by now.
- Paul North.
Very nice!
The other one I know of in PA is near the Oil Creek & Titusville RR. As I was checking, there is also one in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. I’m sure there are probably others as well.
I seem to remember my Dad telling me several years ago that there is a caboose-motel somehere in the North Dakota-South Dakota-Minnesota-Nebraska-Iowa region, but I can’t remember where that is or was. And my Dad died in 1991, so I can’t ask him where it was.
There used to be one in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: the End of the Line Caboose Motel. I’m sure it isn’t there any more, but it had had at least a dozen cabooses, and I believe an office or dining room in an old passenger car. If it is in fact gone,moving all of that stuff out must have been a picnic.
The Izaak Walton Inn recently opened their new guest accomodation. It is an ex-AT&SF SDP45, painted in GN’s “Big Sky Blue”. Rental is $299 / nite, minimum of two nites. Quite sumptious! Article and pictures in our ‘local’ paper today, 23 Feb 2010. Go to www.greatfallstribune.com and check it out. Trackside (BNSF at Maria’s Pass), of course, with views of Glacier National Park, if anyone is interested in THAT stuff! Don’t feed the bears!
Hays
I stayed at one in Williams, AZ back in 2002. It was cheaper than many of the hotels in town.
The Lake Geneva caboose facility is definitely still there - I went past it just a few months ago. It’s not a motel anymore. Rather, the cabooses are used for summer homes. I’m not sure whether they are leased or are some form of condominium.
My parents stayed there and told me each caboose was individually owned. Some owners rent out their caboose(s) when they are not using it(them). I have heard there are up to 45 cabooses (cabeese? [swg]) on that little stretch of C&NW right of way.
There are one or two caboose motel rooms at the Double K Ranch on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. Surrounded by desert and a G scale railroad. It’s billed as a Bed & Breakfast where you can bring your own train or use one of theirs. I believe they’re also constructing a 9 inch gauge railway.
I have a link to some motels.
http://www.kiskijunction.com/RentaCaboose.htm
At Lampe, near Branson MO is a nice resort that features several cabooses. We stayed a full week in the honeymoon caboose. The owners did very well in keeping this original as possible. Here are pics.
And the authentic wash basin. The cupola had a cotton mattress. Would be great for the kids. Barbara & I are not kids however.
Do they have room service? [C=:-)]
Red Caboose motel opened in 1970. My wife and I stayed there and it was very nice (brand new interiors). They initially had one line along the Strasburg Railroad tracks and another line by the diner. We had breakfast there and it wasn’t that good.
Guest ranch at Waldo, NM (Devils’ Throne, south of Santa Fe) has at last 6.
Any reason the reference to the above post from Canada was deleted???
tatans, could you be looking for this thread?