Hey, Nick, Need a Caboose?

I found this on Govdeals.

As per the ad:

118-year-old Caboose

*Be prepared to remove from site! Removal process may require crane for oversize load trailer!*

Operating condition since retirement of asset is not always known.

This caboose has been owned by the City of Indianapolis since 2020. It has plumbing, toilet and a shower.

According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the 118-year-old caboose has occupied a tiny parcel of city- owned land adjacent to the trail, at 6535 Cornell Ave., for a half-century. According to Waymarking.com, the caboose was built in 1904 and was part of the New York Central Lakeshore Lines. The train car became part of the Monon Rail System in the late 1960s and traveled the tracks that now form the Monon Trail. During the bankruptcy in the 1970s, the train car—along with another caboose that was later removed—were sidelined on a side spur in Broad Ripple. It has remained there ever since.

GovDeals

After staying at the caboose motel in Strasburg 2 years ago, I have definitely had thoughts of trying to live in a caboose. There were two for sale near me for $18,000 for the pair, but the moving costs to get them from Dryden, NY to Rome, NY (they weren't on rails, hadn't been on rails in years, and no major railroad would have moved them) would have been murder. 

Someone in the model railroad club I used to be in got a caboose for his layout.  This was back in the early 90's, and I think it was free or almost free, but the cost of getting it up the hill from the tracks on a windy two lane road could not have been cheap.

They shouldn't sell it, they should just put it on Airbnb right where it is.

If you're a Gamecock fan, these go up for sale occasionally. Conveniently located within walking distance of Williams-Bryce...

https://www.estately.com/listings/info/1006-bluff-rd

In reply to eastsideTim :

The caboose motel in Strasburg had a little pamphlet on it's history and the whole story was that Penn Central was liquidating equipment, because Penn Central, and the guy placed a half-hearted bid kind of on a whim. He was then notified six months later that he had won a lot of nineteen cabooses and had to have them off Penn Central property in a couple weeks or get hit with storage fees. Cue a mad scramble to get them moved all to Ronks, PA

In reply to NickD :

Wow.  I'll have to check that place out if I make it up that way sometime .

There's actually quite a few of them around here. 

In fact, I saw this one on Wednesday.
 

Not exactly sure why there's a radial aircraft engine mounted to it, but it does prove that we have rednecks here in Connecticut too. 

In reply to eastsideTim :

I stayed there when I went down to operate N&W #611. They have an old heavyweight passenger car as a restaurant as well. Sitting out front on a warm summer morning, eating breakfast, watching the Amish harvesting crops while the #611 went thundering by running light to the west end of the line is a memory seared in my brain. Paradise, PA is an aptly named place.

We should have a Random Caboose Sighting Thread. 

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

We should have a Random Caboose Sighting Thread. 

That could go downhill fast

In reply to NickD :

A few years ago they moved the caboose out of the McDonalds in Clinton. I'm pretty sure they loaded it on a Landoll and drove it out (minus the coupala Sp?). I'm sure it wasn't cheap but it was less drama than I expected. 
imcamt imagine the bill on a long distance transport of one. 

So you'll be needing an engine for that cross country RVing, right?

NMNA, find a NORCOA club nearby.

chandler said:

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

We should have a Random Caboose Sighting Thread. 

That could go downhill fast

Nah, nobody parks a caboose on a hill, do they?

In reply to NY Nick :

They also trucked the one from the Utica Children's Museum up to Remsen. That one is actually still for sale, they just relocated it to Remsen to keep it from getting scrapped when the old museum building is demolished. That's a one-on-one prototype caboose that the Pennsylvania Railroad built at Altoona and never replicated. Unfortunately it sat at that museum with minimal, if any, care, so I'm sure it's pretty rough under the skin. I'm kind of surprised that the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg or the Museum of the American Railroader at Altoona hasn't jumped on it.

TurnerX19 said:

chandler said:

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

We should have a Random Caboose Sighting Thread. 

That could go downhill fast

Nah, nobody parks a caboose on a hill, do they?

I'm not saying a random caboose sightings thread would be bad; I think I'd enjoy it, but it would go downhill fast... for sure.

NickD said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

The caboose motel in Strasburg had a little pamphlet on it's history and the whole story was that Penn Central was liquidating equipment, because Penn Central, and the guy placed a half-hearted bid kind of on a whim. He was then notified six months later that he had won a lot of nineteen cabooses and had to have them off Penn Central property in a couple weeks or get hit with storage fees. Cue a mad scramble to get them moved all to Ronks, PA

Oh man. Who else can relate to throwing out a stupid bid on something you don't really want and the terrified panic when you end up winning? And the deep regret as you're making your way to pick them/inspect them and you're wondering where the hell you're going to store them. It's bad enough when it's a couple cars or motorcycles, I can't imagine 19 cabooses.

"Guess this is my life now".

There's also this in Trumansburg, NY. It was an Alco RS-1 cab and cut-down short hood that was operated as the Black Diamond Cafe. It sat exactly 2 people, and was the World's Smallest Diner when open. It closed down a couple years before I saw it, and was for sale. Not sure what the heritage of the hood and cab is. They had it painted up as Lehigh Valley #212 but Lehigh Valley never owned any RS-1s, and the real LV #212 was an RS-2

I would yard art that.

I signed up for their newsletter because of Appleseed and Nick. Now I get emails with engines, luggage cars, diner cars, observation cars and cabooses for sale.

https://ozarkmountainrailcar.com/

Buying a car, having it transported and set on some property is literally a dream for me. I just wish I had the financial means to do so. 

https://ozarkmountainrailcar.com/railEquipment.php?itemId=3655&category=Cabooses

I'd rather live in a $25k caboose than live in a manufactured home. 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Pete Gossett also got an Ozark Mountain Railcar account because of me.

Funny that this article popped up on my Facebook feed:

https://www.trains.com/trn/train-basics/abcs-of-railroading/so-you-want-to-own-a-caboose/

Ironic that the consensus is that it's cheaper and easier to move a railroad car by truck than by, you know, rail.

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I did not need to see that. Nope.

NickD said:

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Pete Gossett also got an Ozark Mountain Railcar account because of me.

Now that Rock Island has < 2 miles of trackage nearby maybe I should start looking at locomotives & see if they'd let me park it there if I let them use it? Of course I'd be living in it too...

Also, another suggestion if anyone wants to try the caboose life: Durbin & Greenbriar in West Virginia has an option where you can camp in a caboose. You show up at Durbin, they tow them out to a spur in the middle of nowhere behind their steam locomotive, set the cabooses off on the siding and you camp there for a couple days and then they come pick them up. Apparently wildly popular, since all 2023 reservations are already sold out.

https://mountainrailwv.com/tour/castaway-caboose-overnights/