Stay the Night at the Red Caboose Motel

I’m sure that some of you have slept on a train. I know quite a few DC locals who’ve taken the auto-train overnight from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL to visit Walt Disney World. Just hop aboard, eat dinner, go to bed and when you wake up, the train is just about to pull into the station in Florida.

Sure, that’s one way to sleep on a train, but I’m talking about sleeping on a train car that won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, like the ones you’ll find at the Red Caboose Motel in Ronks, PA. At this little motel in Lancaster County they’ve got a dozen or so actual train cars that they’ve refurbished into sleeping cars and they are completely adorable. If your kids love trains, they’ll be in heaven here.

At the Red Caboose Motel, they also have a restaurant and we had a chance to eat there last week. It’s a train car that’s been re-configured and set up to seat around 50 guests. The food was great (I had a BBQ sandwich), and the kids thought it was so funny that we were eating inside a train car.

After we ate, we walked around the property to check out all of the different train cars, which sleep up to six people in actual beds. They have a Family Caboose with a double bed and three bunk beds, and they even have a Honeymoon Suite, which features a queen bed, a Jacuzzi tub and an outdoor deck.

Aside from the Red Caboose Motel, this little area of Lancaster County is the perfect spot for train lovers with multiple train museums just blocks away from each other including the National Toy Train Museum, Choo Choo Barn and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. And of course, don’t forget to hop aboard the train at the Strasburg Railroad for a 45-minute train ride between Strasburg and Paradise.

If you don’t live near Lancaster County, there are a few other hotels that have created rooms from train cars, believe it or not. Two to check out are the Caboose Motel in Avoca, NY and the Caboose Motel at the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad in Titusville, PA. Or, sleep in a central freight station on the Norfolk Southern double main line at Riley’s Railhouse in Chesterton, IN.

Have you ever slept at a caboose motel? Let me know in the comments below. It looks like so much fun, and I’d love to hear about your experience.