Get outta here: Take the train to sleep

One is green and yellow. Another is blue and white. The third is simply red.

Their insides have been gutted and changed. Electricity runs through them. And large wooden decks have been added.

They are three train cabooses that Gary Schneider brought in for an unusual lodging choice at his campground, Heavenly Acres, located outside of Stanardsville.

He and his wife, Jan, who met years ago on a camping trip, have operated the campground for 11 years. Besides a couple of cabins and the typical sites for tents and RVs on 80 acres of woods, there are the train cabooses where folks can spend the night.

Schneider said he got the idea after reading an article about a campground that put in a caboose. Unlike the cabins, the cabooses have bathrooms and showers. Those staying in the cabins and tents must visit the separate bathhouse.

“They attract the crowd that would never go camping,” Schneider said. “You have air conditioning, bathroom, kitchen.

“They appeal to those who think of camping as the Holiday Inn.”

His oldest one is a red wooden caboose, 1926 Baltimore and Ohio. It’s the latest one he renovated. Schneider discovered it in Pennsylvania, where it was being used by a church as a Sunday school location.

It was in rough shape, with broken windows and metal plates over some of the openings. Besides the deck, he added a small kitchen and a bedroom in the back. He carpeted the bedroom floor; The rest of the flooring is the original pine. He built a bathroom, which includes a toilet and a shower.

The red caboose sleeps two. The other two train cars each has room for four, with sleeping quarters up in the cupola, an elevated spot surrounded by small windows. To reach it, you must climb the original narrow metal steps.

Schneider kept as many original fixtures as he could, including windows, latches, railings, light fixtures and the original wheels. All three sit on railroad track.

He acquired the caboose he now prizes most after running an ad in a railroad magazine for far longer than he had intended. He had already purchased two, but when a man called with news that this one had been kept in a garage, Schneider told his wife he had to go see it.

The 1970 West Virginia Northern caboose is metal, decorated in bright blue and white. He found it in a small West Virginia town, about an hour from Morgantown. He said they hooked it to a locomotive and took it for one last trip down the tracks before getting two trucks to haul it to the Stanardsville campground.

“This is my baby,” Schneider said.

“This one was in good shape; I’ve never seen a garage-kept caboose before. It turned out real nice.”

The words “The Donald Happy Everly” are painted on the outside of the caboose, referring to a West Virginia politician, but Schneider doesn’t know the story. There also is a seal and the words “Serving Preston County Coal since 1887.”

Schneider left the original labels and numbers on the cabooses. You can look up a caboose by its number.

The caboose came from a tourist line that ran on 11 miles of track. Before that, it was used to go from a coalmine to the main track until the mine closed down.

Schneider said it has been difficult to find out much about it, but he has found two boarding passes, one of which was dated 1909, and a letter from 1924.
“I’ve become a railroad nut … ,” Schneider said.

“(The cabooses) bring back memories. Then you have a lot of kids, who don’t know what one is. When I was a kid, you’d see the train and wait for the caboose on the end. You always waved to the conductor. Kids are being deprived of some of their heritage.”

Schneider pointed out that the caboose was where the conductor did paperwork. Several of those he renovated had a desk, chairs and an old-fashioned icebox.

In the first caboose he worked on, a 1969 green and yellow Burlington Northern, he found discoloring up the center of the floor, likely evidence of its use by the conductor and others. He installed a bathtub in that caboose, but realized that didn’t leave a lot of space for a bed, so he put in a futon sofa.

Renovating the first two cabooses took about a year each, Schneider said. He recently finished work on the third after two years. He has yet another sitting in the woods, also a Burlington Northern caboose, ready for repairs.

If you’re going
What: Heavenly Acres Campground
Where: Virginia 230, Stanardsville (near Massanutten Resort)
Cost: $115 a night for the deluxe caboose; $85 for the smaller one. 20 tent sites, $20 or $25 depending on site size. $35 for full hook-up. $55 per night for the small cabin; $65 for the large cabin
Information: Campground has a swimming pool, hiking and mountain biking trails, a fishing pond, a game room and a camp store. Call (434) 985-6601 or visit www. heavenlyacres.net