The Red Caboose Motel

A row of cabooses stood beside the tracks; each painted for a different railroad. At first, it looked like a collection of cars waiting to be moved. Then we noticed the steps, the doors, and the air conditioner fitted into the yellow “Ma and Pa” caboose. People could spend the night here. A car once built for a train crew had become a guest room.

The idea began in 1969, when Donald Denlinger placed a bid on nineteen surplus Pennsylvania Railroad cabooses. He learned months later that he had won them. Moving nineteen heavy railcars and turning them into lodging was a considerable undertaking, but he opened the Red Caboose Motel on Mother’s Day in 1970. All nineteen cars were red then, giving the motel its name. More than 4,500 people came to tour them on opening day.

Over time, the collection grew and the cars took on the colors and names of railroads from across the country. The motel now describes thirty-eight cabooses, along with a baggage car and a mail car adapted for guests. The yellow car marked “Maryland and Pennsylvania” recalls the “Ma and Pa,” a railroad that connected Baltimore and York by a winding route through smaller communities. Its markings tell that railroad’s story, though they do not, by themselves, establish where this particular caboose originally worked.

The cars still show their former purpose. The end platforms and raised cupolas recall the crews who rode at the back of freight trains, watching the cars ahead and tending to the work of the journey. Inside, the cabooses have been furnished as rooms, some with beds for couples and others with bunks for families. A guest can sleep in a real railcar while the Strasburg Railroad continues to run nearby. 

That combination gave the place its appeal for us. Strasburg offers a chance to ride a historic train and to explore railroad history, but here someone had found another way to keep old equipment in use. The cabooses no longer bring up the rear of a freight train. Lined up in the Lancaster County countryside, they invite travelers to step inside and stay awhile.