The caboose on Jason Thornhill's property in Mossleigh, Alta., is no ordinary railcar. The former Canadian Pacific caboose serves as a cabin that can be rented by the night or week.THE CANADIAN PRESS/The Canadian Press
The caboose on Jason Thornhill's property is no ordinary railcar.
Fitted out with a queen-size bed, shower and natural gas fireplace, the former Canadian Pacific caboose serves as a cabin that can be rented by the night or week.
"It's awesome," says Thornhill, a self-described long-time rail buff who also runs a garden centre on the property, called Aspen Crossing. He has a total of six railcars on the site, including a former dining car now in use as a restaurant.
"There's a full bathroom in the caboose, a nice little kitchenette with an induction cook top stove, and a DVD player hooked up to a flat-screen TV. … There's also a sofa that folds out to a double bed and a twin mattress up in the cupola."
Situated in a campground, which is 40-minute drive southeast of Calgary, the caboose sleeps up to five and has been available to guests since April. Rates range from $185 to $279 a night.
Mr. Thornhill, 36, says he acquired the caboose in 2008 at no charge from a Calgary firm that had been using it as an office and wanted it gone. The caboose had been in service with Canadian Pacific for about 40 years until the early 1990s.
"We're trying to rebrand into a historical railway destination," Mr. Thornhill says. Another caboose in the campground is slated to be ready for guests in September.
The Canadian Press