The Red Caboose Motel at Paradise Station — Attraction in Paradise Township

We decided to stay here because it was on a bucket list of things to do. My kids love trains so I thought it'd be really cool to stay in a caboose. Mind you I've stayed in the only other hotel like this in the country which is the Sheraton hotel in Indianapolis Indiana which has legitimate Pullman cars inside the hotel building. That is a vastly different experience than this place. When we placed our reservations, we indicated we have a child with mold allergies. We were assured that we were going to be put in one of the more recently renovated cars. Not quite sure what their interpretation of recent is. Must be years. Now I understand these rail cars are anywhere from 60 to 75 years old. But maintenance and housekeeping is not in their vocabulary. The room had a musty smell when we checked in and the kids were tired so I didn't bother going back to the front desk. I assumed like any small place that has very little air flow during the week when not in use would have a musty smell. A window style air conditioning unit doesn't't do a very good job of pulling humidity out of the air. It wasn't till I woke up in the morning and started looking around more closely at the caboose inside and saw what I saw (look at the pictures in this review). The curtains had little black mold spots and the corners of the window mildew. I also figured out why the air conditioning sounded like a damn jet engine, the filter screen was plugged. When we left that morning we brought it to the attention of the girl at the front desk and she said I'll make a note of it. We came back that evening to see nothing had been done. Again too late from the day's activities to even argue with anybody at the front desk. Plus from the look of the full parking lot one would assume every other caboose was taken already. When I checked out in the morning the older lady at the front desk only asked me "check out?" Yes. "do you need a receipt" then handed me one to go back to what she was doing. Didn't even ask did we enjoy our stay? did we have any issues? blah blah blah. Definitely not worth the $400+ for a two night stay.

I did have one other very concerning thing when my child goes daddy the paint is peeling on our caboose and handed me a big paint chip. Which internally I freaked out because from my experience working in historical restoration construction looking at the paint chip with its 5 layers of different colors of paint with the base being red oxide primer. Based on what vintage of the caboose and being red oxide there's a 90% chance some of its lead paint. If you look on the ground around any of these cabooses there's hundreds of little chips around some of the cabooses.

I know the owner is going to respond to this review but it would be in his best interest not to because I will use his response as evidence for any possible litigation.

If they could only spend the same energy like they did on the new event center on these cabooses. Which I will admit they did a really nice job at. They would have a winning combo.

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My two & a half year old son is obsessed with trains. So we went to Strassburg to go on The Strassburg Heritage Railway, the Pennsylvania Train Museum, The National Model Train Museum,and The Choo Choo Barn. Obviously we stayed in The Red Caboose Motel. It was excellent. My son was so excited to be staying in a real caboose. He now thinks all motels are in cabooses and will probably be heartbroken later to find out that they are not.

As far as the actual accommodations, they were great. The rooms were newly renovated, you got to pull your car right up outside your very own caboose. All of the cabooses have been repainted to their original historically accurate paint schemes (for all of you uber train buffs out there). The associated restaurant, the Cassy Jones Dinner, had very good food and was not expensive. The locals and patrons of other hotels came to eat there also. The restaurant is in a pair of restored dinning cars with the hotel front desk, a gift shop, and the kitchen built between them (and of course a model train layout). They have two working nickelodians, which fascinated my son. They have a small playground, a small petting zoo, and their old grain silo has been converted into an observation tower that allows you to see out over the whole county. You can contract Amish buggy rides and farm tours right from out front of the hotel. The Starssburg railroad runs right by outside, and the national toy train museum is immediately next door (no driving necissary). The Strassburg Railroad and Pennsylvania Train museum are about a three minutes drive away (also walkable, but it's a bit of a busy road with no sidewalk so I don't recommend doing that if you have small children... However the local Amish are walking it all the time.)

A note on some of the negative reviews I have seen. They are outdated, and probably not that valid in the first place. They were in the process of renovating all of the cabooses when we were there, and we were in a fully renovated one. They are all like good quality hotel rooms now, if a bit space restricted, due to being cabooses. I have seen some old reviews that complained about them being run down, mainly citing old wood paneling as evidence of that. I would not have had any issues with wood paneling, but for those who would, they are not that way now. The cabooses have all been redone into first rate motel rooms. That being said, you are paying for the awesome opportunity to stay in an actual caboose, surrounded by great train themed experiences to enjoy. If you want the Marriott, then just go to the Marriott. To me, no matter how fancy it may be the Marriott is still a pretty generic experience, when compared to something truly unique and well executed as The Red...

Our family loves staying at the Red Caboose Motel. We stay every August for at least 10 days. My husband has been coming since the 70s and I've been staying here for almost a decade. Our daughter has been coming her whole life and talks about staying here all year.

The changes made by the current owners are amazing. The property was becoming run down before they purchased it several years ago and they have been working on renovating each caboose inside and out which I'm sure has been a huge challenge with vintage equipment and unique layouts. These cabooses are 100+ years old. Each caboose has a different setup and we've been trying different cabooses every few years, finding our favorites. Check out trains with Tyler on YouTube to see what some of the renovations and designs. Our cabooses have been clean and comfortable.

If you want to stay on the property but do not want to stay in a caboose, you can stay in the renovated farm house which has several different room configurations , some with kitchens and large bedrooms. For a more elegant experience, stay at the brand new conductors quarters.

They also renovated the old historic horse barn and it's a beautiful wedding and event venue.

The staff have become like family and we enjoy seeing and interacting with them every time we stay. We love the front desk staff and housekeeping as well as the restaurant staff. Special thanks to Arden, Christine, Angela, Cheriee, and Wayne. Though we've had good interactions with everyone on site.

The Casey Jones restaurant on the grounds has delicious meals for breakfast lunch and dinner at affordable prices with great portions and it's just a short walk from your caboose.

There is a wonderful gift shop located near the restaurant with clothes, books, toys, food, souvenirs and more. There is small arcade with vending machines near the parking lot. 2 coin operated rides for kids near the office. There is a petting zoo (you can buy food at the office for the animals). By the parking lot you can pay to take a buggy or wagon ride to an Amish miniature horse farm (highly recommended) there is a small playground at the front of the property with swings and wooden train for kids to play on. Strasburg railroad also goes right by and you can watch from the fence or sitting at tables on the deck near the office entrance or even at Casey Jones restaurant.

We're just finishing a 14 day stay here at the property and we would not stay anywhere else. Thank you to the Prickett family and all of their staff for working so diligently to restore and maintain The Red...