Trains are very popular and of great interest to younger kids. When I first heard about a hotel made of old train cars in Pennsylvania, I wanted to stay there when Lucas was a bit older but it never happened. (Room availability and cost were some factors.)
Kim and I have considered staying at The Red Caboose Motel, located in Pennsylvania Dutch Country many times.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we’re home this summer instead of being on a month-long trip somewhere else in the world! However, we aren’t just sitting home. We’re planning some road trips along with a couple we’ve already taken!
We recently had a chance to finally spend a night at the Red Caboose Motel. We booked our room through Hotels.com which was a drop cheaper than booking directly. (It also allowed me to use a Hotels.com rewards credit towards the stay.)
There are a variety of room configurations to choose from at the motel. We booked a Mail Car which has two queen beds and two bathrooms in two adjoining rooms.
The room probably sounds huge but it is narrow and still a pretty tight space.
When you walk inside, you see the first bed along with a table on the right side. The open door a bit further in is the bathroom.
Here’s the view from the further end of the first room. There’s a very old television, (the kids wanted to watch Youtube on it!), a fridge and microwave. 
The bathroom is very tiny and there’s an air conditioner inside. This isn’t an ideal set up for a couple of reasons. When you get out of the shower, it’s pretty cold in the bathroom. The other negative is that when you close the door to the bathroom, it can get hot in the room!
To the left of the bathroom is a door leading into the second room.
I was actually really impressed (surprised) by how comfortable the bed was. I really expected to sink in and have back pain in the morning. 
This room also has a refrigerator and microwave. This seemed odd and I wondered if these rooms were rented separately in the past.
The room had the same air conditioner issue in the bathroom. It also appeared that the sink, toilet and shower were installed with kids in mind.
The sink was the perfect height for my almost four-year old Theo to use. The toilet also was pretty low. Showering was a bit of a pain for two reasons. Kim mentioned a problem with the water temperature, I didn’t have that problem. However, the shower head was so low, it came up to the middle of my chest! Ridiculous!
Overall, the room was doable for one night but I wouldn’t want to stay there again. The allure of staying inside an old train wears off soon after you walk through the door. Regardless of this, we still had a good time and it was a fun place to check out.
Other amenities on the property:
There’s a restaurant called Casey Jones’ which has solid reviews. We ate breakfast there which was decent and forgettable.
On the way from reception (it looks like a train station ticket booth) to the restaurant, we passed through a pretty big gift shop. The prices were reasonable but we didn’t buy anything.
Theo had to take a ride on this train.
One of the highlights was spending around 20 minutes at the small petting zoo.
The petting zoo has horses, goats, pigs and llamas. I had to lend Theo a hand to help him out while trying to feed this hungry goat.
We walked around, checking out the different train cars (rooms) on the property.
It really is a cool property to check out.
Before we left, the kids had fun climbing around on this wooden train. I think we had to threaten to leave them there to get them off! Just kidding…
Final Thoughts:
We enjoyed our stay at the Red Caboose Motel. It’s definitely fun to sleep on an old train but it definitely sounds a lot better than it is. Once you get over the fact that you’re sleeping on a train, it’s just a motel room.
The grounds are fun to walk around and there is definitely enough to see and do for an hour or two visit if you don’t want to sleep there.
The Red Caboose Motel is located at 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, PA.
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Randy- Very cool! The gift shop did have a good amount of items for sale and pretty decent prices. PA Dutch Country is definitely a fun time.
Stayed there in the late 90’s, early 00’s in a caboose. They were about the same back then. Yes, I believe that the one that you were in used to be two separate rooms. Also, back then the gift shop had a lot more items than now. I like to stop for a look whenever I am in the area. Love the PA Dutch Country.
Quo- Thank! If you aren’t too far, it’s worth a visit.
Heard about this train motel previously and was curious about it, being not too far away in northern Virginia. Interesting review, thanks.