Here's a Sotherby's Realty listing: 31 Twin Brooks Trail Chester, New Jersey 07930

The listing's text describes a "playroom for the kids that is one of the last wooden cabooses in the US" and there are three photos of a B&O caboose alongside the house. Anyone know more about it?

A quick perusal of Captive Cabeese shows nothing that matches this caboose--indeed, not a single B&O caboose in all of the Garden State. It does look too good to be just a simple "build your own caboose" kit.

Further, the only B&O cabooses listed beginning with a "C4XX" number are six in Ohio, one in Punxsutawney, Pa., and one in Duluth, Georgia (Atlanta NRHS, ex-Hartwell).

I certainly can't preclude the possibility that this guy was a "clueless newbie" who just bought and moved, at great expense, the first caboose he found for sale from several states away because his kids wanted to have a caboose playhouse. There are/were, as well, a few "stray" wooden cabooses around the northern NJ area of fairly similar/identiical appearance to a B&O hack of that vintage (CNJ and L&HR, for example), and he could have just renumbered/relettered one for B&O.

Anyone else know anything?

Sandy,

Those railings above the ladder are pure B&O. She's also appears to have the same steps as the rebuilt I-5 at the B&O Museum. She also looks like she has the unique B&O end railings. Seems likely to me she is indeed B&O.



Rob

Ugh.

Maybe they'd sell the caboose separately from the house. The house might be easier to sell without it. Apparently needs roof work...

Perhaps the caboose is worth more than the house?

Ours (at SRM/AtlantaNRHS, Duluth, GA) was marked for deaccessioning several years ago, as it was only used on the Hartwell in excursion service. I know very little about the history of the car, but I'm told that it's a virtually unmodified B&O I-5. We haven't actively pursued deaccessioning the car as it currently sits inside the shop at the end of a track in need of repair. However, if anyone is seriously interested, feel free to contact me. Not meaning to hijack the thread. :-)

The house is listed on the MLS under the number 3160009. If you google "MLS 3160009", you'll find it listed on a bunch of different realtor sites. For example, Weichert's website has all the house photos posted on single page: Weichert - 31 Twin Brooks Tr

You should consult a B&O system map. :-)

I'm leaning towards it being a legitimate B&O caboose. According to the B&O Museum website, C-2222 was retired in 1975 then purchased by a private owner. From that I know that the B&O was selling wood cabooses in the late 1970s. The real estate listing says that the house was built (completed) in 1980, so the timing would be about right. The caboose may not have needed to be trucked very far, since there was also a lot of track (branches & spurs) in NJ back then that is now gone.

If anyone wants to try acquiring it, PM me.

From my Dwight Jones B&O caboose book, this appears to be a B&O I-1A class caboose. There were a total of 135 of this series built in the railroads Washington, Indiana shops in 1922 and 1923, including cars numbered C400-C499. The last remaining car was retired in 1977, but Dwight states that a total of 26 of them were preserved.

Les

I live not too far from this home. I will see if I can see anything from the street.

But wow! Is that place tacky and way overpriced! Imagine the cash one would need to dump into it just to tone down the paint colors.

My honest opinion is this house will eventually be sold and the caboose will either be sold off by the new owners or scrapped. I just can't see it staying with this house in this fairly conservative neighborhood.

God is that place tacky!

Chris Vitz

Yeah, I know for sure there were wood hacks still being sold to people around that timeframe as I know two people in different parts of the country who bought their own around that same timeframe.
Overpriced? Maybe. But other than some rooms that look like restaraunts in a theme park, I'd think swapping out furniture would turn that house into something far more sane.
But I gotta admit, I like the look of some of that interior, furnture aside of course.

I've had the opportunity to have to appraise several cabooses in rather interesting circumstances. Real estate agents stare directly into the headlights when confronted with something like this. Probably the most unusual was the one that was on the David C. Bevan (Penn Central treas, I think) property as a pool cabana and the new owners wanted it gone yesterday. I'm pretty sure that's the one that was now reduced to component iron and steel parts at RMPA as the wood was in terrible condition.

What you never know about wood cabooses is the condition of the wood itself. A tarp wrapped around the cupola is not a particularly good sign. Beware.

As far as for tacky, I'll take anybody on with this one. It's local. It was ex-NYC, was bought locally, was an ice-cream stand for a while, owner died, son tried to sell it for an exorbitant amount, had part of the frame torch-cut as well as bent during moving.
Relocated here... now..... well....
http://www.dinerz.com/legends/

Chris: I'm aware the B&O got to within spitting distance of New Jersey.
The number we can see in the one photo shows "C4xx", which IF ACCURATE and not a flight of fancy by a new owner taking artistic liberty, would mean the caboose is either something that escaped the VERY thorough archivists who compiled the ARCHES cabbose list in Captive Cabeese, or it was procured from, at the closest, outside Punxsutawney or Hanover, Pa., and more likely one of either the five listed in Ohio or the one listed in Duluth, Georgia. (C496 is listed at the B&O Museum in Baltimore, but that one's listing says "no cupola".) The listing for C465 notes that it's wooden with a cupola, and includes the notation "GONE TO New England??"

So, the possibilities include, in order of likelihood (in my opinion):
*Moved from Pennsylvania or Ohio;
*Repainted with a fake number;
*Something that escaped the caboose chasers/documentarians;
*A well-done fake/replica.

According to Dwight Jones, C496 is preserved at the Northern Ohio Railway Museum and is "one of only a handful" of B&O cabooses that had cupolas removed later in their careers.

Les

Just imagine the property taxes! Chester... not very far from Tewksbury Township.

The asking price has been reduced from 1-3/4 million to 1-1/2 million Dollars. Taxes are more than $28,000 per year based on a much lower value of $1,115,000. Buyer be aware.