Niagara Hobby caboose for sale

Has anybody purchased the caboose from Niagara Hobby yet? I'd love to get a hold of it and tour the country with it.

SST wrote:Has anybody purchased the caboose from Niagara Hobby yet? I'd love to get a hold of it and tour the country with it.

According to Facebook posts, it hasn't been sold yet. Many folks are saying the owner is asking way, way, way too
much for it.

Charlie

Price is $80,000 or thereabouts. Without roller bearing axles that caboose cannot go anywhere on rails. Brakes would be an issue too. No railroad would hang it on the hind end of a freight train and it could never be run in an Amtrak consist.

Everyone:

Without going too much off the AAPRCO topic does anyone have pictures of the Niagara Hobby
caboose? The reason I ask is to see if George Wybenga ever sketched it for one of his caboose
art paintings that can be seen at http://www.cabooseart.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately George passed away in the past year - literally around the time a book containing
his caboose art was released. He traveled all over North America to seek out cabooses for his art
and this would have more then likely been a prime candidate for a visit to WNY.

I also think that the reason for the very high asking price is that the owner does not want to part
with this caboose unless they can get big money for it - in short it is not priced to actually sell...

MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote:Without going too much off the AAPRCO topic does anyone have pictures of the Niagara Hobby
caboose?

Here's a screenshot I lifted off their website.

Charlie

It's posted on a rail classified for $85K, which is way, way too much. It's an N&W car (C2 class 518439) dressed up as Erie, from a class which has tons of preserved examples out there. So while in nice shape, from a museum standpoint it needs paint work; from a private owner standpoint, it's stuck on whatever host road you park it on without a change of trucks; basically it's good for a cabin or a billboard like it's been used for.

More realistic pricing would be under $20,000. There are plenty on Ozark Mountain Railcar for that or under many of which could be interchanged.

SST wrote:Has anybody purchased the caboose from Niagara Hobby yet? I'd love to get a hold of it and tour the country with it.

Caboose is a freight car, not covered by AAPRCO in any way, not hauled by Amtrak, and you cannot use a caboose as a private car to "tour the country." Sorry to burst your bubble.

-otto-

lvrr325 wrote:It's posted on a rail classified for $85K, which is way, way too much... More realistic pricing would be under $20,000. There are plenty on Ozark Mountain Railcar for that or under many of which could be interchanged.

A more realistic price would be $8500... Anyone is going to have to spend at least $10,000 to move it out of there with trucks and cranes.

-otto-

I was basing the price on what other people want for their cabooses. A lot of those also needed to be trucked. Unlike eBay that site didn't look to have a feature to show what people have actually sold cabooses for.

Yes, the only touring you do in a caboose is if you find a tourist railroad that might host it to go back and forth on. Even if it has roller trucks it moves empty as a freight car on the class 1 roads.

It would look great on an excursion trip over the Buffalo Southern / NYLE if they could extend service and run to Cherry Creek, tack on a couple of more descent caboose and just run a unique trip . Of course it would have to come down in price and get fixed up but it wouldn't have to be trucked to far.. and someone with money to do it all .

I drove passed Niagara Hobby yesterday. Crappy driving conditions and busy on Union Road....I almost missed it. To my surprise, the caboose is still on the property and shrink wrapped. Somebody loves that caboose.

Sorry, no picture. To crazy out to stop.

Otto Vondrak wrote: A more realistic price would be $8500... Anyone is going to have to spend at least $10,000 to move it out of there with trucks and cranes. -otto-

The alternative would be to scrap it. If you estimate $150/ton for scrap, times ballpark 30 tons for the caboose, that's $4,500 - less the cost of actually cutting it up. Hopefully somebody will come up with something higher than scrap price and give it a good home.

Here is the caboose on Sterling's website listed for $58,000.00 with several interior photos.

http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... p?id=18709" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ironically, the other caboose listed here is for half the price($29,000.00 ) and is already done up as the photos show.

http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... p?id=19278" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As it doesn't mention specifically, I would imagine you would have to inquire further regarding road worthiness let alone moving this one. Fairly nice interior though.

Among the other interesting things on this site, I liked this Fairmont speeder along with a custom built trailer for $9500.00.

http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... p?id=18962" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So Niagara hobby is OOS? On the RIP Track?

Yes, Niagara Hobby has closed down.