While visiting Utah recently, we noticed a group of cabooses and freight cars alongside US Highway 89 north of Marysvale so we pulled in to take a closer look.
Turns out that what we spotted was a caboose motel called Caboose Village. This is the LINK to their website. There is detailed information on each of the cabooses and that is where I got the information presented here.
There were at least 8 cabooses of the bay window or wide vision type. Most are former Southern Pacific or Denver and Rio Grande equipment that have been painted to represent various railroads and set on short sections of track.
There was also a passenger coach that originally came from the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad before eventually finding it's way to being a motel accommodation. There are also a pair of grade crossing signals in the collection.
And there were also several box cars on the site with at least one of those converted into accommodations. The other side of this box car has windows and entry door.
A bicycle trail had been visible as we drove along and I assumed that there had at one time been a railroad line here. When we got back to camp, I did a little research and found that the Denver and Rio Grand had a branch line here that was called the Marysvale Branch and was abandoned in the 1980's. The bicycle trail is built on about 16 miles of the abandoned right of way through the Sevier River Canyon and passes nearby this caboose village.
Even if they are not painted in their authentic original paint schemes, it is great to see this old railroad equipment escape the scrappers.
