Get on board for a unique camping trip

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Get Outta Here, a joint effort by the News & Advance in Lynchburg and The Daily Progress, in which we take readers to getaways in their own back yards. The idea is to explore a sight or activity that might offer a real change of scenery without having to travel far to get there. We hope you enjoy.

One is green and yellow, another is blue and white and the third is simply red.
  The insides have been gutted and changed, electricity runs through them and large wooden decks have been added. They sit out on 80 acres of woods, along with cabins and tent sites.
They are three train cabooses that Gary Schneider brought in for an unusual lodging choice at his campground, Heavenly Acres, located outside of Stanardsville east on Route 230.
He and his wife, Jan, who met years ago on a camping trip, have operated the campground for 11 years. Besides the typical tent and R.V. sites and a couple of cabins, there are the train cabooses that folks can spend the night in.
Schneider said he got the idea after reading an article about a campground that put in a caboose. Unlike the cabins, the cabooses have bathrooms and showers. Those staying in the cabins and tents must visit the separate bathhouse, equipped with flush toilets.
“They attract the crowd that would never go camping,” Schneider said. “You have air conditioning, bathroom, kitchen. They appeal to those who think of camping as the Holiday Inn.”
His oldest one is a red wooden caboose, 1926 Baltimore and Ohio. It’s the latest one he renovated. Schneider discovered this caboose in Pennsylvania, where it was being used by a church as a Sunday school location. It was in “rough shape” with broken windows and metal plates over some of the windows. Besides the deck, he added a small kitchen and table and a bedroom in the back. He carpeted the floor in the bedroom, because some places had metal covering nails. The rest of the floor is the original pine. He built a bathroom, which includes a toilet and a shower.
The red caboose sleeps two. The other two train cars have room for four each, and would be a nice location for a family with two children — not too young, as the sleeping quarters are up in the cupola, an elevated spot surrounded by small windows. To reach it, you must climb the original narrow metal steps.
Schneider kept as many original fixtures as he could, including windows, latches, railings, light fixtures and the original caboose wheels. All three sit on railroad track because, as he said, the cabooses weigh 50,000 pounds and must sit on something sturdy.
His most prized one he went to see after running an ad in a railroad magazine far longer than he had intended. He had already purchased two, but when the man called with the news that this one had been kept in a garage, Schneider told his wife he had to go see it.
The 1970 West Virginia Northern caboose is metal decorated with a bright blue and white. He found it in a small West Virginia town, about an hour from Morgantown. He said they hooked it to a locomotive and took it for one last trip down the tracks before getting two trucks to haul it to the Stanardsville campground.
“This is my baby,” Schneider said. “This one was in good shape. I’ve never seen a garage-kept caboose before. It turned out real nice.”
The words “The Donald Happy Everly” are painted on the outside of the caboose, referring to a West Virginia politician, but Schneider doesn’t know the story. There also is a seal and the words “Serving Preston County Coal since 1887.” Schneider said he left the original labels and numbers on the cabooses. You can look up a caboose by its number. The caboose had been from a tourist line that ran on 11 miles of track. Before that, it was used to go from a coalmine to the main track until the mine closed down.
Schneider said it has been difficult to find out much about it, but he has found two boarding passes – one dated 1909 and then a letter from 1924.
“I’ve become a railroad nut since [buying the cabooses],” Schneider said. “You get a lot of people who have either retired from the railroad or had train sets. [The cabooses] bring back memories. Then you have a lot of kids who don’t know what one is. When I was a kid, you’d see the train and wait for the caboose on the end. You always waved to the conductor. Kids are being deprived of some of their heritage.”
Schneider pointed out that the caboose was where the conductor did paperwork. Several of those that he renovated had a desk, chairs and an old-fashioned icebox.
For the first one he worked on, a 1969 green and yellow Burlington Northern, he sanded the wood floors but was distressed at first because of the discoloring up the center of the floor – probably where the conductor and others tracked in diesel on their shoes. Then he decided the darker wood made the car look more authentic. He also installed a bathtub in that caboose, but realized that didn’t leave a lot of space for a bed, so he put in a futon sofa.
Renovating the first two cabooses took about a year each, Schneider said. The third he has just finished up after two years of work. He has yet another sitting in the woods, also a Burlington Northern caboose, ready for repairs.Schneider said this year the campground will be open through the winter. The cabooses have heat as well as air conditioning. The campground is about 20 minutes from the Skyline Drive entrance on U.S. 33 and Route 35, minutes from Massanutten Resort.

Contact Anne Causey at .

DETAILS
What: Heavenly Acres has a swimming pool, hiking and mountain biking trails, a fishing pond, a game room and a camp store.
Cost: The deluxe caboose rents for $115 a night, the smaller one rents for $85. There also are 20 tent sites, each renting for $20, or $25 for larger sites. The cost for full hook up is $35. The small cabin is $55 a night and the large cabin rents for $65.
Information: (434) 985-6601 or www. heavenlyacres.net.