Jim Dotzenrod purchased the train caboose from a scrapyard in 2016.
Courtesy of Danielle Dotzenrod
Jim Dotzenrod drove by a row of train cabooses in Decorah, Iowa, several times before he decided to take a closer look in 2016.
“By a town 30 miles north of us, there’s a line of cabooses along the road a guy bought in an investment,” Jim, 65, told Insider. “And I thought, ‘Well, I wonder what you could use one of them for?’ Then, I thought of an Airbnb.”
Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t keen on selling any of the ten cabooses, forcing Jim to go out and search for one himself.
“My daughter’s partner at the time told me there was one 30 miles away at a salvage recycling yard,” Jim said.
The caboose was going to be cut up into iron, but Jim managed to strike a deal and purchase caboose car number SOO 124 for $8,000. It was built in 1973 and weighed 52,000 lbs.
The property is listed as the CR Station Train Caboose on Airbnb.
It wasn’t Jim’s first time jumping into the world of home renovations and Airbnbs. Jim, a retired carpenter, previously repurposed a silo attached to his farm into a popular Airbnb listing.