Tatamagouche Train Station Inn

For our tenth anniversary year my wife and I decided to do something a little different, so we packed up the kids and headed to Tatamagouche to spend a night at the Train Station Inn. 

A collection of assorted rail cars sit on the rails outside the restored Tatamagouche Railway Station.

The station building itself closed in 1973, and was scheduled for demolition, before being saved and purchased in 1974 by current owner James LeFresne. He was only 18 at the time. The last train passed through in 1986, and the line was abandoned. Restoration of the train station began in 1987, and it was opened as an inn in 1989. Railway cars began arriving in 1994 in the form of two wooden cabooses, and they have since been joined by a number of other cabooses, a passenger car, boxcars, the 1905 Vice Royal Railway Car Alexandra, and sundry other artifacts. 

The interior of the passenger car has been converted to a restaurant.

We had our dinner in the dining car that evening - my steak was good, and my wife's Coquille St. Jacques was excellent. We discovered to our pride and dismay that our 5 year old likes scallops, especially when wrapped in bacon, which could get expensive and means we will have to share in the future. 

The interior of the Vice Royal car, now a lounge for guests of the Inn.

Exterior of the passenger car.

Most of the cars are located along the old main line, with two cabooses and a boxcar sitting on rails on the other side of the parking lot.

The Jitney Cafe sits at one end of the restored train station.

The next morning, we had our breakfast in the Jitney Cafe, which was much more crowded than shown here.

Caboose #9, #79575, was our accommodation for the night.

Though comfortable, our bedroom was shoehorned into one end of the caboose.

Original equipment remaining in Caboose #9 includes two conductor seats, still installed in the cupola, providing a view in both directions along the "train" and to the sides. The fore and aft windows are still fitted with window wipers, two manual, and two with motors fitted. 

The children had a great time climbing up and down from the cupola and sitting in the conductor's seats. 

Caboose #9 can accommodate a family of four, with the two kids in single beds at the opposite end of the car from the main bedroom. Two sliding pocket doors isolate the middle section of the car, where the cupola and washroom are situated, from the bedrooms.

Though not as comfortable as a modern hotel room, the caboose was certainly unique, and the entire family enjoyed themselves.