Misinformation about FRA regs? Who is surprised? Not me.
TrainWatcher wrote: Really need to ask this question, as I have been told that there is no money in the restored caboose business. Where this really starts is a few days ago, I was approached after contacting a seller about a Nickle Plate Road 400 Series Bay Window and a Detroit, Toledo and Shore Line Pullman WWII Troop Sleeper for sale. He said that there were already 4 groups working on trying to aquire those 2 specific cars.
Keep in mind, you're talking to brokers, in the context of their making money. When they say "there's no money in it" they mean the commissions aren't worth their trouble, and/or the economics of the business are such that you can't make any money "flipping" a caboose - buy it, fix it and resell for net gain.
That has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with its worthiness for preservation. Don't even ask them about a Little Joe.
If your motive is money, there's your answer. Walk away. This is a money pit.
If on the other hand your motivation is "the love of the game" -- then it's up to you. And your wife, LOL!
Also, "groups trying to acquire" is not quite the same thing as actual serious customers with the ability to pay and then move the equipment. Then there's the small matter of having a place to put the equipment, and that is one you need to watch out.
Quote: With doing research at some museums of which I do quite a bit of business, I have heard caboose rental figures thrown around for sometime and it seems that the public if they have the chance would rather be in the caboose instead of a coach for the nostalgia. But is that really true? If I was to sink money into making it road worthy again (is equipped with roller bearings making it interchangeable) would it be worth it? Or is it just better belonging to a stationary display or as razor blades.
Renting the Caboose to the Museum??? Don't even go there. Any museum worth a damn (i.e. capable of paying) will have had lots of experience with private owners with the aforementioned problem. The owner, of course, wants it all - to retain total control/ownership, but to get free storage out of the deal. So the owner tries to "package" or "spin" it as somehow beneficial to the museum, hence the operating lease agreement. Museums have heard that one too :) A few museums get sucked into it, notably if the private car owner is on their Board (which is illegal by the way, it's called private inurement to insiders.) But in my experience the museum usually regrets it. Even if it's a daily runner, it puts the museum at arm's length for maintaining it, why dump money into an asset you don't own, and volunteers don't want to fix private cars. Just a bad scene all-around. Eventually, the museum says "We're done, get your car outta here" and the private owner says "I can't".
And that isn't pretty. If the museum wrote a good lease (and you signed it, are you nuts?) then you lose the caboose and the museum keeps it. If the museum wrote a bad lease, then you have a lot of awkwardness with a museum that used to be your friend, and finally there you are trying to sell off the unit.
If your car is at a museum, the public perceives that car as being in the museum's stewardship, even if it's not really. If that equipment later moves on down the road and to a bad end ... that is considered to be the museum's fault, and directly impacts their reputation as a steward... which directly impacts donors' willingness to work with them on unrelated projects.
Did I mention most railroad museums do not have interchange to live rail. I suspect your origin location is also landlocked. So you're gonna be on a truck anyway, and the roller bearings scarcely matter.
So you can try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up on a rental.
On to the question of selling it. Maybe. Museums don't have a lot of money but you can ask. That would be a way to get the caboose saved for good. The roller bearings would be a minor asset to the landlocked museums that run critters, as they're a bit easier to start and pull at low speeds. And the Chessie history and paint scheme is a real crowd pleaser.
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