Our History

Caboose 199429

This caboose was built in 1972 as serial 9429 for Illinois Central Railroad. Later it was moved to maintenance duty and became serial 199429.

Subsequently, it was put into storage and sold to the Monticello Railway Museum.

In 2006, the current owners bought it and had it moved with large trucks and cranes to its present location. The rails it sits on are leftover rails from the nearby Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

Its location is historic, as the Colorado Midland Railway passed through the property in the late 1800s when this area was a popular resort town.

It was renovated into a unique vacation rental in 2010 and has been welcoming guests ever since.

Illinois Central Railroad

Illinois Central Railroad dated from 1851 when it was chartered by its home state to build a line from Cairo... After its 19th-century growth, the IC had a stable system until its 1972 merger with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio to form the Illinois Central Gulf.

Early history & expansion

When the IC was chartered in 1851, a previous undertaking had resulted in a few miles of grading, but nothing else. The IC was aided, however, by an 1850 land-grant act. Finished in 1856, the IC was a Y-shaped railroad with its junction just north of Centralia. In the late 1880s under the leadership of E. H. Harriman, the road undertook a westward expansion program.

Illinois Central Gulf

Illinois Central and parallel Gulf, Mobile & Ohio merged on August 10, 1972, to create the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, a wholly owned subsidiary of Illinois Central Industries.

Illinois Central again

On Feb. 29, 1988, the railroad changed its name back to Illinois Central, having divested itself of nearly all the former GM&O routes it acquired in 1972. In February 1998 Canadian National Railway agreed to purchase the IC, creating a 19,000-mile railroad. CN absorbed IC in July 1999, and IC lost its own identity within the CN system.