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McDonald's caboose sells for more than $11,000

Lisa Leinberger
Staff writer
June 8, 2006

(File / S-R)

The McChooChoo, Spokane’s landmark McDonald’s party room that went up on the eBay auction block, has been sold for $11,301.95 and will be chugging out of its station.

Next stop: Silver Valley.

Toni Weatherwax, a bookkeeper in the corporate office of the local franchisee that owns 24 area McDonald’s Restaurants, said that the anonymous buyer is planning to restore the 60,000-pound retired Spokane, Portland & Seattle train car to its original form.

The buyer already owns one caboose and also purchased another on eBay from Texas around the same time he bought the McChooChoo.

The plan is to get four of them and open a resort of rental cabins in Kellogg, Idaho.

“He said I can stay there whenever I want,” said Weatherwax, who coordinated the sale.

Weatherwax noted that many local folks stopped by to check out the caboose while it was up on the auction block.

She was very surprised about the enthusiasm potential buyers have about trains.

“People are just crazy about cabooses,” she said.

The caboose was originally built in 1910 or 1911 for the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad, which was later purchased by Great Northern, which later became part of Burlington Northern.

It was retired in 1977 and moved to its present location of McDonald’s, 3416 N. Market. The McChooChoo became the party room when the restaurant opened in 1978. Thousands of birthday parties and happy children later, the McChooChoo has been sitting empty for the last four years.

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