My 53rd birthday was in September 2024, and for my present, Annie booked us a weekend at a bed and breakfast in New York Mills, Minnesota that was made out of old train cars.
Turns out, there’s a full bed and breakfast in the house too (which, I didn’t get any pictures of), but the main attractions are three Pullman train cars that are mounted on foundations on the lot and fully-restored. Each one basically functions as a self-contained hotel room or cabin.
The Whistlestop Bed and Breakfast
(I have some confusion as to whether it’s the “Whistlestop Inn” or the “Whitestop Bed and Breakfast.” I saw both terms used in various contexts.)
Here it is on Google Maps (you can see one car there – the long white retangle is “The Viking” – the yellow car from below).
To get to New York Mills you drive about 200 miles north of Sioux Falls on I-29, to just a bit south of Fargo, North Dakota. Then you head east for about an hour into Minnesota. It’s somewhere in the inter-lakes region of Detroit Lake and Otter Tail.
It’s a very small town. There was a lovely pizza bar called The Continental Divide where we ate the night we got in, and a bakery called The Farmer’s Daughter where went for some pastries in the morning.
These are the three Pullman cars. We stayed in the red one – “The Imperial.” It was built in 1903 and retired in the 1940s. The other two were “The Palace” and “The Viking.”
Pullman was a company that built luxury train cars from the 1860s to the 1960s. Wealthy people had a “Pullman” that they hooked up to various trains to get around the country. To have a Pullman was like having a Rolls-Royce.
This is the caboose. It’s smaller than the others, and the only one not insulated. They shut it down for winter.
Caboose’s aren’t really used much anymore. The purposes that it served have mostly been automated.
Looking down the length of our car. It’s very long – I measured it on Google Maps at about 85 feet long, and 13 feet wide. That’s about 1,000 square feet of space, which was bigger than my first apartment.
You can see the bed towards the back (of the picture; the front of the car). It’s a double bed, and very comfortable. It felt very spacious, and some could easily watch a show on their phone or something at one end, while someone else slept.
All the windows have Venetian blinds, so you have to spend five minutes opening and closing them one-by-one in the morning and the evening.
Some antiques around the car. Time-period appropriate, I assume.
This was the heat source. It was very effective – the fan would blow warm air down the entire car length. However, we mostly had the air conditioning running (there’s a wall unit). We turned the heat on first thing in the morning for a bit.
It had a full whirlpool tub. The car was completely plumbed – they had a photo album showing how they installed them, and all the cars are sitting on concrete foundations – there are no wheels on them or anything. Honestly, they’re sort of just elaborate mobile homes.
They deliver breakfast to your “car” just before 9:00 a.m. They come in and set it up for you (if you like), and you eat it at a booth that I suppose was originally in one of the dining cars. Breakfast was nice – egg bake the first day, and French toast the second day.
They have a history of the car we stayed in. The joke about the “other trains” is because there’s an actual train line about 50 yards to the rear of the property, and you do hear them.
Another joke about the real trains running throughout the night.
What would be the “back” of the car has a little deck to sit on. I suppose this would be the very end of the train, and you could sit out here and watch the tracks recede.
The bathroom was small, but fully-plumbed with residential fittings. Nothing odd about it – you may as well have been in a house.
Some shots of an incredible sunset across Detroit Lake, from the deck of The Fireside, where we had a lovely dinner. Detroit Lake is about 30 minutes from New York Mills. Amazing food here, with a great view of the water.
It was October, the trees were turning and there was a bit of a chill in the air. Accordingly, the table behind us at The Fireside had about eight 30-something women and every single one was wearing plaid fleece (faces blurred, because I snuck this picture…).
I sent this pic to my daughter, and she responded, “Welcome to white girl fall.”
Annie on the end of the dock at The Fireside, taking a video for her brother.