LINCOLN, N.H. (AP) – When Jeffrey Monroe, the former merchant mariner now serving as director of ports and transportation in Portland, Maine, takes time off, he swaps his captain’s hat for a conductor’s cap.

Monroe and his wife Linda, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, bought a 1953 Budd stainless-steel passenger railroad car in June 2003 and are renovating it into a vacation home, complete with full-size kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom.

The Monroes keep the 85-foot-long car at the Hobo Railroad station, just off the Kancamagus Highway, which draws trainloads of visitors between spring and fall for tours of the Pemigiwasset River Valley near Franconia Notch.

The couple plan to ride their track-worthy RV through the White Mountain region and may eventually take it to other places in North America where tracks run.

“We haven’t decided yet,” says Jeffrey Monroe, who is 50. “But we’d love to take it for a spin.”

For now, the White Mountain and Atlantic Dayliner 9060 sits on Track 2, just 10 feet from the Hobo Train on Track 1. Their grown daughter and son often join them at their New Hampshire retreat.

“This is where we see each other,” Linda Monroe, 57, says. “It’s a place for us to escape. And we have all the comforts of home.”

Jeffrey Monroe, 50, wanted to fulfill a lifelong interest in trains, largely because his parents and grandfather worked on railroads. For his wife, an Ohio native more comfortable on land than water, buying a rail car was more attractive than buying a boat.

They started looking for a caboose in 2002, but soon found that cabooses are rare and expensive, and almost never come up for resale. Their search eventually led them to the White Mountains, where they have spent annual vacations for the last 25 years.

They found their car at the Hobo Railroad. Built in Philadelphia, it saw service with the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority before being scrapped in 1988.

The Monroes bought it for $12,000 and immediately sold off $6,000 worth of parts. They have spent about $50,000 on renovations thus far and expect to pay a track fee once the work is complete.

The couple sold or discarded all but six of the car’s 45 seats. Linda Monroe’s father is making two tables that will be installed between two sets of the seats, forming a central eating and socializing area.

The car is heated by an oil-fired furnace. It has a 65-gallon potable-water tank, a 300-gallon wastewater tank, a toilet, and sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. A gas stove and a shower have been installed but have yet to be hooked up. For now, the Monroes cook with a small camp stove and a microwave, and shower in the railroad station.

“By the time we’re finished with it, it will probably (cost) the same as a small cabin in the woods,” Jeffrey Monroe says.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-01-19-05 0217EST