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All the United States Alaska Fairbanks Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast

Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast

One woman's dream became a train hotel in her backyard.

Fairbanks, Alaska

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Tim Martini
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The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast.   Atlas Obscura user Exploring the Obscure
The Arlene, a WWII hospital car.   Atlas Obscura user Exploring the Obscure
The dining car.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
The “Golden Nellie” caboose.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
The CanCan suite.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
Outside the train.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
The National Emblem, a 1956 sleeper car.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
The caboose suite.   The Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
Guests with “Mother Wilson”.   Atlas Obscura user Exploring the Obscure
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About

It all began with a dream Susan Wilson had in 1993, in which her modest Fairbanks property housed a train. 

Her husband, Mike, laughed it off. But Susan was on a mission. After calling around to various railroad companies, she purchased a caboose. Next came two Pullman sleeper cars. Shortly after that came dining car and a locomotive, and later two more cars. The Wilsons achieved the impossible: transporting the many-ton train cars 100+ miles to their home in Fairbanks with the help of tractors, bulldozers, and friendly neighbors. After such a feat, transforming the train cars into an operational hotel was nothing. 

The Wilsons called their train the Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast. The sleeper cars and the caboose (nicknamed the "Golden Nellie") offer quaint, old-fashioned accommodations to those who want a stay beyond what's offered at a typical hotel. Outside the hillside property lies Fairbanks, the Tanana River, and the Alaskan Mountain Range, though you wouldn't be faulted for choosing instead to marvel a little while at the old train.

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Hotels Trains Places To Stay

Know Before You Go

The Aurora Express is open between May and October.

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ExploringTheObscure

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson

  • Molly McBride Jacobson

Published

August 12, 2016

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Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast
1550 Chena Ridge Road
Fairbanks, Alaska
United States
64.797767, -147.98941
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