Not your average auction: train cars sold at museum sale

Like any other auction, the one at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum boasted plenty of antiques and artifacts to browse through.

Unlike any other auction, this one included items you wouldn’t be able to pack away in your purse.

“Today would be your first chance to buy a steam locomotive,” says Pete Deets, an auction committee member.

For the first time in its history, the North Freedom museum auctioned off entire train cars, locomotives and engines – the whole kid and caboose, if you will – mixed in with smaller memorabilia.

The museum is cleaning house to make room for new pieces it plans to showcase in the near future, including a re-built steam engine.

So who buys an entire train car in south-central Wisconsin? Not just locals, apparently. The auction brought bidders from across the country and even one interested party from Budapest – all here to name their price for a piece of railway history, though some would say there isn’t one high enough.

“It’s like the Mona Lisa – what’s the Mona Lisa worth? It’s such a unique item,” Deets said.