talk with jon meacham on his new book. that's right here on "the wall street journal at large." thank you for joining us. stay healthy, stay safe, and we'll see you next week. ♪ [ cow moos ] >> a montana cowboy inherits a barren patch of prairie. >> this place isn't big enough to starve to death on. >> but beneath the parched soil, he finds prehistoric treasure. >> this is one of the most important discoveries in this century. >> i've got a year to try to see if i can survive with our ranch and selling dinosaur fossils. this is a jaw bone to a tyrannosaurus rex that i found. >> will this cowpoke's strange inheritance lead him to boom... >> whoo! >> [ laughs ] >> ...or bust? >> lightning doesn't strike the same place very often. [ chuckles ] maybe never. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby. and today, i'm driving in the badlands of eastern montana. it's rugged, big-sky, cattle-ranching country. i'm on my way to meet a lifelong resident whose father left him a chunk of this land. >> nice to have you here. >> thanks for having us. >> my name's clayton phipps. and in 1997, my father passed away, and i inherited from him a small portion of the family ranch. and along with that came a few pretty exciting surprises. >> 41-year-old clayton phipps is like a character out of "red river" or "lonesome dove." [ horse neighs ] >> most of the time, i'm on my own. i'm happy that way. this ranch had been in our family since my great-grandfather homesteaded here. and it's a part of me that i just didn't feel like i wanted to ever part with. >> clayton grew up and learned

to cowboy here on the ranch his father shared with three brothers. he describes the operation as cash-poor but reasonably successful. >> my dad worked us hard, but that was a good thing, too. >> after clayton's father dies in 1997, the ranch is split up. at age 24, clayton inherits 1,100 acres and 30 cows. that may sound like a lot. but to make a decent living these days, clayton would need 10 times that much land and about 500 head of cattle -- at least 40 acres for each cow. >> [ whistles ] i always tell people this place isn't big enough to starve to death on. but it's every cowboy's dream to have their own place. >> okay, we're saddling up. >> just step on my knee with your right leg. >> okay. >> there you go. >> clayton insists i wear a helmet. >> yeah, that's pretty smooth. >> good girl! somebody must have told him i'm

a lawyer. ♪ i can see why clayton loves being out here. i also learn why he calls ranching a big gamble. >> there is a big gamble in ranching. wintertime can be hard. you can have some big storms. there can be death loss. you can buy a bull for $10,000, and he can go wreck himself or break his leg or something, and you may not get any return out of him. >> for years, clayton works a second job, hoping to make enough money to build up his own herd. getting the ranch to pay off becomes more urgent when he falls in love with lisa landwehr, who teaches at the local one-room schoolhouse. >> love at first sight. [ laughs ] my mom said she could see why i fell for him. my dad said, "are you sure you shouldn't wait?" [ laughs ] he's always been very good to me. we've had a lot of fun together. >> my wife's from minnesota. the whole thing's been a culture shock for her. [ chuckles ]

you know, it's 120 miles to the nearest movie theatre. the old timers would say, you know, "this country's hard on horses and women." >> in 1998, the couple's first child, julie, is born. she'll grow up to be a cowgirl, through and through. >> julie came along, and, yeah, there's another mouth to feed, and a little more responsibility. and you have to start, you know -- "what am i gonna do?" >> it all ratchets up the pressure on clayton to make the ranch financially viable... now. >> got to figure out a way to try to buy more land, enough land to raise enough cows to provide a living. >> then one day, clayton runs into a stranger who'd been prospecting in the badlands near clayton's ranch. >> he started pulling these things out of his car. he started saying, you know, "this piece here might sell for $500," you know, and it was a fragment of bone. and i'm like, "what?" >> they were fossils, remnants of giant beasts who lived here eons ago. clayton figures if there are that many valuable fossils on

the neighbor's land, there must be as many on his. could they help him keep his home on the range? >> as i was out fixing fence, or riding, or gathering cattle, i started watching, and, you know, started picking up fragments here and there, and then trying to learn more about it. it got me excited that, you know, this stuff's everywhere. >> it's everywhere because phipps' ranch sits right on one of the most important scientific areas on earth -- the hell creek formation. 65 million years ago, this was a warm, palm-studded forest. giants ruled the earth. peter larson runs the black hills institute, which prepares fossils for museums and collectors. >> the hell creek formation shows us the very end of the age of dinosaurs going up to the time that this giant asteroid 6 miles across crashed into the earth and actually caused the extinction of about 70% of life forms here on this planet.

♪ >> between chores, clayton scours the gulches and ridges on his land, searching for fossils. he finds plenty of fragments -- buckets full of them, in fact -- but nothing he could sell. these bones would not put meat on the table. then one day, something in the rocky soil catches clayton's eye. >> i looked, and there was a t. rex pre-max tooth laying there in almost perfect, museum-quality condition. >> so, this tooth, for example, is a result of your inheritance? >> it is. >> clayton shows me a casting of the tooth -- his first real find -- in the back room where he prepares specimens for sale. it's a combination man cave, research library, and trophy room. >> and i went home and sold that tooth that night to a collector for $2,500, and i was back in business. [ cow moos ] >> back in the ranching business, that is. >> i used that money to buy my first cattle to help supplement my other disease, ranching and

cowboying. >> right. well, that's what kind of actually was exciting about it. we were pretty proud of being able to start our herd with something that he found, you know? that was pretty cool. >> "pretty cool" -- sure. but could such prehistoric artifacts be the cash crop they need to help them build up their herd and make the ranch a success? it's another gamble. clayton's all in. lisa, not so much. >> paychecks kind of need to be steady when you're raising a family. and it was a gamble, you know? [ chuckles ] my wife was really skeptical. >> you ever sit there and dream of another life? >> [ laughs ] >> he's not listening right now. >> i have to confess, yeah, it's crossed my mind. i wouldn't give him up for anything, but, you know, i was nervous. >> as months go by with no significant finds, even clayton begins to have doubts. >> i got to one of my sites, and my tractor tire was flat, and that was gonna be a $500, $600 bill, you know? i was thinking, "i don't even know if this is what god wants

me to do," you know? i was broke. ♪ >> and then, as if by divine intervention, his luck changes. >> it was just the coolest little skull ever. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer when we return.

>> now the answer to our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer is "c," tiggeraptor. >> in 2003, cowboy clayton phipps starts to feel that fossil hunting on his montana ranch is a bust. it's been almost a year since he's found a marketable bone. then he hits pay dirt, in the form of a skull from a 65-million-year-old stygimoloch. >> i found that stygimoloch on my wife's birthday, and i named the skull "lisa's dragon." this is the most complete skull discovered to date of this particular dinosaur. >> unearthing this horned relic of the cretaceous period instantly changes clayton's outlook. >> it's the thrill of discovery, you're the first person to see it. it's a special feeling. it's hard to describe until you

actually are in that position. >> that's amazing. amazing. wow. the real thrill comes when a collector buys the skull, netting clayton more than $40,000. his strange inheritance is finally starting to pay off. >> it was about a year's wages for what i was making on the ranch. >> it buys him, among other things, more time to make his grand plan work. >> i told lisa, i said, "i've got a year to try to see if i can survive with our ranch and selling dinosaur fossils." >> meanwhile, the phipps family is expanding. a son, daniel, arrives in 2004, and his brother luke, 3 years later -- two acorns that don't fall far from the tree. by now, dad has acquired a reputation and a new nickname, "dino cowboy." professionals begin to respect his knowledge of dinosaur bones, and his ability to find them. >> the only way you can find

fossils is with your eyes. and the only way you can do that is get out there on foot and and walk the outcrops. a guy like clayton can invent. he can solve problems. ♪ >> clayton offers to show a new york gal how it's done. he starts with a safety lecture. >> any snakes? >> there's rattlesnakes. there's mountain lions. walking along the crest of a hill, there could be a cavity, and you could step on one of those and fall 30 feet down. looks great. if you move the dirt, you might find one. >> now, what is that? >> this is a little end of a limb bone to a little plant-eater. it's pretty cool. you can see the whole end of the bone. >> oh, this is definitely bone. >> yep. that's most like a rib. i can tell by the -- >> oh, the shape. i can see why they call him the dino cowboy. >> another piece of bone washed down there. >> and i can see how you could get hooked on fossil hunting. it's the feeling you get picking

something out of the dirt and realizing it was part of a living, breathing behemoth 65 million years ago. >> there's spikes on this. look. >> we're gonna have a project here. >> i'm starting to think the whole phipps family has some kind of dino radar. >> looks like a rib. >> like the top of one? >> in just the first few minutes, clayton's youngest, 7-year-old luke, finds a rib. >> okay, i'm having a blast. can i get down here and keep looking? now, is this just wood or petrified wood? >> no, that's a bone. >> i found part of a leg bone. amazing! slowly but surely, this is a whole dinosaur. >> it came off this hill somewhere. you know, one of these layers is gonna produce, you know, hopefully, some more of this skeleton. >> so, we found a spot worth looking into. >> maybe. oh, for sure. >> clayton knows there is dino gold somewhere in these hills, and he aims to find it. >> the highest selling fossil that i know about sold for a little over $8 million. that was one single dinosaur. >> that $8-million find, a 42-foot long t. rex nicknamed

"sue," now stands in the main hall of chicago's field museum. >> it could buy a lot of cattle. >> it would help. [ chuckles ] >> fortunately, his reputation as a man who can find old bones leads an experienced fossil hunter named mark eatman to knock on clayton's door. >> clayton is a total modern-day mountain man or macgyver. i went to his ranch, where we started to look for fossils together. >> another chapter in this "strange inheritance" story is about to begin. >> you're always thinking, "right over the next ridge or over the next patch of badlands, it's gonna be there. i'm gonna find that big one." >> as it turns out, mark's words are prophetic. >> whoo! >> that's next, on "strange inheritance." >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer in a moment.

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>> now the answer to our quiz question. which came first? the answer is "b." the oldest shark fossil is more than 400 million years old. the oldest cockroach fossil is 350 million years old. the oldest dinosaur arrived 100 million years later. >> as i listen to clayton phipps tell the story of the ranch left to him by his father, i can't help but think that his strange inheritance is not just about this 2 square miles of montana badlands filled with dinosaur bones. it's also the unexpected journey that came next -- from struggling rancher to hopeful husband to dad worried about

being a good provider, and then to renowned dino cowboy who's still hoping to find a way to make it all work financially. he gets a boost when professional fossil hunter mark eatman knocks on his door. using clayton's ranch as a base of operations, they set out to scour not only the phipps ranch, but parts of the surrounding hell creek formation on which it sits. in june 2006, mark scans a rock outcropping and spots fossil fragments from a triceratops, a 7-foot tall plant eater. this beast died right here more than 65 million years ago. [ roaring ] it's only about 60 miles from the phipps' ranch. but the remarkable journey launched by clayton's strange inheritance will transport him to a time and place he could hardly imagine. after cutting a deal with the

landowner, who will get a share of any profits, clayton starts picking away, first with a shovel, then a jackhammer, and finally a backhoe. >> i realized that there was this arm claw in there, a giant meat hook -- killer, nasty-looking creature. >> clayton has uncovered another set of bones intertwined with the triceratops. >> "what the heck did we just find?" and, you know, i knew i had a claw, but that's all i really knew. so, i run down, and i start brushing away the dirt and the sand from where i was digging with the machine. and i start to see an arm, and i start to see a leg below the arm. and, "whoo!" [ both laugh ] you know? "son of a gun. there's another dinosaur in here, and it wasn't friends with the one we just found." >> that's when i went ballistic with excitement, actually. >> it's a monster discovery. clayton's son daniel and daughter julie pose to give a sense of the enormous size of these two creatures -- predator and prey, apparently locked in a

battle to the death -- one the plant-eating triceratops, the other what looks like a young t. rex. phipps calls them the dueling dinos. >> i was talking to to a fossil dealer, and he said, "clayton, you're the luckiest guy i know." he said, "who could go out in the middle of nowhere with a backhoe and dig up the best meat-eater from the hell creek formation ever?" [ laughs ] i guess god was watching out for us that day. [ laughs ] >> it's one of the most fantastic dinosaur specimens that's been found ever. it's one of the few instances where we can actually find the culprit. "well, how did this animal die, and what killed it?" >> we believe they killed each other. >> wait, in battle? how can you tell that? >> clayton explains, using this model of the dueling dinos. >> we have teeth from the predator embedded in the prey. some of them are embedded still in the pelvis area, and they're also in the throat area. i'd give anything in the world to go back that day in time and see what happened, you know, to watch that fight and see how it unfolded.

>> for a cowboy and his family who have been just scraping by, the dueling dinos could be a life-changer. >> my initial thought was these things are somewhere around the value of maybe $10 million. ♪ >> that's even more than chicago's field museum paid for sue, the giant t. rex unearthed in 1990. clayton and his partners shop the fossils to a number of museums, seeking a multimillion-dollar deal that would permit access by both scientists and the public. >> i would like to be able to take my grandkids someday to a museum that it's in, say, "your old grandpappy found that dinosaur." >> seven years pass, but no public institution bites. so in november 2013, clayton moves on to plan "b." >> bonhams auction company contacted us, and they said, "would you guys be interested in putting it up for auction?" >> that's next on "strange inheritance."

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by taking metamucil every day. >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> november 2013, 16 years since clayton phipps inherited this montana ranch from his father, 10 years since he dug up the $40,000 stygimoloch skull that sealed his reputation as the dino cowboy, and it's 7 years since he made one of the most fantastic discoveries in history -- two prehistoric beasts locked in combat. now they're up for sale in new york. the bidding starts at $3 million, hits $5.5 million... then stops. that may be a fortune to a struggling rancher, but it's far below the $7 million reserve price set by clayton and his partners. the result -- no sale.

unlike the folks who cashed in on the world-famous t. rex sue, clayton walks away empty handed. >> i hope i'm not out of line expecting to get paid for, you know, what we've got into it. >> clayton believes he'll eventually get that, and more. >> we all feel the fall of the economy really, really hampered things for us, for sure. ♪ >> so, back on the range, he continues to raise cattle, search for fossils, and tinker in his lab, still waiting for his big find to pay off. if one day, however, those dueling dinos -- or perhaps other spectacular fossils yet to be unearthed on his strange inheritance -- do make him rich, i'm betting the path of clayton phipps' life still circles back to this piece of montana. >> i'm living the dream. and because i can stay outside and have the thrill of discovery, the dinosaur hunting

fits into that just perfectly. it's my hope that i can do this for as long as i'm able to do it. >> those dueling dinosaurs are now part of a pretty fierce fight among modern-day paleontologists. there are some who think the small but vicious predator is simply a young tyrannosaurus. but there are others, including clayton, who think he unearthed a specimen of a newly discovered species, a nanotyrannus. well, either way, keep that word "small" in perspective. we're talking about a dinosaur that was 8 feet tall and 35 feet long. certainly, there's no dino that would have wanted to meet the likes of that in the ring. [ chuckles ] i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for joining us on "strange inheritance." and remember, you can't take it with you. do you have a strange inheritance story you'd like to

share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. ♪ >> it's the greatest sports facility that anyone has ever conceived. >> he gives houston the astrodome... >> it's a home run! >> ...and circles his empire in style. >> hofheinz approached that railcar like he did everything else -- it had a "wow" effect. >> oh, my. look at this, robert! >> could it be this guy's ticket to easy street... >> [ sighs ] >> ...or... >> but, um... >> ...has that train left the station? >> you didn't know that? >> [ chuckling ] no, i didn't. ♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby in south houston, texas, on my way to meet an heir who wrote me. he said he had an incredible and highly valuable inheritance linking him to a texas legend and, by the way, a baseball team that won its first world series in 2017. >> my name is robert harper. when my father died in 2012, i inherited a customized luxury railcar, and there's some really colorful texas history behind it, and i still don't know what the heck to do with it. >> hi, i'm jamie. >> robert harper. it's a pleasure to meet you. welcome to south houston. >> okay. robert leads me into a warehouse to show me his strange inheritance. what is it exactly? >> it's a full-size railcar -- 44 feet long, 12 feet wide. it weighs 50,000 pounds. it sat here for 41 years. it belonged to judge roy hofheinz. judgewho,you ask?

roy hofheinz, a boy wonder who had his own law firm at age 19, became a county judge, pioneered fm radio, and was elected mayor of houston in 1952. from the mayor's office, "the judge," as he was known, promises to transform houston from an oil-boom town into a big-time metropolis. a fellow entrepreneur named welcome wilson befriends his honor. >> he was a bigger-than-life person. he was flamboyant, tall, good-looking. >> but after two terms of knocking heads with the city council, hofheinz is ousted from office. so the fast-talkin', cigar-chompin' promoter begins channeling his boundless energy into something new -- major league baseball. >> i think the judge saw the recognition you could get from other cities when you were part of that league.

part of being a major-league city is having a major league baseball team. >> but hofheinz knows that houston's swampy summer weather could be a deal breaker. >> houston is gulf coast through and through. we are hot. we are humid. playing baseball outside is challenging. >> roy's solution -- think outside the box andinsidea dome. >> this will be the greatest concert hall in the world, it's the greatest convention hall in the world, and, by all means, it's the greatest sports facility or entertainment facility that anyone has ever conceived. >> in 1960, hofheinz's pitch helps houston land its bid for an mlb expansion team. they're named the colt .45s, but would later become the astros -- a nod to the city's nasa space center. >> the spanking-new astrodome is the new $31 million home of the houston astros.

>> yes, the astrodome -- the first domed stadium ever. >> it was the biggest air-conditioned space in the world. think about that. >> what kind of things did he put in there that were a "wow"? >> well, the scoreboard was one thing. >> the scoreboard is a $2 million item that's a show in itself. >> standing 18 stories high and covering 9 acres, the astrodome is also one of the first stadiums to offer luxury box seating. >> a place for relaxation and entertainment. ♪ standing room only. >> on april 9, 1965, the astrodome hosts its first major league baseball game with the hometown astros taking on mickey mantle and the new york yankees. >> the yankees' big guns. >> special opening night guests... >> also in attendance that night -- president lyndon johnson, ladybird johnson, and businessman welcome wilson, all watching from the judge's private suite. >> mickey mantle, and he's back -- one of the big

[indistinct] wynn backs up. >> we beat the new york yankees, for heaven sakes. >> it's a home run! >> mantle, he hit a home run, but we still beat 'em. >> was it the first indoor home run? >> yeah. >> the crowd must have been electric. >> absolutely. no doubt about that. >> in that crowd, far away from the judge's box, is 12-year-old robert harper, who's watching the game with his family. >> it was probably one of the best days of my life. i can't describe what the feeling was. i mean, it was so big and so bright that it was almost unimaginable. they called it "the eighth wonder of the world," and it truly was. ♪ >> but the dome is not without issues. after outfielders begin losing sight of fly balls in the glare coming off the dome's translucent roof panels, hofheinz paints over a large portion of the roof. >> ...acrylic coating to cut down the glare. >> did it work?

>> it worked. but then the grass started dying. >> ah. >> so and this shows you hofheinz's creativity. he went to monsanto chemical company and asked them to invent an artificial grass. they said, "we'll call it 'astroturf.'" of course, it became world famous. >> in 1968, looking to expand the astrodome experience, the judge spends $25 million to open a one-of-a-kind amusement park on 57 acres budding up to the stadium. it's name? you guessed it -- astroworld. >> astroworld was our theme park. it had the big rides, it had the roller coasters, but it also had a carnival feel to it. >> circling the park is the 610 limited railroad. and roy wants his own private railcar for himself and its vip guests. >> he commissioned harper goff,

who had won an academy award in hollywood for set design, and when he built this railcar, he spared no expense. >> goff's design recalls the glorious luxury railcars of the whistle-stop era. >> it's like when you see the presidents in the olden days. they had the platform where they could talk to the crowd. so it's got a viewing platform in the front. >> hofheinz approached that railcar like he did everything else -- it had a "wow" effect. >> he left his mark. >> he made an impression wherever he went. >> but how does robert harper, a guy with no personal connection to roy hofheinz, inherit his fancy astroworld railcar? well, that's when this "strange inheritance" tale switches tracks. >> we didn't let people see it. >> top secret? >> well, we were guarding it. >> and i get my vip ticket to board this texas relic.

look at this, robert! wow! i mean, this is extravagant. >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question. before painting the roof, what innovation did the astros first try to combat glare in the outfield -- move home plate to the other side of the stadium, produce clouds inside the dome, or play with different-colored baseballs? the answer after the break.

♪ [ bird caws ] >> so, what did the astros first try to combat glare in the outfield? it's c. they experiment with baseballs dyed yellow, orange, and pink, but struck out. >> you're out! >> here, in south houston, texas, robert harper is about to give me a tour inside his strange inheritance -- this 44-foot-long vip railcar that used to chug around the amusement park outside the astrodome. the harper family ends up with the car after its owner, texas legend roy hofheinz, suffers a debilitating stroke in 1970 and is forced to sell off parts of his astro empire. >> the judge made a lot of money, but he also lost a lot of money. he leveraged every project against each other.

he had just become overextended. >> in the late '70s, hofheinz sells astroworld to the six flags corporation. at the time, robert's dad is just entering the commercial-real-estate business and buying up land here in south houston for multiuse industrial buildings. through a mutual friend, he gets word that judge hofheinz is looking for a storage building large enough to house his beloved railcar. >> they called up my dad and said, "do you have a place that you haven't built a building yet?" so they brought the railroad car and set it down, and he built it around it. >> now, why did he have to build the building around the railcar? >> because it will not fit through the doors. >> [ laughs ] hofheinz has plans to eventually put the railcar on public display somewhere in houston, but before he's able to pull that off, he dies in 1982. for the next decade, roy's widow

continues to pay $240 a month rent on the facility... until bankruptcy forces her to liquidate assets in a fire sale, including the astroworld train car. robert's dad buys it. what did he pay? >> he paid about what you'd pay for a good car. >> about 10 grand at the time? >> probably close. he got a good deal. >> you bring your friends over? >> no, we didn't let people see it. >> in fact, robert tells me that just a handful of folks ever get a glimpse of it. 20 years later, in 2012, when his father dies, robert inherits the fancy train car. big step up. >> [ laughs ] yeah, it is a big step. >> thank you. is roy hofheinz's personal railcar really all that? oh, my [chuckles] gosh. you be the judge. like traveling back in time. unbelievable.

look at this place! >> the judge did nothing but the best. >> i can see that. look at this beautiful couch. i mean, this is extravagant! it's all stained glass. >> oh, he loved stained glass. he has an office, wet bar. has 'frigeration. it's air conditioned. it has running water. has a pipe organ. >> what? do you think, in that office, some big deals might've been made? >> i think so. >> fancy schmancy! look at that sink! oh, my goodness. matches the wallpaper and marble. wow, put in the jacuzzi, and i'm taking it home. robert, it's really something. this railcar is definitely a posh time capsule, but robert tells me that, after storing it all these years, he thinks it's time to sell. >> i'm in love with it, but i don't want to leave the burden on my daughter to get rid of it. >> big decision.

you sure you won't regret getting rid of it? >> it's been in the family forever, but it needs to go somewhere because there's nobody else that could take care of it. >> any takers? >> nobody's known about it until you. [ laughs ] >> so, i figure i'll ask around. >> there is definitely a market for private railcars. you can purchase a vintage railcar and tack that train car on the back of an amtrak train and go basically wherever amtrak goes in the u.s. >> oh, i love it. what does it cost? >> here's another quiz question. before air force one, there was u.s. car no. 1. which president was it built for -- coolige, hoover, or fdr? the answer when we return. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

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>> so, which president was u.s. car no. 1 built for? it's fdr. it had heavy armor plating, bulletproof windows, and two secret escape hatches. >> robert harper is looking to off-load his strange inheritance -- this swanky vip railcar that once circled the astroworld amusement park next to the astrodome and belonged to stadium founder and team owner roy hofheinz. to help him explore his options, we meet with railroad-equipment appraiser davidson ward, who tells us that the most famous industrialists in america used to have their own private railcars. >> cornelius vanderbilt made all of his millions in the railroad industry. people like j.p. morgan had his own private railcar. if you had a meeting in chicago in 1912 and you lived in new york, you wouldn't fly

there. you would take a palatial railcar all the way from station to station. >> and some folks of means still do it. >> there is definitely a market for private railcars. >> you mean now? >> well, now, yeah, exactly. you can purchase a vintage railcar. you can upgrade the railcar to meet amtrak mechanical standards and tack that train car on the back of an amtrak train... and go basically wherever amtrak goes in the u.s. >> oh, i love it. nothing like seeing the country by rail. what does it cost? >> amtrak charges just under $3 per mile to go from a to b. >> how many of these are there? >> there are probably between 100 and 300 of these private railcars in different conditions in the united states. the people that do it, by and large, are passionate about railroad history and passionate about the history of the individual railcar that they own. >> such turnkey cars typically sell for $300,000 to $400,000, and they don't have the cool

houston history that robert's has. so the equipment appraiser is eager to kick the steel wheels on this strange inheritance. there she is. >> yeah, it's incredible. you've got pin-striping. got a great railing here. this car seems very unique. to have a car that is a wooden construction like this on a steel frame, really, it's pretty much one of a kind. but, um... >> uh-oh! >> when you originally contacted me, i knew it was a private railcar, so i thought, "maybe this is one of the private railcars used behind amtrak for service across the united states." >> so, what's the problem? find out next. oh, no. >> i know. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com

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♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> 65-year-old robert harper is just learning from

railroad-equipment appraiser davidson ward that his strange inheritance is not exactly what he thought. >> one thing i'm noticing here -- this is not a standard-gauge railcar. >> really? >> this is a narrow-gauge railcar. ♪ >> you didn't know that? >> [ chuckling ] no, i didn't. as big as it is, i assumed it was standard. >> that means robert's luxury railcar could never be used to travel the country today as a number of those amtrak-certified personal luxury cars do. >> amtrak operates over the freight railroads, and all the train tracks are 4 feet, 8½ inches apart. now, this railcar was built to a 3-foot gauge, or a narrow gauge, meaning there's no way this could ever become an amtrak-certified railcar. >> oh, no. >> i know. >> wow. >> yeah. and that definitely is gonna have an impact on the value of the equipment. ♪

>> davidson tells us that narrow-gauge railroads were historically used in the western u.s., many of them in mining and forestry operations. and to this day, they're still in use in places like san francisco, where all those trolley cars are narrow gauge. >> there are a couple preserved 3-foot-gauge railroads... [ train whistle blows ] ...the durango & silverton... the cumbres & toltec in colorado. and those are preserved today as active heritage railroads. >> if someone wanted to buy this right now and you were asked to give an appraised value, the minimum price that you think you could get for it... >> if you say, "hey, we got to sell this thing in a week," what's someone gonna pay for it? maybe we're looking at $30,000 to $50,000. >> oh. >> yeah. >> mm. >> yeah. >> but robert'snotlooking to sell it in a week, so davidson thinks that, with a little time, patience, and marketing, he can find someone who values the car's rich houston history.

>> the fact that this was the private railcar of judge hofheinz, i think the history is huge. there's more to it than just selling it to a private party without taking into consideration the history of it. >> good. >> robert's decision to sell might be coming at just the right time in houston. more than 50 years after roy hofheinz brought the team to town, the astros win their first-ever world series title. >> your 2017 world series champion astros! >> and the original home of the astros, that "eighth wonder of the world," it's getting a lot of attention, too. back in 2000, the astros moved from the astrodome to a new stadium, minute maid park. eight years later, the "dome" was shuttered and faced an uncertain future. but, today, new plans are emerging to reinvent the iconic space. >> harris county owns the

astrodome, and it's bought and paid for, so the leadership at the county level has said, "why not find a way to do something else with it? why not spend a little bit more money and allow it to be a contributing member of the community? it's already a beloved landmark." >> welcome wilson, judge hofheinz's old buddy and a board member of the astrodome conservancy group, says a modern relaunch is just around the corner. it just is amazing to me that so many people, even if they're not from this area, know his name and know about the astrodome story. will they in 10, 20 years? >> i think so. if we in the astrodome conservancy have our way, we think we can make a venue out of the astrodome yet. >> and his old friend's railcar? welcome thinks it deserves a place of honor in their conservation efforts. >> i would hope that that would

be a resting place for the railcar -- at the astrodome. >> so, more than 40 years after this train left the station... >> the spanking-new astrodome... >> ...robert hopes it can make a round trip back to where it all started. [ train whistle blows ] >> it'd be a nice place for the railcar to end because, to me, it's home where it deserves to be at home. it'd nice to bring out something that remembers the judge. ♪ >> taking a page out of roy hofheinz's playbook, executives at disneyland in california wanted a way to transport vip guests around their park. so, in 1974, they converted a narrow-gauge observation coach into a high-end parlour car complete with mahogany touches, stained glass windows, and red mohair seating. it was named lilly belle, after walt disney's wife, and carried japanese emperor hirohito on its maiden trip. i'm jamie colby for

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