Our Railway carriage

[jph]

I know some of you like a bit of history particularly if it is railway related, so here is a brief history of our railway carriage.




It was built for the Great Easton Railway at the Stratford Works just outside London in 1885 at a cost of £307. "It was noteworthy at the time for being the first design of six-wheel brake-third, coinciding with the appearance of the six-wheel third-class carriage." It was fitted with a Westinghouse brake, the body length was 31'6'', with a flitched wooden frame. It was withdrawn from service sometime after 1925 and has been in it's present position since about 1939.

During the 2nd World War my Father lived in it when he was working for his brother on the small farm. In 1952 Dad bought his brother out  and various farm workers lived in it up until the mid sixties. In 1967 the son of one of our neighboughs came to see my Father to see if he could rent it. Not wishing to offend him by saying no, Dad contacted our local council to check that it was habitable (knowing they would say it was not). The coucil sent us a letter putting a closing order on it, it was not to be lived in until it's facilities were improved. We kept the letter.

The story moves on twenty years, my parents had died, the farmhouse had to be sold together we some land, but we kept about 10 acres together with the Carriage. We are in commutting distance of London, property prices are very high with local people finding it very dificult to find even the smallest property that they can afford to buy.

Here in the UK are planning laws are very strict, it is virtually impossible to get permission to build a new house in the middle of the countryside unless you have a very good reason. One reason is if you have a existing dwelling that needs upgrading, they may let you demolish it and build a new home. So needing somewhere to live in 1989 I  applied for permision to build a new house. I had to pursuade the Planning Authority that I had an existing dwelling, my application was initially refused but on appeal and having produced the letter of 20 years earlier we were granted permission to build our new home.

We started building in 1989, Trudi and I got married in September 1990 and we moved in living out of one bedroom and gradually claiming more rooms  as worked progressed. Trudi is a Chartered Building Surveyor so she had designed the house while I did most of the building work. When it was finnished (we still have some walls that have not been painted!) we applied to the Planning Authority for permission to keep the old Railway Carriage.

I owe a lot to our Railway Carriage.

[Coon]

That's a cool piece of heritage.  Do you plan on restoring the carriage someday?

Brad.

[Tom]

Hang onto that rail car!   There's no telling how many houses you will be able to build in the future by referencing it and the letter.  :D :D

[RavioliKid]

jph,

What does the house you built look like?

Just curious...

[JimBuis]

Very nice story.  When I was a boy, we had a railroad freight car on the farm that was very useful.  The wheels and axles were long gone. A lean to had been built on as well as a pitched roof.  It still had a sliding door on the outside.  We used it for storing grain.  The old car was left over from the 1880s when a freight line ran nearby.  The old line was eliminated a hundred years ago.  My Dad demolished the old car about 25 years ago.

Jim

[jph]

We make sure the rain does not get in but have no plans to restore it to it's original condition. Soon after it arrived here it had the pitch roof added , presumably to try and keep it cooler in the summer. It was also clad in cedar shingles, which are in as good condition now as the day they were layed nearly 60 years ago.





This is the house we built. The black  building on the left is our garage, I have converted this to make further accomadation, it has a kitchen downstairs and a large living/ sleeping area upstairs. We rent it out to a young lad who works in London.