Restoring a carriage as a home

Evening all,

My girlfriend (L) and I have recently been looking for a house, and have seen very little within a sensible budget and that we really like, and whilst trawling through the internet for stumbled across a Mk1 coach for sale for very little money. L thinks it would make a potentially fantastic home and we *may* have the option of some land cheaply through her family.

This begs the question, how much money is it likely to take to move it (presumeably lay a short section of 'scrap' rail to sit on), to complete an external renovation and then to refit the body as a home?

Does anyone have any experience of this any real plus points or pitfalls? I have seen a few lovely conversions for holiday homes but very few as 'home' homes.

Any comments would be welcomed

Chris

 

Carriage could be Mark's new home (From Malvern Gazette)
Railway carriage in Upton:: OS grid SO8440 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!

Might be a useful contact. The article was from April 2011 so it would be interesting to see how far the project has developed.

Richard

 

I'll preface this by saying that my only experience in this is staying in one at Easter for a week. However it soon becomes pretty clear that you are in essence dealing with a shell which is equivalent to a static caravan, but less well suited to being a living space! Its quaint and to be fair people live in all sorts of non standard spaces but you'd have to work out why (enthusiast and cheap apart) why you'd want to live in a carriage more than in a static caravan which will have been designed to be a living space. The fundamental problem both of them share is that they are metal shells with little inherent insulation - so in summer they are very hot, and in winter freezing cold (which with current energy prices is not an attractive proposition. Sure if you line it well enough you could make it more snug but at a cost of reducing an already narrow space even further. Being long and thin means they have a massive surface area which makes them thermally inefficient.

You then have other issues which will arise at this time of year such as potentially exposed water and sewage connections getting frozen plus any movement on the track causing stresses in pipes etc.

Its no coincidence that many of the historic carriage home conversions used the carriage as a core structure with other "extensions" tacked on either side.

That said if you want a look at what is possible the Railholiday.co.uk website and associated facebook page, you can see how historic carriages can be done out (these have the advantage of being wood shells which firstly can be stuffed with insulation and secondly are better insulated anyway that a thin (rusting?) metal shell). The Brunel camping carriages at Dawlish Warren also show what space you might get out of a Mark 1 carriage albeit that the interiors are rather consistent with their former use and style rather than a modern home.

If you have access to land which is likely to get planning permission you might be better served getting a timber frame kit house (have friends that have a fantastic one that is as warm as toast despite being in a wild position) and getting that built on it. The only big advantage of a carriage is that being in wheels might not class it as a permanent home so it might (need to check) escape planning issues.

 

There are basically 2 types of vehicles, with much differing costs, ie passenger carrying MK1 with potential premium cost as they could be used in passenger carrying, secondly non passenger carrying, ie BG etc. The BG with less or no major windows is probably a better propostion & has very little interior furniture & is basically a blank canvas. I must add that I have had no previous experience with such a conversion, but having owned an NKV, I do know a little about the interior.
Transport costs are expensive, & depend primarily on distance, ease of vehicular access & the chosen haulier.

 

Watch a couple of episodes of George Clarke's amazing spaces, should still be available on 4OD

George Clarke's Scrapbook from Channel 4

They will show you what can be achieved with a very small space and a bit of imagination!!!

 

I would have thought that the bigger problem would be finding the land to put it on - if you have enough room for a carriage you probably have enough room to build a conventional dwelling and that is likely to be a far better investment - and easier to get a mortgage on - long term. If you are determined to have a coach, though, I'd think in terms of a corridor mk 1 SK so that you have the beginnings of an interior. As has been mentioned, an all metal body will be either hot or cold at the wrong times of year, so (after repairing the body and giving it some really good anti-rust and condensation treatment, I'd look to see what really modern insulation is available. 4" of of fibreglass or polystyrene would work and be cheap, but it would cost a lot of space.

And in this flood-prone age, I'd standing on its bogies on a short length of track!

 

Hi Chris,

allow £2-3k to move one, depending on distance etc. Mk1's have asbestos insulation around the steam pipe and behind the heaters etc, so that will need to go, say another £1-6k depending on how much. what type and where. The carriage may be on wheels, so technically you may not need planning, but the track it stands on will! So you will need planning. Then you have the cost of buying, transporting and laying a 'scrap' track panel with several tonnes of ballast.

You must be looking at a minimum of £10k to buy and site one, before repairs to the body, converting and fitting out the interior.....

Richard

 

Thanks for your input folks, certainly food for thought!

 

You should take a ride down to dungeness on the kent shoreline theres a good half dozen dwellings there incorporating railway carriges.

 

...and during Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys this week he stayed overnight in an FK in the north of Scotland which retained corridor and compartments made up into bedroom, kitchen etc.

 

This is something I've been looking at very closely for a few years with the intention of doing it myself. The hardest part is the land, if you have that, you can do it for very very little money. A Mk1 would be nice, but a Mk2 is more practical, as they are still being scrapped, so you can pick up stripped ones very cheaply, they also tend to be a little warmer in winter (not by much though). If you have practical skills, its very easy to strip out a TSO Interior and then build up the design you want inside (wooden framing, plasterboard and lots of fibreglass insulation being my choice). Again scrap track is easy to come buy, a lot cheaper if you can build it up yourself from rail, chairs and sleepers. The biggest expense really is transport to your site. If you know the right people, you can do it all and kit it out for under £5000, but its knowing the right people!!

 

I'm always somewhat surprised that Mk1's and Mk2's are always touted for these sort of conversions, especially as they are renowned for tin worm (even when nearly new!), and particularly if you are looking at the cheap (scrap line) end of the scale. Personally I'd have thought a grounded timber bodied coach would be easier and require much less in terms of specialist skills to do up and convert, and timber construction will inherently aid thermal insulation properties rather than thin steel bodywork. Are there still railways looking to dispose of such items of stock (possibly for free, as they have little scrap value) that otherwise have little hope for restoration?

Plus they tend to be physically smaller than Mk1/2, so a smaller lorry may suffice which might bring transport costs down a little.

Or alternatively build a timber 'fake' from scratch?

 

A superb Director of Photograpy I recently worked with restored a carriage to live in down in Cornwall, he tells me the body is from 1865. He recently sold it to build a log cabin.

Here are some pics:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly2cqez0rG1r9f5bfo1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyuczq18ej1r9f5bfo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcioq6MTV1r9f5bfo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcioq6MTV1r9f5bfo2_1280.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcioq6MTV1r9f5bfo5_r1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcioq6MTV1r9f5bfo6_r1_1280.jpg

and a bit on another blog.
MR R.STEWART AND NO.33 | -heirstoall-

 

Ex mainline timber framed coach bodies have been used as houses/holidays etc for decades, always fancied one myself actually.

 

You could go and have a physical look at this Railway Cottage

I guess there will be some people around to recount the war stories of its recovery and restoration.

It's a neat way to go about preserving a vehicle - better than letting it fester under a tarpaulin - if they ever ran out of short coach bodies to restoration projects, then that one's going to be reasonably well preserved - but then I think it' found a valuable niche as a cottage.

Idyllic - wouldn't mind one on my allotment

 

Greetings all,

I happened upon this place when leafing through a railway mag recently - I hadn't appreciated that it was quite so close to me, I have eaten in the pub just down the road!!!!

However,

Gives an idea what could be done if you have imagination and finance available. There are some layout diagrams on the website somewhere too. The 2 coaches have been done quite differently inside by the looks.

Home - Coalport Station Holidays

Stunning part of the world and a clever use of the old station grounds I reckon.

Always fancied something like this, just where to put them really. I guess if you wanted an extension, you could just add a second coach or van for extra storage!!

Cheers for now,

Rich.