Passenger car to residence

[buzz]

Hi all
I know way back in time, in the UK old passenger cars have been turned into quite comfortable homes and also holiday shacks.
I don't think it would stand up to todays building regulations.
but was this ever done in the US in times past
regards John

[PaulDeS]

Here in New Jersey I know of three restaurants that have used old passenger cars to add eating area. Usually to match the restaurant decor. And, of course, the earliest diners were often old trolley cars.

I haven't seen any used foe housing, however.

Paul

[ABC]

I saw one passenger car in Ohio that somebody was using as a living area in addition to their trailer home.

[pipefitter]

I was riding an excursion train (believe it was the Middletown & Hummelstown) and we saw trolley car bodies used as riverside vacation homes. A knowledgeable person on the train said they were Johnstown Pennsylvania cars.

[Colorado_Mac]

There is a house in Denver that uses the floor of an old Denver streetcar.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13882191

There's even a video from PBS:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1188921823/

[NarrowMinded]

I have not seen a home but there was a chain resturant here in California called Victoria's station, all of the location were built from passenger cars,box cars and atleast one caboose.

NM

[Woody Elmore]

I could just imagine the expense and difficulty in moving an 80 foot long car. You definitely could live in one but I think you'd develop tunnel vision.

[mabloodhound]

Everyone's heard of "Kilroy was here" and in 1946 the American Transit Authority ran a contest to find the real Kilroy.  http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/12/kilroy_was_here/

James Kilroy of Halifax, MA was determined to be the origin of the saying and he was awarded a large trolley car.   He added the car to his small cottage home as a bedroom for his children.   His daughter, a former selectman, still lives in Halifax and tells this story today.

[Pacific Northern]

I saw a vacation home setup that consists of a tender, two 40' box cars and a caboose.

This setup was on rails, a siding had been built and CPR delivered the cars to the site.  The vacation site is on a slight hillside overlooking a lake. The tender houses the generator, gas tank for the generator and a water tank for domestic use.

The owner showed me a picture of the CPR mainline, showing the vacation consist parked on the mainline while a crew put in the siding, behind this was a coal train parked waiting for the track to be replaced on the mainline.

[Doneldon]

What does this cost?

[terry2foot]

Hi all
I know way back in time, in the UK old passenger cars have been turned into quite comfortable homes and also holiday shacks.
regards John

I've posted a picture of one such house in the UK which actually used two coaches (one either side) at http://terry-smith.photoblog.me.uk/p64652648.html

Enjoy if you visit.

My good friend Simon Leigh from New Zealand confirms that this is not just a UK phenomenon, as similar properties are found along the Coromandel coast of New Zealand,


Terry2foot

[Michigan Railfan]

There's a school in several old Pullmans at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  Its pretty interesting to see.