You win the thread Mike.My Grandparent bungalow was built around an old railway carriage, this was taken in 1959 with a mini Mike57 in the foreground. Its long gone.View attachment 73116
That’s wonderful.
You win the thread Mike.My Grandparent bungalow was built around an old railway carriage, this was taken in 1959 with a mini Mike57 in the foreground. Its long gone.View attachment 73116
And quite a few around Dungeness, if that has not already been mentioned.There are still a few beachside holiday cottages in Bognor Regis that are recognisably built from carriage bodies
There are still a few beachside holiday cottages in Bognor Regis that are recognisably built from carriage bodies
Wonderful place. I loved the cuttings lined with wine bottles.Not sure if it counts but when touring NZ we came across the driving creek railway https://dcrail.nz/driving-creek-railway/ in the middle of nowhere and a dellight
Wonderful place. I loved the cuttings lined with wine bottles.
That’s a fantastic anecdote I must say.Walking across the Portmadoc Cob sometime in the late 1950s with an uncle who had been there before WWII and was bemoaning the (as he thought) closure of the Ffestiniog. It was winter and all seemed abandoned and rusty - until a dot appeared from the Boston Lodge direction and approached rapidly, pitching and rolling on the dodgy track. It turned out to be the "Baldwin" - going much too fast and with an unbelievable number of very dirty young men with beards and long hair hanging out of it! It bore an uncanny resemblance to a pirate ship. We walked back to Harbour station and the loco was standing unattended in the loop - the occupants having presumably gone to the pub!
Long time lurker finally tempted on the the forum by a combination of C-Virus lockdown and this discussion. I recently learned, through anecdotes exchanged between my siblings following my father's funeral, that his father - the middle child of nine - lived for some years in a railway carriage in Rustington, near Littlehampton. Originally bought as a playhouse for the children of the wealthy family next door, it was later re-purposed as a dormitory for my great-grandparents' growing brood. This would have been c 1900. I have found the house on Google Earth, but cannot see if the carriage is still there.
It would seem to be a long shot!I did indeed try Street View, but as the carriage was in the back garden, and the house itself is almost invisible behind a high hedge, I couldn't see anything. In any case, it was more than 120 years ago so it's unlikely much has survived. (the 1901 census shows my grandfather, then 16, was already living in lodgings elsewhere in the village)
Of course the 140 is a rare unit. What were the coaches at Grantown E? can't be certain from the pic as it is the interior.I was out a long cycle between Inverness and Aberdeen choosing very quiet back roads so generally not much to see apart from the countryside until I noticed what looked like a DMU tucked away under some trees. I walked down a little path and found it was indeed a DMU sitting on some rails which I followed up to a small platform which turned out to be part of the Keith-Dufftown line which also has the class 140 in a rather sorry state unfortunately:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Trains/i-GRMBN5W/0/e354bbff/X4/DSC00724-X4.jpg
Another strange one was when I was having a discussion with a workmate who said he'd been doing a run and seen some carriages in the middle of nowhere which as he described seemed very familiar and sure I'd seen out a cycle but couldn't think where. We ended up comparing GPS routes and found a road where we'd both been on to find there is a restaurant where the old railway was where they've done up a couple of old carriages for dining along with a bit of a platform:
http://grantowneast.com
Just looked again at this thread - that's a great picture! I can't imagine how great I'd have thought it was if my grandparents lived in a railway carriage when I was that age - as I've posted elsewhere there were others on their street that did - and that was exciting enough when my Nan popped round with me to see them or to chat over the garden gate.My Grandparent bungalow was built around an old railway carriage, this was taken in 1959 with a mini Mike57 in the foreground. Its long gone.View attachment 73116
Car 71085 from class 421 unit 1884 was used as a cafe in Deptford High Street. I discovered this in August 2009... Back in the area last year I decided to see if I could find it again but there was no sign of it. Anyone know what happened to it?
Have you seen 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'?!A steam engine running on the road looks quite different to an electric train on the road, the former just seems more unusual somehow.
I my case it was the first time I'd seen a train run along a road, I'd seen trams but this was rather different!
Have you seen 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'?!
I remember when I was very young my Dad took us to Dover in the car and we parked on the Esplanade and I was surprised to see a small tank engine, accompanied by a man with a red flag, came trundling along the track in the road. As I grew up on Romney Marsh, this was probably the first 'big' locomotive I had ever seen.
I've been looking through a box of my Dad's photographs today and came across the attached shot of an engine running along the Esplanade at Dover. I've no idea what date it was taken.
View attachment 75768