Strangest Places you have come across trains

Cowley · 24 Jan 2020

mike57 said:
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

You win the thread Mike.

That’s wonderful.

RailUK Forums

StoneRoad · 3 Feb 2020

In a similar vein, there was a NER carriage in a village in Norfolk. It had been a wedding present (!) ... the family brought up their children and eventually built a bricks and mortar proper. The carriage then travelled back to the North East for restoration. The final touch was the two girls were able to travel in the compartment that had been their bedroom.

Some pics (well, a few ! ) ...
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/312383/album/765918

Nick_C · 4 Feb 2020

There are still a few beachside holiday cottages in Bognor Regis that are recognisably built from carriage bodies

alistairlees · 4 Feb 2020

Nick_C said:
There are still a few beachside holiday cottages in Bognor Regis that are recognisably built from carriage bodies

And quite a few around Dungeness, if that has not already been mentioned.

Cricketer8for9 · 4 Feb 2020

Chiloe Island in Chile was a little unusual and the coach as a restaurant on the road not to far from Valdivia, also in Chile was unexpected.

Clip · 4 Feb 2020

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

WesternLancer · 4 Feb 2020

Nick_C said:
There are still a few beachside holiday cottages in Bognor Regis that are recognisably built from carriage bodies

Quite a few still down in Selsey, Witterings etc near Chichester - some you can rent for holidays. My grandparents lived there and there used to be many more in the 1970s, they have slowly been demolished on the whole. My grandfather used to tell me that in the 1920s and maybe even the 30s too, the SR were replacing a fair bit of pre grouping stock and you could go to sidings at Chichester and buy carriage bodies. I think the railway would even deliver them to site for you. Some were holiday homes, others permanently occupied.

A popular approach was to use 3 carriages to build a home - as seen in some of the pics of survivors below.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-h...s-in-east-wittering-west-sussex-50715711.html

http://www.thedodo.co.uk/

https://www.homeaway.co.uk/p8384139

https://www.oneoffplaces.co.uk/Seabank

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/92628...is-hidden-inside-bungalow-on-market-for-1-5m/

http://worthingwanderer.blogspot.com/2009/04/sussex-coast-walk-day-3-west-wittering.html

theageofthetra · 4 Feb 2020

Clip said:
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.

gazthomas · 4 Feb 2020

The remains of a steam loco can be seen abandoned above Penmaenmawr in North Wales.

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=1279

Clip · 4 Feb 2020

theageofthetra said:
Wonderful place. I loved the cuttings lined with wine bottles.

Great fun going on it too with its many reversals

fishquinn · 4 Feb 2020

Frank's Diner in Spokane, Washington is highly recommended first hand. A converted railroad carriage with a brilliant atmosphere, some photos in the trip advisor link here: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...Reviews-Frank_s_Diner-Spokane_Washington.html

DerekC · 4 Feb 2020

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!

Cowley · 4 Feb 2020

DerekC said:
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!

That’s a fantastic anecdote I must say.

gg1 · 5 Feb 2020

Not sure if they're still there but around 20 years ago I drove post a pub in Hull which included a pair of old carriages parked next to the road.

I've also seen a few pieces of rolling stock on the back of low loaders over the years, most memorably a very dilapidated ex-Turkish 8F on the M42 a few years ago.

Howardh · 24 Mar 2020

I'm struggling to call this a "train", but it's at least on tracks - on the tiny but beautiful Formentera island just off Ibiza. they did have a railway to transfer salt to the port, so it will be a nod to that I suppose (the old track bed still exists and is a public path).
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@38.7...4!1s5jRwMG6Op3np2U1H0RL2zw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
And on the subject of Ibiza this still stands, I don't think it's an actual rail steam engine, but it may be...or may have been stationary but pulling trains serving their salt indusry.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@38.8...4!1sRggCyz2NzDdbnkX5cnTrhA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 I have some photos of it of my own and I will try to dig them out!

norbitonflyer · 24 Mar 2020

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.

WesternLancer · 24 Mar 2020

norbitonflyer said:
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.

Have you tried street view as well as google earth? unless it is set back from the road.

Highly likely of course - see this pic from East Wittering not too far away from Rustington. My grandfather lived in the village and certainly in my youth in 1970s there were a good number of these - many permanent residences with a 'house type' structure sort of built up around them, some like this one in link below which is still like this today, others often just used as holiday homes. Some are still there, in fact a fair few given their age.

I recall my own grandfather telling me that post the 1923 grouping the Southern Railway got rid of a lot of older carriages and they were parked up in sidings at Chichester (no doubt other places too) and you could just go and choose one to buy - they would deliver it on a lorry to your site
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-h...s-in-east-wittering-west-sussex-50715711.html

My grandfather was a keen woodworker - when one of these carriages was being broken up on his street in the early 1980s and a modern bungalow being built on the site, he salvaged some mahogany timber out of the carriage being demolished and made a wooden stool, plus other things, from it. I have the stool.

norbitonflyer · 24 Mar 2020

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)

JohnMcL7 · 25 Mar 2020

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

WesternLancer · 25 Mar 2020

norbitonflyer said:
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)

It would seem to be a long shot!

WesternLancer · 25 Mar 2020

JohnMcL7 said:
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

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 enjoyed a v good visit to Glenfiddich Visitor centre using the Dufftown line - but it wa s shame to get to the vistor centre and find vast numbers of road coach visitors that the railways could not otherwise benefit from their visitor spend. But I enjoyed the day and it was a while back as it was good to see the Brighton Belle driving vehicle there - now under restoration for the main line.

Ibex · 25 Mar 2020

I've seen a D stock driving car on a low loader near Northampton on the M1 and a FGW HST power car being transported along the A405 in Watford both many moons ago.

WesternLancer · 25 Mar 2020

mike57 said:
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

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.

ejstubbs · 25 Mar 2020

Tony2 said:
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?

Wikipedia says "Now out of use, in store."

Deepgreen · 25 Mar 2020

hexagon789 said:
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'?!

hexagon789 · 25 Mar 2020

Deepgreen said:
Have you seen 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'?!

No, but I've heard of it

RichT54 · 25 Mar 2020

RichT54 said:
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.

hexagon789 · 25 Mar 2020

RichT54 said:
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

Looks like 1950s I'd say, but that's just the impression it gives. It could perhaps be anything from 1940s-1960s really.

nottsnurse · 25 Mar 2020

There was a string of Warsaw Pact style/era railway carriages and a very Soviet-looking locomotive arranged on the range at RAF Spadeadam when I was on exercise there back in 2001.

I know this for certain as the weather closed in one night and we decided to 'gain access' to escape the sideways rain.

pappleby · 25 Mar 2020

'coming off the M1 to join the A38 Mansfield, and coming face to face with 'Flying Scotsman'

Strangest Places you have come across trains

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