Would you live in a depot, caboose, passenger car, etc.?

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
I'm watching a show called You Live in What?, which is a show that features people living in places not intended to be a home. It got me to thinking about asking a simple question: if something railroad-related was for sale, would you buy it and turn it into your home? Here's a few examples of railroad-related objects:
1. A passenger car
2. An old depot
3. A caboose
If you want an example of such a place here's an example, though it's a luxury hotel suite:
http://www.gn441.com/
And here's some other places to sleep with a railroad theme. The closest it the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which was originally the Southern Railroad's station in Chattanooga. Anyway, here's the link to some other hotels:
https://www.railserve.com/Lodging_Restaurants/
 
Rockville tower west of Harrisburg Pa was perfectly sound, and was demolished ... although on RR property, inside a wye, it would have been great for a residence ... many towers have been demolished ... I have slept in a RR Caboose Motel ... and someone west of Altoona Pa as a caboose in is back yard ... most neighbors would have a fit, and have the monstrosity torn down or removed, due to zoning codes ... If I had a million ... I would definitely have a caboose or passenger car as a residence ... Some people have a "Man Cave", or "She Shed" erected in their backyard ... I wonder if someone would ever erect a smaller "Man Cave" resembling a 1/4 scale PRR tower in their backyard ?
 
I would love to live in something railway related..
This would do me..

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I wouldn't live in any of the places shown above. They're too narrow and too noisy next to a busy railroad.

Where I live, however, many older depots have become restaurants and offices where located along the busy lines, and others located along long closed lines have become residential properties.
 
I can see the CP mainline out of my kitchen window, from my deck and also from my backyard. I'm about 1000 feet from the tracks on hill with a great view of Shuswap Lake, the trains and part of town, so no, I prefer living her to anywhere else. :)
 
To be honest I don't understand why re-using old passenger coaches etc. as housing isn't done more often! Perhaps here in the UK they're a bit too confined to live in permanently (often used as holiday homes though) but can you imagine living in something like a converted ATSF dome car? How much old Amtrak equipment is still hanging about?

Not residential, but there is a restaurant operating out of a grounded Mk1 coach not far from me. Depots (do you mean freight and locomotive depots or the US term for a station?) and signal boxes aren't really suitable though. They're noisy and dirty places. Even when abandoned, I haven't seen too many conversions.
 
Many years ago here in Great Britain there used to be train coaches used by the railways as holiday places for families to go.
 
Here's somethings to think about regarding WHERE these homes are

Keep in mind that the railroad tracks thru a town may have been removed, but the station might still be there.
Also, that you can MOVE the station, passenger car, caboose, etc. away from the tracks to another piece of property.
The railroad doesn't have to be a railroad that runs trains 24/7. The tracks may be a tourist railway, a branchline that sees the occasional train, a shortline railroad, etc.
 
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Haha, well done euromodeller in remembering that then obvious great way of having a reasonable priced holiday. Would have loved that myself but my late mother was a more ambitious person! Enjoyed the wee film so if ever you are here in Glasgow you'll get a Scots pie for lunch.......:)
 
Hmmmmm Scots Pie.
My best memory of Scots pie was in a Mctavish Kitchen Restaurant in Oban (the original one back in the nineties), the meal of the day was Scots Pie, chips, baked beans and gravy!. I thought no way, but we all had one and enjoyed it.
It then became a regular meal in my household :)

If I ever come back to Glasgow I'll be happy have a pie with you :)
 
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