Portpatrick Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 This article in the April BRM brings back memories. In the 1920s or 30s a friend of my grandmother had purchased 2 LBSCR coaches and had them placed at The Hard, Elmer Sands in West Sussex. They were at right angles to the road and placed in a staggered way slightly apart. I am unsure how they were linked. My father and his parents stayed with her on odd occasions or at least visited from his father's sister near West Chiltington. The resulting home at Elmer Sands was known as Beehive Now wind on to 1961. Dad had borrowed what had by then become his cousin's cottage at Roundabout by West Chiltington and wanted to find this place. By then extensions had been added front and rear and it had become 2 holiday cottages. We stayed in the rear half in 61 and 62 The owner lived in the front, but in high season had a small shed like structure in the back garden. The coaches were not so visible from the outside. But the inside curve of the ceiling. of our lounge certainly showed its origins. And the bedroom allocated to me had a carriage door giving out onto a central passage between the 2 coaches. From memory we had such electricity and hot and cold running water as was normal by then. It certainly did not seem inferior to home. In fact in our 61 visit the original owner came to see us to renew her acquaintance with grandma and Dad. Next door was another carriage home consisting of one carriage - longer than those used for Beehive. That one had an extension at right angles across the road end and maybe something towards he rear. Also a holiday facility in the 60s. I have no idea when these 2 were replaced but my wife and I drove onto the estate in autumn 2016 and neither existed. Could not remember the numbers, one may have been 13, so could not identify the site. But The Hard itself with its triangular lawn was still the same! I may have photos buried in the stuff I cleared out after my parents demise, I certainly recall seeing one or two from the 30s. If I come across any I will post them here. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Portpatrick Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 I am in luck. I find I have sketches of front and rear of Beehive done by my elder brother in 1961. Some evidence of the carriage origins 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
truffy Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 That could make an interesting use of an old carriage, as a variant on the 'railway workers' shelter'! https://www.peco-uk.com/product.asp?strParents=3340,3344&CAT_ID=3345&P_ID=17781 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted March 9, 2018 Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2018 Hornby 4-wheel coaches are cheaper that Ratio kits and if you don't mind attacking them with a saw, very adaptable. This is from Ruston Quays last year. I think a carriage cottage would make a great kit, but then as each prototype was unique, they are also excellent projects for modellers. No-one can say you are wrong! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShildonShunter Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 These would be great projects for modelers I to would be interesting in having one for a project. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted March 9, 2018 Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2018 These would be great projects for modelers I to would be interesting in having one for a project. Full details and step-by-step in the current BRM! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Portpatrick Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 I have used a Farish (from memory) 4 wheel body as a mess room at the loco stabling point on Portpatrick Town, my steam era N gauge layout. On display at the West Essex show on 28/29 April by the way. My current new project is an early 21st century Scottish terminus, but if I later do work up a replacement for Portpatrick a carriage based home could be a priority feature. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted March 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) This is in Helston, Cornwall.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143802/Is-strangest-home-Britain-The-bungalow-thats-built-real-railway-carriage.html This is just by the Innes Downs interchange, Bodmin, Cornwall. Edited March 9, 2018 by Stubby47 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted March 9, 2018 Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2018 As well as the step-by-step, the DVD has a look around the real cottage. I'm not surprised this has generated interest. Visiting the prototype was one of those "Wow" moments when I knew I just had to build a model of it. The real cottage is a fantastic place full of character and Daisy, who looks after it, is full of info and enthusiasm for the history. It may be one of the best things I have ever found on a preserved railway! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShildonShunter Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Full details and step-by-step in the current BRM! Thanks Phil I just bought the magazine today so I will be looking with interest. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Portpatrick Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 I have found the old album showing the Elmer Sands conversion when my father then 17 and his parents visited in 1938. Some outside and inside shots. The old gent outside was my grandfather, who had married my grandmother late in life, Dad being born when he was 54. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
truffy Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Really shows how integral the carriage was to the overall build of the bungalow extension. Especially interesting is the shot with your grandfather, showing how the carriage was seated on a raised plinth (in place of the bogies, presumably for damp protection) and steps for easy access. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted March 9, 2018 Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2018 If you fancy a full size dwelling and have a few quid. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71705915.html?premiumA=true 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Phil Parker Posted March 16, 2018 Administrators Share Posted March 16, 2018 I've just been pointed at another carriage cottage - this time as part of the display at the Chelsea Flower Show. http://chrisodonoghue.co.uk/show-rhs-chelsea-2007 Need any more excuse to have one for the garden anyone? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boghopper Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Thanks, Phil, for linking my website. In case you don't get that far, this is the garden I created at the Chelsea flower show in 2007. The carriage facade is stilled stored in my friend's workshop. The plan is to use it to create a studio at the top of our 1 in 4 garden this year! If successful, photos will follow. capabilitychris2HR by capabilitychris, on Flickr 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 (edited) If you fancy a full size dwelling and have a few quid. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71705915.html?premiumA=true Interesting that the two Metropolitan Railway coaches this house is based on are described as dating from 1902. That was around the time (1906) that the Societé des Chemins de Fer Economiques (S.E.)* bought sixteen carriages from the Metropolitan Railway for its network of light railways in the Gironde between Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast. The carriages they bought were built between 1882-1884 and were steam stock displaced by electrification so I wonder if these were similar. They were obviously well built as the S.E. was still using them regularly until at least 1964. I think the Metropolitan's unusually wide loading gauge would have made selling them to any other railway in Britain difficult but no problem in France. There was a huge housing shortage after the First World War so with few planning regulations almost anything habitable was pressed into service and old railway carriages seemed to be particularly popular in the countrysid and along the coasts. Rowland Emett had a lot of fun with this in some of his cartoons but there was a reality behind these and the old coach body that appears as Dan the platelayer's home in the Titfield Thunderbolt probably wasn't so unusual. Such dwellings did though tend to get enlarged if they were around for more than a few years. I wish I could remember where it was but, for one of my films, I interviewed someone who lived in a bungalow based on a pair of old carriages. They were butted together side by side with most of the adjoining "walls" i.e. coach sides removed along with the internal walls so that the internal layout bore almost no relationship to the original coach comparments and the resulting living space was fairly large. I think the carriage roofs had also been replaced but the building's origins were still very obvious. I'm pretty sure it was in W. Sussex, possibly Selsey, and AFAIR the owner was an artist or writer. There was a whole estate of holiday homes in Lancing (The Golden Sands Holiday Park) based on ex Southern carriages including a number of Pullman cars but they've long been replaced by caravans. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/images/b/b0/The_Golden_Sands_Holiday_Park_at_Lancing.jpg *The S.E.was one of two large companies that ran numerous local, mostly light, railways across France under concessions or operating contracts granted by local authorities as well as some larger railways including the Reseau Breton. At its peak in about 1930 it operated over 3000 kms of mostly metre gauge railways. It is now part of Veolia. Edited March 17, 2018 by Pacific231G 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) There were (still are?) several carriage home conversions down on Romney Marsh at Dungeness. Here's one I photographed back in 1988 (30 years ago - darn, what happened?!). Edited March 17, 2018 by BernardTPM 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold sjrixon Posted March 18, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 18, 2018 I was looking for some inspiration for a build and stumbled on this one.. http://www.coachhousecadgwith.co.uk/gallery.php?name=Henrietta Bit different.. Not what I was looking for though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi All, How about I introduce you all to 10 River Gardens, Purley-on-Thames - err - I mean Dean six wheel family saloon No. 2511. http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/coaches/2511/2511.html This one is a really important survivor as it has a full original GWR interior in over 60% of the vehicle. If it was good enough for the well to do of the Dean era then it was good enough as a house too! One end is empty (used as the kitchen) and the other (used as the living room) was used as withdrawn in 1937. The GWR bathrooms are in there too! Enjoy! All the best, Castle 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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