Train now departing: 35 Riches Rd, Sarsfield, is for sale at $590,000-$630,000.
A Victorian family who spent three years living in an old train carriage after bushfires claimed their home near Bairnsdale are on track to sell the unusual residence.
And they’re not the only ones railroading traditional housing perceptions, with converted cabooses also proving hot property on short-stay accommodation websites across Victoria amid calls for trains to be considered a potential housing crisis solution.
Cynthia and Mike McStephen had intended to turn an old Hitachi class motor carriage they installed on their bush block in Sarsfield into an Airbnb, but just as most of the work had been finished the 2019 Black Summer bushfires rolled over the 9484sq m block that hosted their home and sheds.
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“The train was the only thing that survived,” Ms McStephen said.
“And we are so grateful that it did. There it was, with the kitchen and the bathroom in there already that we’d put in prior.”
They and their labrador-cross Monty wound up living happily in the carriage for the next three years — so long that friends began threatening to buy Mike a conductors’ cap.
The pair only stumbled on the carriage by chance in nearby Johnsonville.
Cynthia and Mike McStephen on the train-side deck of their Sarsfield property.
With a deck wrapped around much of the train, this might be one of the few instances where a station pulled up to a train.
“We were not in the market for a railway carriage renovation … it was just something I saw and thought we could really make something out of this,” Ms McStephen said.
“And the sound that the door makes is still the same as it was, so the first time my husband saw it he was instantly transported back to high school and that feeling of ‘have I remembered my homework’.”
The goal of the renovation was to be able to sit at one end and see all the way to the other.
“It’s basically a self-contained, one-bedroom studio with heaps of room,” Ms McStephen said.
She even went as far as insisting on an expensive downdraft extraction fan instead of a range hood in the impressive kitchen, so nothing would block the view lines along the train.
“It’s the biggest and the best kitchen I have ever cooked in,” Ms McStephen said.
The train’s long series of windows have been balanced with the addition of a solid-fuel heater and a split-system airconditioner.
And other features, such as the metal rails passengers once held onto for support when there weren’t enough seats, helped form the basis of a walk-in wardrobe next to the bedroom area.
Their electrician installed LED lights into the train’s original fittings — as well as reconnecting some of its original electronics, such as the running lights on the front of it.
The kitchen is still the best Ms McStephen has ever cooked in.
A split-system airconditioner and solid-fuel heater might make this the cosiest, or coolest, train carriage of its kind.
Other trades had to grapple with curving walls — meaning every bit of joinery was heavily customised.
And, in what might be the only case of a station pulling up to a train, the pair also added a deck along one side.
“It was with some difficulty that I convinced my husband that we were not painting a yellow line on the deck,” Ms McStephen said.
They even had a set of C and H keys made up so they could access the compartments in the driver’s area.
The reno required its own building permits, as well as road permits to move the 23m long, 2.7m-wide carriage that weighs about 28 tonnes, a very enthusiastic builder and series of trades that helped get it a certificate of occupancy and qualify it as a legal dwelling.
Volunteers at the Newport Railway Museum managed to trace back the carriage’s number, 216M, and work out that it started rolling the rails in 1981.
The train’s drivers compartment is still largely as it was when it was rolling the rails.
This is one train carriage where you can definitely put your feet up.
A journey along the Pakenham, Sandringham, Upfield, Broadmeadows, St Albans, Williamstown or Werribee line would likely to have been its last trip.
The decision to live in the train carriage after the fires meant they were also in a position to watch life return to their property, first the green shoots and pops of colour as native vegetation and even orchids grew through the ash.
Then came the return of wildlife from echidnas to kookaburras, which they often watched while having a glass of wine on the deck at sunset.
“There will be some pangs when we do sell it, the carriage itself was a fascinating project and I’m proud of how it came out,” Ms McStephen said.
“This carriage is never going to leave this property. It has reached the end of the line, you couldn’t get it out without significant effort now.”
OBrien Bairnsdale’s Mark Ashley is handling the sale of the 35 Riches Rd, Sarsfield, property with a $590,000-$630,000 asking price.
Inside the home’s drivers seat. A rare inclusion for residences.
The almost 1ha property has plenty of space to rebuild a home if desired, though council approval would be required.
“I have seen other properties with train carriages that are dumped in paddocks as they haven’t known what to do with them, but one fitted out like this I have never seen before,” Mr Ashley said.
The agent added that he suspected a train buff from Melbourne would buy it as a weekender, but noted that subject to council approvals it was possible a new home could be built in place of the old one.
With Melbourne’s ageing Comeng train fleet currently being replaced by new X’Trapolis 2.0 trains, Ms McStephen said she believed it would be worth making them available as an alternative housing option.
“Plonk them on people’s properties and let people live in them if they can, I think it’s a no-brainer,” she said.
“I really do think we need to think outside the square when it comes to the housing crisis.”
A Department of Transport and Planning spokesman this week said people interested in rehoming rolling stock could submit an expression of interest.
The government is open to selling more trains to the public, raising the possibility more could be turned into accommodation.
“Expressions of interest have previously been invited for the relocation of retired rolling stock, with a small number of trains and trams successfully rehomed,” they said.
In Daylesford, Samantha Perry bought a 1970s era train carriage a compact block of land as a weekend getaway for herself that she could put up for short-stay rentals.
After spending the past seven years upgrading the unusual residence and its gardens, the pet-friendly getaway is booked out most weekends.
Effectively a one-bedroom unit with a kitchenette extension on the side and a day bed in the living area, the “quite quirky” and affordable rental is popular with couples and backpackers.
“I wasn’t looking for a train, but it happened to come up and it was in my budget,” Ms Perry said.
However, she noted there were only a handful of insurers willing to back it.
Inside Ms Perry’s converted train carriage rental home.
Inside a 1917 train carriage turned into a bed and breakfast space at a Pakenham property.
Havenn tiny homes firm director Pravin Kandeep said while his operation specialised in residences classed as caravans, there were signs Victorian councils were becoming more open to modest extra residences being added to properties.
The Mt Alexander Shire near Bendigo now allows caravan-class tiny homes to be kept on properties with an existing residence permanently. The Surf Coast Shire council is also trialling a similar approach at present.
Mr Kandeep said most people inquiring about tiny homes were either downsizers looking to cash out of their home in rural areas, or people looking for an Airbnb or home extension.
He’s also encountering some people looking to add one to a block of land as a way of subsidising land tax costs on properties.
An Emerald home where an old “red rattler” train carriage was added to the property.
Inside the converted carriage where you can comfortably spend the night. Picture Rebecca Michael.
RMIT professor of Sustainability and Urban Design Andrew Butt said regional areas were the most likely destination for ex-trains to become accommodation, as transporting them through suburban streets would be difficult.
However, Prof Butt said with proper planning to ensure they had waste water management and natural disaster resilience considered, it could be a novel way to recycle old carriages.
“This will increase the housing supply, but you need to keep in mind that the planning system is there for a reason, not just to annoy people,” Prof Butt said.
“And they do take a little bit of work, because they were not designed to live in.”
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