Could you turn this vintage Silver Star carriage into a home?
Sitting on a quarter acre in Warea on the Taranaki coast is a slice of Kiwi railway history: A carriage from the luxury 70s overnight train, the Silver Star.
Protected from the coastal weather by a tall hedge, the section is just one country block from the water. At the other end of the section is one of the most coveted views in the country, the cone-like peak of Taranaki Maunga.
The section and the stainless gleaming steel carriage belong to local man Craig Julian, who has owned the land for about 20 years.
He had planned to have a prefab house built for it, but he recalled that there were a couple of old silver train carriages for sale in Huntly, so he stopped in to see if they were still available.
As luck would have it, they had just been sold. But Julian tracked down the buyer, and convinced him to sell one to him.
"I'm interested in things that are a little bit different,“says Julian. ”It was something cool and a little bit different to have a railway carriage to live in, rather than a three-bedroom house."
The carriage had already been stripped bare inside when he bought it. He had it transported to Taranaki, and craned onto the site. It’s been a popular addition to the area, and he says he often gets people stopping by to ask about it.
"I've been approached numerous times by people wanting to buy just the carriage on its own. They don't want the land, but I'm not splitting it up. You have to buy the whole thing."
Julian, who lives on a nearby lifestyle block, thinks someone with a lot of vision and time could really turn the section into something special. "That's what I’d like to see, someone that will take it on.
"I've got two properties that need a lot of work, and I'm just one man, I can't do everything. Something's got to give, so
I've decided to keep the lifestyle block and reluctantly sell the railway carriage."
He hopes the buyer will be someone that loves the location, which he says has quite a little community growing, and someone who loves the history of the carriage.
He is seeking $360,000 for both.
In its heyday, a trip on the Silver Star offered Kiwis of all stripes a luxury journey to beat them all.
Tickets were about $18 each – about $243 in today’s money – however, a former steward on the train told us you would have seen anyone from school kids and families, to business people and celebrities on the train on any given night.
“One time the airport was fogged in [in Wellington] and we had a bunch of MPS and the prime minister, Robert Muldoon, on.”
It was called “the fastest motel on wheels” in advertisements. Travellers departed Wellington on the North Island Main Trunk Line about 8.30pm. They had the option of private or shared sleeping cabins, with fold-down bunks.
Food and drinks could be delivered to the carriages, or taken in the buffet car, where an a la carte menu was served.
The trip took 12 hours, stopping at Paraparaumu, Palmerston North, Marton, Waiouru, Taumarunui, Taihape, Te Kuiti, and Frankton, before arriving in Auckland.
The service ran from September 1971 until June 1979, when it was replaced by the Northerner, a more budget affair.
Sliver Star carriages stood out on the railways, because unlike the passenger trains of the day, which were painted red, the stainless steel shells of the carriages were left unpainted.
When the train was decommissioned in 79, most of the 29 carriages were sold to the Eastern and Oriental Express in Malaysia, where they are still in use today.