Man transforms 128-year-old railway carriage into unique stay that guests 'adore'
Nigel Brooke, 68, lives in an old train station in England where he's restored a Great Western Railway carriage from 1895.
Although trains stopped running through the area in the 1950s, guests today can book a night in the vintage carriage for about $260 thanks to Brooke's $35,000 restoration project.
"It is beautiful, and it's quite unique here," Brooke said, as news agency SWNS reported.
The exterior has been repainted using original colors sourced from historic railway drawings, while the interior features period wallpaper, a bed and a stove.
"I designed all that interior decor, but it was led by original pieces that I found during the restoration," Brooke said.
The carriage originally ran on a metropolitan railway line before it was decommissioned in 1940.
"It was just chocolate brown everywhere," he told SWNS. "It became a workman's carriage, static somewhere."
"It is beautiful, and it's quite unique here."
Brooke bought the carriage for about $10,000. He had it transported by road to its current location, he said.
It now stands on concrete walls built to align it with the station platform, offering step-free access for guests.
"One side was covered in tin - that must have been put there in the '50s or '40s to protect one side," he said.
Despite the age of the structure, much of the original oak frame was in good condition.
"What I had to do was take each piece off carefully that was rotten and replicate it and rebuild it, using the original bits," Brooke told SWNS.
"It's quite early, 1895, for a carriage - it's getting toward disintegration at that age if they've not been restored," he added.
"This will be good for a long time now."
Brooke originally bought the station in the 1980s when he was in his 30s. He said he was fortunate to find such a historic property.
"I was quite lucky to acquire such a nice old historic building," he said.
The Airbnb offering has proved popular with guests who are drawn to its charm and railway heritage, SWNS noted.
Brooke is now planning to expand his offering by converting the station's old waiting room into an additional guest space with an ensuite bathroom.
"I may turn one of the waiting rooms into an Airbnb with an ensuite, so when people stay in this carriage, if they've got friends they can stay in the waiting room at the station house," he said.
"People absolutely adore it. There's a lot of history here," Brooke told SWNS.
SWNS reported that the restored carriage is already drawing interest from travelers eager to experience a piece of the past in vintage luxury.
Travel
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
Man throws darts at world map, visits whichever country he hits: 'Are you crazy?'
A man has made travel an unpredictable adventure by throwing a dart at a map of the world while blindfolded — and visiting whichever country his darts happen to hit. Sorin Mihailovici, 48, a small business entrepreneur, started the journey in 2012 after telling a friend he wanted to "wake up one morning and throw a dart at a map and go there." Mihailovici began by visiting far-flung places like the North Pole, Russia and Indonesia, originally taking annual trips but now traveling to up to 16 destinations a year. The trips were initially funded by his savings and later through partnerships with companies, per SWNS. He doesn't travel to the exact spot where his dart lands, but begins in the country's capital because some nations, such as Uruguay, are too small for precise targeting, said Mihailovici. Mihailovici's favorite countries so far include Iceland, Argentina and Thailand, while Madagascar ranked "hands down" as his least favorite, he said, due to a "misconception" shaped by the animated movie sharing its name and locals who "didn't have the best intentions." Praising Vietnam, Mihailovici, a Canadian, insisted its cuisine is "the best street food I've ever had," and noted it was the cheapest destination that he's traveled to, SWNS reported. Some countries, especially in Scandinavia like Norway and Sweden, and places like Switzerland and the Maldives, can be quite expensive, he pointed out. Mihailovici's travel show, "Travel by Dart," features footage from his trips. He began editing and publishing the clips during the COVID pandemic, eventually selling the concept to a distribution company, as SWNS reported. "While we were at home, I started editing all those materials from every country and created a season of 13 episodes," he said. "Most of the time it's just me on location. I hire a local videographer, film and create episodes for YouTube — and over the years, I've started doing a show for Amazon Prime." Despite the unpredictable nature of his travels, Mihailovici said he isn't afraid of dangerous destinations. He was in Iraq recently, he said. "People said, 'Are you crazy?' Maybe it was not safe, but nothing happened to me. We went to Baghdad and Babylon. It was great. I was eating camel every day," Mihailovici told SWNS. He admitted he was "a little scared" about going to Iraq given the political situation, but was determined to follow through with wherever the dart suggested he go. "It was great. I was eating camel every day." "The idea is to visit the whole world, each and every country by dart," Mihailovici said. "I did all the big ones that are larger on the map," he said. "The smaller ones are hard to hit, and I'm also blindfolded [while throwing the dart], so I can't pinpoint it to a certain continent." Mihailovici said he hopes to continue expanding his travel list. He said Australia and Spain are his next dream destinations, though he admits they're "hard to hit" and plans another dart throw in August, according to SWNS. Among the countries he's traveled to so far are Easter Island, Indonesia, Bermuda, Portugal, Cuba, Thailand, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Iceland, Greece, Japan, Antarctica, Germany, Vietnam, India, Turkey, South Korea and Yemen, SWNS reported. Mihailovici said hotels sometimes offer gratuities to be featured in his show, per SWNS.
Skift
2 hours ago
- Skift
What if Airbnb Builds the Killer AI Travel Search App?
Airbnb is hiring an engineer for an AI-powered natural language search product. If the tech delivers, it could create new creative pressure in shaping how people choose where to go and stay. Airbnb is preparing to rebuild its internal search engine with generative AI at the core. In a recent job posting for a search infrastructure engineer, the company outlined plans for a 'next generation search platform' designed to support 'generative AI (large language model) use cases.' Candidates with expertise in search and recommendation systems are encouraged to apply, and experience with GenAI or LLMs is listed as a preferred qualification. Search is one of the most critical components of Airbnb's business. It determines how guests discover homes and experiences, and how hosts reach customers. And while Airbnb has not made any public announcements about an AI-native search product, the technical scope and job description point to ambitions beyond incremental improvements. The listing suggests Airbnb is looking to reconstruct its core search product to accommodate AI. The new platform is described as one that will 'power different products at Airbnb,' suggesting that generative AI could become a foundational layer across the company's marketplace. In response to a request for comment, an Airbnb spokesperson said the company is 'always working to enhance the overall Airbnb experience' and is 'actively seeking talented individuals who share our mission to transform the way people travel.' Give Me a Room With a View If Airbnb succeeds in launching a functional AI-powered search system, the move could change how travelers interact with the platform. Traditional travel search engines rely on structured inputs: location, dates, price filters, and a fixed set of amenities. Generative AI has the potential to interpret natural language queries, understand user context, and return relevant results with fewer steps and less manual sorting. For example, instead of filtering by location and bedroom count, a guest might enter a query such as 'a quiet place in the mountains with fast Wi-Fi, a hot tub, and a view' – and receive listings that match even if the keywords don't align exactly. Several other travel companies have begun integrating AI tools into their platforms, including chat-based trip planning assistants and personalization features. When Data is King But Airbnb may be in a stronger position than some of its competitors to make that shift. The company has access to a large volume of structured and unstructured data: millions of listings with detailed attributes, user-generated reviews, booking behavior, search history, and messaging between hosts and guests. This data could support the training or fine-tuning of models capable of delivering more personalized and accurate search outcomes. Airbnb also owns its entire supply-side platform. Unlike online travel agencies that depend on inventory from third-party providers and hotel chains, Airbnb's listings are user-generated and directly managed on its system. That vertical integration provides a cleaner dataset and more flexibility in how results are ranked and surfaced, key advantages for any machine learning application. The introduction of a new AI-native search system could also create competitive pressure in the broader travel sector. Google, Booking Holdings, and Expedia Group have all made recent announcements about generative AI experiments, including itinerary generation and trip planning tools. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has previously hinted at AI's potential role in product discovery, referring in past earnings calls to a vision of Airbnb as a kind of intelligent travel concierge. A generative AI system could take that vision further, allowing for contextual, conversational discovery that adapts to different user intents in real time. The company has not disclosed what timeline it is working toward, what specific models it may be using, or whether it intends to partner with external AI vendors or develop proprietary solutions. The job posting does not mention OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or any of the major LLM providers by name. Beyond the Short-Term Rental What if Airbnb is thinking bigger than site search? There's a huge world of travel beyond short-term rental listings and its new experiences product. Airbnb's focus on design and its ability to attract talent put it in a position to compete in ways that other travel brands can't. Chesky also has a strong relationship with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. They've known each other since the 2000s, first at Y Combinator, the startup accelerator. And Altman has talked about the counsel Chesky gave him at OpenAI. Airbnb has always had ambitions beyond booking a room, and the focus on AI search will help it compete against players like Expedia when it comes to airline search or any other part of the travel journey.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Alberta photographers document history, character of old Western Canadian hotel taverns
Small-town hotel taverns that once served as the social centres of their communities are the subject of an ongoing project by a team of Alberta photographers and historians, who are working to document the establishments before they vanish. The Beer Parlour Project features the stories of hotel taverns told using film and digital photography, and interviews with the owners and patrons that inform online write-ups aiming to capture the businesses' ambience and character. Since 2022, Chris Doering, Connie Biggart, and Rob and Margarit Pohl have travelled around Western Canada to document 33 hotels. Doering and Rob Pohl, who are from Calgary and Edmonton respectively, came up with the idea in 2019, while already shooting photos of historic sites in small towns. When they stopped in for lunch at a hotel bar, they recognized the history of the building around them, and envisioned an art project covering the history of these businesses. "We think the history of these old places is important because they're disappearing," said Rob Pohl. "For every hotel that we visit, there's probably three in the general area that have burned down, been torn down, shut down or are for sale. And it's just an opportunity to get in and experience what it once was, and the people that still patronize it." The list of hotels the team has documented around Alberta already includes the Stettler Hotel, the Tofield Hotel, the Grand Hotel in Rimbey, the Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore and the Grand Union Hotel in Coleman. The project has also included hotels in other provinces visiting Coleville, Limerick and Unity in Saskatchewan, and Fanny Bay and Hosmer in British Columbia. A small-town hotel was often the first thing new visitors and residents would see upon arriving to a new community, often also serving as a social centre. "It's for people to get together, be very comfortable in their environment, chat with anybody who happens to be there, learn local gossip," said Doering. Along with aiming to capture the history and old stories of the establishments they visit, Doering said they're also sometimes able to see hidden secrets from a hotel's past. He said they've found old messages written on walls, and forgotten love letters written to a hotel owner decades ago. Pohl and Doering noted the urgency they feel from this work before more old hotels close, as these businesses are already becoming few and far between. Even some of the hotels they've already documented have since shut down in the last few years. "That's where that history is disappearing," said Pohl. "We want to be able to talk to the older crowd that still hangs around in these places and get the stories of the time the guy rode a horse into the bar, and the ghost in room number seven upstairs." Looking ahead, the team envisions building an archive of around 100 hotels in the Beer Parlour Project, and past that, potentially turning their photos and research into a gallery exhibition touring Western Canadian venues, or a coffee table book that compiles their work. The local history of these old businesses isn't always in the forefront of people's minds, Doering said, but he hopes the project's work stirs up memories for people who've stopped in to visit or dine at an old tavern in a small town over the years. "They were such an important part of the community," said Doering. "One by one, they're going away."
