(rshsdepot) Article - How to Find a Railway Station to Buy as a Home (UK)

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

End of the Line Comes Back to Life; Railways Properties Are Always Popular
With Buyers - but Tracking Them Down is Never Easy. John Coutts Reports on
Where to Look to Find Your Ideal Stationmaster's Cottage

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The idea of turning old railway buildings into homes first took hold in the
Sixties. When the Beeching axe fell in 1963, the railway network was halved
and more than 3,000 stations were closed. Many of these buildings were
simply demolished or abandoned. Others were sold off cheaply and converted
into homes.
Forty years down the line, the market in old stationmasters' houses and
crossing keepers' cottages is buoyant. Buildings like these are popular with
house-hunters looking for something out of the ordinary. "I've got a list of
about 250 people who've contacted me over that last two or three years
looking for railway property" says Network Rail's Mike Stancliffe, whose
department deals with selling-off redundant railway infrastructure.
"Certainly in the north I've sold something like 40 properties over the last
four years" he says. "Train operating companies might come to us and say,
`Look, we don't need this building any longer', but there's no routine
pattern to it and it takes a while to get properties released."

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Link to article from The Independent:
http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=53971592&ID=cnniw&scategory=Transportation

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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