Large Scale Central

🚉 Station for Sale

General Discussion
#1

FOR SALE: Historic Railway Station Residence

Are you ready to upsize your passion for railroading? Tired of the limits of 1:22.5 scale and want a grander experience?

This historic railway station, lovingly restored and converted into a home, offers the perfect place for those who live and breathe locomotives, love history and historic buildings. Nestled in a scenic area of South Australia and steeped in heritage, it’s ideal for large-scale modellers who crave a real-world full sized trackside perspective.

Picture it: You’re sitting on your veranda with an ice cold amber coloured beverage, watching the approaching glow coming from road-railer groups returning from exploring the abandoned line located just behind your personal platform. This home offers all the romance of railroads past and present, with room to broaden your mind beyond standard or narrow gauge.

Perfect for insomniacs, the station’s unique location offers a taste of life where you can enjoy the midday sunshine during that time you’d normally be lying in bed staring at the ceiling or reading LSC posts somewhere else in the world.

No worries about being stranded in a blizzard—you’ll still get your wintertime fix, minus the snow. And yes, English speakers can breathe easy—no need to brush up on a second language (although, there probably is) for that dose of warm-weather adventure!

Don’t miss out on this rare gem—your next whistle stop awaits!

This is the house for you!

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Features:

  • it’s very own platform
  • a basement wine cellar
  • an abandoned railway line behind the house
  • currently a very favourable exchange rate
2 Likes
#2

Historic railway station-turned-home for sale in Hamley Bridge

Lydia Kellner


Lydia Kellner

Updated 16 Feb 2018, 1:58pm

First published 16 Feb 2018, 1:53pm

Seems we could be a tad late on a purchase.

#3

It was on TV tonight. I hope I wasn’t watching a re-run.:crossed_fingers:
Thank god you caught this. Hopefully I can update this before the rest of the crew wakes up!

#4

Now that I know you’re interested Hollywood, while I was fact checking, I found you another place…


Lydia Kellner

Updated 20 Oct 2024, 4:30am

First published 24 Oct 2024, 8:48am

#5

And no doubt very affordable. No telling, we may soon be neighbors Bill
Both are interesting reads, just didn’t want anyones aspirations to be crushed. :sunglasses:
Forgot to include my main interest in getting a quick bid in on this one. Whodathunk, me rubbing knuckles with royalty and all that.
A heritage-listed railway station once frequented by the likes of Prince Albert, Mary MacKillop and Sir Sidney Kidman has been reinvigorated into one of the Barossa’s most sought-after tourism accommodation that could now be yours.

#6

That would be a really cool house to live in but I’d be nervous about those tracks.

When I was a kid, growing up in a small town on the South shore of Massachusetts we had a decrepit old rail line running through town that might have seen 1-2 short trains per month slowly putting along the tired track and then the Commuter line to Boston was expanded. Today trains roar through town at 50 MPH a dozen times per day. There are many houses along the route that were built in the days of Steam trains and slow freights but now the trains are bigger, louder and faster.

Still that is a neat looking property.

#7

Todd,

Little chance of them placing a standard gauge rail line there, as there is now a standard gauge line between Broken Hill and Adelaide, bypassing the town.

Potentially there could be a problem if this fellow moves to town, though.

Hamley Bridge was historically a junction where the lines to Riverton and Gladstone (narrow gauge) and to Balaklava and Port Wakefield (broad gauge) met. By the early 1980s, the shift towards standardizing lines and the declining use of rural branch lines led to the eventual closure of these sections. Today, the Hamley Bridge lines are no longer in use. Here’s a timeline of key closures:

  1. 1982 - The broad gauge line from Hamley Bridge to Gladstone was closed. This was part of a larger process as lines were either converted to standard gauge or discontinued.
  2. 1983 - The route from Hamley Bridge to Balaklava and beyond was closed, ending services on the Balaklava line.

One might say, historically, this town was very inclusive. Whether you were Narrow minded or Broad minded, this was the place to live. (Pun intended).

This is an excerpt from denisbin’s Flickr page. With some more photos.

The first railway went on to Burra in 1870 but when the link across to Balaklava and the copper triangle mining towns of Moonta and Kadina was opened in 1880 the town prospered more. After all, the copper triangle was the largest population centre outside of Adelaide and all goods had to be manually handled in Hamley Bridge as there was a change of gauge here to a narrow gauge line to Balaklava. The wife of the Acting Governor, Colonel Francis Hamley gave his name to the town in 1879 when she visited to open the new railway station. Here were employed drivers, firemen, cleaners, guards, porters, labourers and clerks. The town boomed. All this collapsed, however in 1927 when the line to Balaklava and beyond was converted to broad gauge (5’3”). At that time Hamley Bridge had three main platforms and daily trains to Adelaide, Broken Hill, and Moonta.

Hollywood,
Here’s the listing… added 11 hours ago. $665,000 USD.

I don’t know who to blame more for getting me interested in this history stuff, you or Rooster.

#8

Nice steering wheel on that loco!

#9

For that price, why not go all in and buy a rolling palace that you can take to any station?

Price reduced to less than $700k!!

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Heck, I’d sell my place for that!

Well, and do full time leaf blowing to make up the diff and pay for the UP/BNSF/CSX transfer fees… Hmm, isn’t quite working out on my retirement spreadsheet as well as I’d hoped…

#10

Hollywood,
Wanna go 50/50 I’ll retire early. It’s Amtrak certified.

1 Like
#11

Yep, all certified.
Let’s split 3 ways.

#12

Those are really beautiful and would be wonderful places to live.

But this is about all I could afford, luckily it’s not for sale :grinning:

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#13

What does that mean?

#14

It can ride the US rails!

I think?

You ready to pony up for 1/4 share?

#15

I’m in if it’s certified on Alaskan rails. Can we get an Amen? :innocent: :smiley:

#16

i think, that might mean, that it is suitable for slow speed transportation.