History of Steam Carriage in Forrest: Part Two

Replacing the shingle roof over the carport

The carriage was retired in 1983 to a railyard in Collingwood, then sold to the builder of Otways Loft for $400, uncleaned, graffiti, cig

arette butts and all. It was loaded onto a truck and shipped to Forrest from Melbourne.

During the trip, some of the more easily removable fixtures mysteriously went missing, such as the beautiful hand-basin fittings and some of the signage.

Unloading the carriage was eventful. The crane sank in the wet Forrest soil, and a second crane had to be brought in to save the day. It turned into one of those big messes: mud and trucks and slop and trains and cranes. The cost of transport ended up thousands more than the original carriage cost.

The carriage was used as a workshop while the house next door was being built (Otways Loft). The builder was an 

environmentalist

tinkerer and craftsman who sourced recycled materials (way before it was trendy), locally milled timber, and used parts of the train in construction of the house.

Probably the most impressive construction task achieved was cutting shingles for the roofs of both the

house and the train carriage. Shingles need to be split, not sawn, or they rot. There would have been thousands of shingles to hand split, then nail on. Unfortunately they didn't last on the house, and we've slowly replaced them on the carriage. You can see a sample of the shingle roof used as a fence at the bath end of the carriage.

Part of the train carriage lives on in Otways Loft. "Finding the train parts" is a fun game for kids.

Mike May 2017

 Edited April 2026