Antique train car replica in B.C.'s Interior throws visitors back to the late 19th century

Step back in time to an era when railroad barons travelled around the country in fancy train cars.

That's the experience Richard Lawrence wants to bring to B.C.'s Shuswap with the Notch Hill Express Railway car: a 15-metre-long repurposed United Van Line container on a long-haul trailer, modelled after a luxurious Pullman train car from the 1890s.

It features a private bedroom and living room, decked out with $10,000 worth of mahogany, 43 metres of velvet, 152 feet of tassels and all sorts of antique furniture. It took a year and a half to build, says Lawrence, a resident of Sorrento, about 141 kilometres north of Kelowna in the Interior.

Unveiled last fall, the antique railcar replica has been showcased in Salmon Arm, about 32 kilometres south of Sorrento, as the filmmaking location for an auto restoration TV show, and as a venue for a real estate agent's promotional event.

Lawrence, a retired dock and boat builder, says the railway car has become an unofficial tourism attraction for people in the region, boasting more than 600 visitors since its unveiling.

Thanks to its newfound popularity, Lawrence has been invited to put it on display in the community park near Notch Hill Town Hall on May 7, Sorrento's Heritage Day. The hall, established in 1910, is the oldest heritage site in the Shuswap region.

'Powerful whim' to build a train car replica

Lawrence says he was on a "powerful whim" to spend several hours a day decorating the railway car. 

"[The decorations] had to be hand-done and sewn together, and then the blinds were from the hardware store with white plastic, so I ripped that off, threw it away and ordered this green print to match everything else in the car," he told CBC's Doug Herbert.

"I watched all the newspapers for old used furniture and accumulated them."

Lawrence had been a dock builder in Vancouver before he relocated to the Shuswap in the '90s to live closer to his daughters. He has been an avid classic automobile collector for years.

He says he used the trailer to transport the antique cars, and when he began his retirement, he thought it would be an excellent idea to use his free time to repurpose the trailer and container into a mobile showroom for people to rent — as a venue for filming, photo shoots and events.

"If you could drag this trailer around … all of a sudden your whole body gets different vibrations and you just feel like you're back 140 years ago, so it is quite exciting," he said.

Lawrence, together with the Notch Hill Town Hall Association, brainstormed activities for the Notch Hill Express to inspire some nostalgia, for its showcase on Sorrento's Heritage Day.

"I would love to sit down [and] have high tea with you — it's something that is just not done anymore these days," said Anna-Marie Eckhart, president of the association, adding they also considered holding dinner theatre events.

Lawrence says he's looking forward to the Notch Hill Express being rented out for a variety of purposes in the spring and summer.

"I'm game for whatever works."