I restored a 1900s train car with my dad and turned it into an Airbnb. Now it’s paid for itself.

But being the train enthusiast and the visionary that my dad is, he offered to buy it.

“Look, I’ll take this off your hands because it’s not doing you any good and I love trains,” he said. “We’ll figure something out,”

My dad bought it for $3,000.

He found some of the original markings in the paint, which were almost all gone. Local train buffs did some digging in the archives, and sure enough, they found the picture of this exact car the day it was built in 1906.

It’s a super difficult process to move a 61-foot train car that is in really rough shape. It’s like January, early February of 2020 — it’s so muddy and snowy.

It cost us $10,000, and we had to use semis and bulldozers to get it up the final hill. But at a certain point, we just couldn’t go any further, so that became the resting place where it sits today.

The restoration really was just a process of carefully sanding, stripping down inside and out all of the surface area — the floors, siding, interior paneling — and obviously trying to save everything we could. I would say 95% of the car is original.

Once we got past that first quarter inch of grime, it was good wood inside. We just sanded everything down super carefully and then refinished it. The flooring to paneling, all of that is original. And then, we found original paint colors for the lime green color of the ceiling.

This is a combination car — it was used as a passenger car, a US mail car, and a cargo car.

Airbnb success

Then this thing blew up when we launched on Airbnb.

We booked up 90% occupancy the first year, and this quickly became one of the most unique and profitable stays. It paid for itself in 18 months.

The tricky thing is this is in the middle of nowhere, it’s really off the beaten path. People have to intentionally carve out time, book a trip, and travel a long ways to come experience it.

That’s part of the reason we price it at around $325 a night. That seems like a lot, but based on the occupancy and the demand, I think it’s pretty reasonable. We could technically raise the prices, but we don’t plan to.

We want as many people as possible to come and experience it because there are so many people who are passionate about these restoration projects and specifically about trains.

So much of our history as a nation has to do with trains, yet their impact is under-appreciated. And as technology and transportation has evolved, trains have by and large been left in the dustbin of history.

My dad had this incredible belief and conviction that this car could be redeemed. And because of that, we all rallied behind it. And sure enough, it happened.

But to see it come from such a decrepit and seemingly unredeemable condition and become this fresh, full of life, incredibly vibrant experience … It’s just, in every sense, invigorating. Going to that car, walking through it, you can’t help but feel energy in your veins and a sense of what it would’ve felt like back in the day to be on this same car.

This thing was dead, and now it has new life.

For more photos and information about the Deary train car, you can view the listing on Airbnb here. You can also follow French’s newsletter to learn more about his other renovations and hospitality experiences.