Queenie Is an Old Railway Car Turned Into a Stunning, Four-Person RV

Queenie is a mobile home, but fitting it into a single category would be difficult. With its wood and metal siding exterior, colorful stained glass window, and oversize elevated decking, Queenie looks like the lovechild of a motorhome and a tiny home, a hybrid that brings together the best features in either type of mobile habitat.

In reality, Queenie is trash: it's an old railway car upcycled into a mobile vacation home.

Queenie is also somewhat of a local celebrity, mostly thanks to its 2021 appearance on the successful reality series George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, where builder Simon appeared with his mother Carol, revealing how she'd been the inspiration for the project. He had started the project earlier in 2019, some time after his father's passing, as he was thinking of ways to get Carol to travel more.

If one's to travel, this conversion is definitely the mobile home to do it in! Queenie started as a 1930s cattle railway car, rendered useless after a fire, and then sold for scrap. At just £150 ($189), it provided the perfect metal frame for what taxi cab firm owner Simon had in mind for a family RV.

The conversion took him a little over 12 months, and three years on, he was still doing tweaks and adding stuff as he traveled with it. Queenie's appearance on Amazing Spaces is available below; the first video at the bottom of the page is newer and shows the RV in its most recent form.

Conversions of old and decommissioned vehicles or even railway cars aren't new, but they remain rare. The reason for that is simple: while the donor vehicle is cheap and easy to come by, whatever it might be, the conversion can be expensive and challenging. Simon says this was the case with Queenie, too: it was a project so difficult he often wondered if he was crazy for taking it up.

In the end, the result was astounding. Queenie is a mobile home for four people, offering all the creature comforts of a static home – from a full bathroom with a soaking tub to a full kitchen and a generously-sized lounge. But what impresses more about the RV is the beautiful details that add personality to the place: reclaimed woods, live-edge countertops, a large stained glass window, animal-shaped light fixtures, and customized throw pillows.

The RV sits very high off the ground on the bed of an 18-ton DAF truck. Though Queenie gives the impression of being part of the truck, it's only attached to the bed. Simon says he could have it lifted by crane and plopped onto a barge, and he'd get a houseboat. If the truck breaks down and is beyond repair, he won't have an issue relocating Queenie onto another one.

Queenie is like a first-floor penthouse – not a first-floor apartment because it has a second level, too. You enter directly into the living room, with an L-shaped storage-integrating couch facing a large wood-burning stove. The kitchen and bathroom are at the rear, where you also find the secondary entrance with a tiled floor to keep muddy shoes out of the shared living space.

The kitchen is rather long than wide but still well-equipped and spacious enough for family dinner prep. Custom cabinetry, live-edge counters, a residential range with cooktop and oven, and a deep farm sink create a very homey space.

The bathroom is on the opposite side and very compact. Still, it packs a toilet and a custom soaking tub made of a reclaimed whiskey barrel because Simon reasoned that no one really wants to lie down in a tub when they could stand, soaking in water. He would know: since taking Queenie on the road, he's been using the tub whenever he feels like it. The RV initially had a 1,000-liter (264-gallon) water tank under the gooseneck part, which he later replaced with a smaller 650-liter (172-gallon) one for more convenience.

One large bedroom is in the gooseneck part of the house, while the other is directly over the bathroom and kitchen, accessible by an iron pull-down ladder. Since Queenie was designed as a vacation home, the bedrooms are basic, without additional storage. But they look comfy with their queen-size beds, hardwood floors, and many windows.

"Comfort" is the word that first pops into mind when looking at Queenie. This conversion was designed to be a cozy home for family vacations, but it turned out to be a looker, too. Simon might have doubted himself, his motivation, and even the quality of his work during the build, but he was able to create an incredible and very beautiful space by upcycling and repurposing "trash." It's the kind of work you can't really put a price on.