A father took his wife and children on a journey they’d remember – by creating his own version of the world’s most famous train.
Kevin Keable, co-owner of Long Four Acres, a scheme offering plots for self-builds, wanted to give his family a holiday during coronavirus lockdown. One of their most enjoyable trips together was a journey on the Orient Express, a glamorous passenger train built in 1883, last year from Singapore to Bangkok.
So Mr Keable, who lives near Mulbarton, got busy creating his very own glamorous train made from a trailer pulled by a Land Rover.
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He put wheels on the trailer tailgate and decorated its outside, even with his version of the unique Orient Express crest borne on the outside of the carriages. Inside, he used patio table and chairs, put a cloth on it and used old pillowcases as curtains at special window openings, which he had cut out of fence panels adorning the exterior.
The family – wife Karen and children Olivia and Charlie – all got dressed up, with Mr Keable in full black tie for the occasion, and he even recorded the sound of the real Orient Express which played as they went inside.
They then went for a quick trip around the front garden – a little bumpier than the real thing but just as much fun.
“I built it in about two or three days,” said Mr Keable. “The building of our house at Long Four Acres has stopped because of coronavirus and we decided as a family we’d have a bit of fun in lockdown by each recreating a scene. So my wife decided to recreate Downton Abbey in our drawing room, Olivia did a nightclub and Charlie did a beer festival.
“I was going to do the Orient Express inside the house but then thought I could actually create my own out of a trailer. It went down really well and was just a bit of fun while in self-isolation.”
Long Four Acres is an innovative development which invited people to design and create their own bespoke home.
Each of the 15 plots, now all sold, are ready to build on, with electricity, water, sewage, and telecoms running beneath the site then diverted to the boundary of each plot. With an average plot size of 0.3 acres, each has outline planning permission which enables purchasers to create a detached home with ample space for a large front and rear garden.
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