Repurposing Railroad Cars into the Boxcar Room for our Industrial Venue

We needed a cool source of wood to build the Grand Room floor with. Because let's face it everything we build has to be unique and repurposed--we're reuse addicts.

Thankfully, we got a call about some out-of-service Rail Road Cars that need to be cut up and dismantled. Dad, aka Kevin, rounded up the crew and got to work. 

These Rail Cars have some incredible twelve-by-two-inch thick tongues and grove planks on the inside. So after cutting the cars all apart we removed the planks. Step one was complete on this major repurposing mission.

 With these beautiful planks at hand, we needed a sub-floor structure to hold them up. Dad is starting to admit he has symptom's of possible hoarding -- but as a result -- about 15 years ago he was able to get a hold of a bunch of warehouse racking, a bunch. Fast forward today, and this stuff is making a fine sub-floor for the Grand Room! 

Once we got the racking down as the support, it was time to lay the planks. Then someone said, "I've got an idea let's put the screws in from underneath, so they don't show!" "OK!" 

Who said, "Let's put the screws in from underneath?" That ended up being a lot of screws. 

It was worth it, though!

 When you walk across the floor in the Boxcar Room, notice you don’t see any screws and how amazing these old repurposed planks are in the space.

After all the planks are down, the buffing and treatment followed. This was a multi-year project as everything at SCR is. It took 10 years to build the main structure.

Yep, all those couples who got married at SCR in the first 10 years had at least one or three “under construction” areas, but they were constantly in love with the projects we finished as their date got closer. So it was a win-win for couples who really understand what is special at SCR (and its abuilder).

Kevin, the Barn builder, and visionary! Aka, my dad.

The first after getting the railroad cars into the salvage yard.

The Boxcar Room is now complete and possibly the most impressive room construction and repurposed-wise. Each inch at SCR is unique and hand-built by my dad and a few helpers along the way, but this room is full of unique treasures from around Young County that make it a salved piece of history.