Mark and Carol Benson, who are crazy about trains, have spent the last 30 years restoring a derelict railway station in England to its former glory. The couple spent tens of thousands to transform Ebbertson Station in North Yorkshire, after purchasing the property in 1996, four decades after the station closed in 1950. Thanks to their hard work, tourists are able once again to visit the depot — now called The Old Station — and even stay in one of three former first-class train cars, or in the converted ticket office, which is now a cottage. The last passenger train on the line ran 75 years ago. It was then used as a private house until the Bensons purchased the piece of railway history 46 years later. “We always had the idea of running a business that would enable me to continue working full time as a quantity surveyor until I could retire,” said Mark. “Carol also didn’t want to return to working as a school nurse, so it worked out well.” After renovating the ticket office, they converted the train cars to include kitchens, bedrooms and seating areas. In 2021, they carefully knocked down the men’s bathroom and porter's room to salvage the bricks, which they then used to renovate the former ticket office. The couple transformed it into a vacation cottage using the bricks and added two bedrooms with en-suite shower rooms. Weekly rates range from $950 to $1,128, with 3-night rates ranging from $765 to $1,276.
