WHAT can you do with a decrepit former railway wagon which was originally used in the 1930s for carrying bananas?

Yorkshire Wolds Glamping in Weaverthorpe has restored a banana wagon and turned it into glamping accommodation, complete with toilet, heater, bed and sofa bed.

“It took six months and it’s been truly a labour of love,” said site owner Tracy Chapman, who bought the site two years ago and set up the glamping site.

The wagon was originally built in Darlington for the LNER (London and North Eastern Railway) and was steam heated so the bananas could be ripened in transit.

She said: “The import of bananas was stopped during the Second World War, as they were thought to be a luxury item, and after the war, the wagon might have resumed its life transporting bananas, or it may have been used to transport other goods.

“In the 1960s, much old railway rolling stock was sold off, after the Beeching Report reduced the size of the network and changed the way railways transported freight for ever.

"Five railway wagons - including the banana wagon - ended up in their current location in Weaverthorpe, where they were used for storage on a smallholding until two years ago when I bought the site and set up Yorkshire Wolds Glamping.

“Renovation started on the banana wagon in November 2015 and it took six months to transform it in to new glamping accommodation.

"We have tried to renovate the wagon as sympathetically as possible, retaining many of its original features, such as the metalwork and the original roof.

“Eighty years of wear and tear has meant that the wooden sides and floor have had to be replaced, and of course there are some new features such as insulation and the door and window, which transform

a humble railway wagon into comfortable and warm glamping accommodation, ready for its new life.”

The banana wagon joins four upcycled shipping containers already on the site, converted into overnight "pod" accommodation and located in a beautiful setting on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds.