Real Estate Agent Bought a Marvel Movie Subway Car for $5,000. Now He’s Turning It into an Airbnb (Exclusive)

Jordan GreeneTue, July 7, 2026 at 9:01 PM UTC

0

Christopher Rich with the subway carCredit: Christopher Rich (2) -

Christopher Rich purchased a Marvel movie subway car for $5,000 and plans to turn it into a unique Airbnb

The subway car appeared in Marvel productions like Hawkeye and will feature nods to its on-screen history

Rich faced viral attention and legal challenges after parking the subway car in his driveway during renovations

When Christopher Rich walked into a massive warehouse sale filled with retired Marvel movie props, one item immediately caught his eye. Not the life-sized metal killer whales sitting nearby: a subway car.

“The moment I saw it, my mind started racing,” Rich, 34, a real estate agent from Atlanta, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Please don’t be sold. Please don’t be sold.”

Fortunately for Rich, it wasn’t.

For nearly a decade, Marvel Studios filmed many of its movies and television series in Atlanta before moving much of its production hub to London two years ago. As part of that transition, the studio held a warehouse sale to clear out props from past productions, giving fans and collectors the rare opportunity to own a piece of Marvel history.

While thousands of shoppers wandered through the warehouse looking for their own unique find, Rich couldn’t stop thinking about the subway car, which had appeared in both Hawkeye and Agatha All Along.

“It was love at first sight,” he says. “The moment I laid eyes on it, I knew I had to figure out how to make this happen. How many times in life do you get the opportunity to buy a subway car? How many times do you get to buy one that Marvel used as a prop? It was a no-brainer.”

Still, even Rich knew the purchase sounded a little outrageous.

Before making an offer, he called his brother to make sure he wasn’t, as he puts it, “completely off my rocker” for wanting to buy a subway car and eventually transform it into a tiny home.

“He made a few calls, and while he agreed it was fairly crazy, he told me to go for it,” Rich says.

Christopher Rich with the subway carCredit: Christopher Rich

The subway car was listed for $10,000, though everything at the sale was marked 25% off the day Rich attended. Even then, he decided to negotiate.

“I offered them $5,000 and after a few minutes we had a deal,” he says. “I have to be one of the first people ever to put a subway car on their American Express card. Proud to be!” he adds.

Rich says he never seriously considered walking away.

With thousands of people attending the sale, he figured someone else would buy it if he hesitated.

“My mindset was, ‘Buy it now before anyone else can. Work out the specifics later,’” he says.

Only after the purchase did he begin asking himself exactly what those specifics would be.

Eventually, the answer became clear: transform the movie prop into a one-of-a-kind Airbnb where guests could spend the night inside a subway car while discovering subtle nods to the Marvel productions in which it once appeared.

“I wanted people to have an experience they couldn’t really get anywhere else,” Rich says.

Although Rich bought the subway car on Nov. 2, 2024, turning it into an Airbnb has taken considerably longer than buying it.

“We haven’t been actively working on it ever since,” he says. “It’s been more of a here-and-there project whenever we’ve been able to. Life has been extra crazy the last couple of years, so the subway project kind of took a back seat.”

Now, however, construction is finally picking up speed.

Just last week, workers poured the concrete slab foundation where the subway car will permanently sit, and this week it’s scheduled to be moved from Rich’s driveway into position. Once that’s complete, the builder estimates the remaining work will take about three months, putting the one-of-a-kind Airbnb on track to welcome its first guests in October.

Rather than recreating the Marvel productions scene for scene, Rich says he wants the finished space to capture the nostalgic feeling of riding a New York City subway, while rewarding Marvel fans with carefully placed details they’ll recognize.

“Design-wise, I feel like it’s more important to focus on an authentic subway experience with just a hint of superheroes,” he says.

Christopher Rich on the subwayCredit: Christopher Rich

Some of those nods will be impossible for Marvel fans to miss.

Rich plans to restore the set of three subway seats where Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop sat during one of the film’s scenes, returning them to their original orange, yellow and red color scheme so guests can recreate the moment themselves.

“I think that’s going to be one of the coolest parts,” Rich says. “Guests will literally be able to sit where the superheroes sat and take a picture inside the scene.”

Another favorite detail greets visitors before they even step inside.

“When someone rings the doorbell,” he says with a laugh, “they’ll hear, ‘Stand clear of the closing doors, please!’”

Rich also hopes to hide a handful of Easter eggs throughout the Airbnb, though he’s keeping most of those ideas under wraps until guests begin arriving.

“I hope people find little surprises that make the experience even better,” he says.

The project is expected to cost between $100,000 and $125,000 by the time it’s finished — far more than the $5,000 Rich originally spent buying the subway car — but he believes creating an unforgettable experience will be worth every dollar.

Advertisement

For him, one of the biggest draws won’t simply be sleeping inside a subway car. It’ll be giving guests access to something most movie fans never get to experience.

“So much of what happens in Hollywood happens inside studios where the public never gets to go behind the scenes,” Rich says. “People will be able to sit where the superheroes sat, stream Hawkeye while they’re staying inside the subway car and realize they’re literally inside part of the production. Where else does that kind of opportunity exist?”

Inside the old subwayCredit: Christopher Rich

Before opening the doors to anyone else, however, Rich already knows who’ll be the first guest checking everything out.

“I’ll probably be watching Hawkeye myself,” he says. “The little kid inside of me is going to be in heaven.”

Long before the Airbnb has welcomed its first guest, however, Rich’s unusual purchase has already turned plenty of heads.

For months, the subway car sat in the driveway of his Atlanta home while he waited for permits and construction to begin. One day, a woman happened to drive by, filmed the subway car from her vehicle and shared the video online with her own commentary.

Rich never saw it. Instead, the clip eventually found its way to a New York City Instagram account with more than 1.2 million followers, where it quickly went viral — all without Rich realizing it.

“I had no idea this happened until months later,” he says. “I was sharing my subway car on Reddit when someone commented, ‘I saw a video where someone had a subway parked in their front yard … that had to be you!’ He found the link and, sure enough, we’d gone viral months earlier and had no clue.”

The subway being towedCredit: Christopher Rich

While the online attention didn’t surprise him, the timing certainly did.

“We live in an ‘everyone is 10 or 20 seconds away from going viral’ world, and this is a pretty out-of-the-box concept,” Rich says. “So it makes sense that it resonated. But I’m not exactly an experienced content creator, so I was grateful people were more interested in the project itself than my ability to edit a video.”

Since then, he’s continued documenting the build online, where the overwhelming majority of comments have been encouraging.

“I’d say about 90% of the comments have been positive and about 10% negative, which has honestly been a huge encouragement,” he says. “I’ve had so many people say things like, ‘This is so cool. I can’t wait to see what you do with this. You’re going to crush it.’ As someone who bought a subway car and only figured out the specifics later, it’s really reassuring to have people leaning in with good thoughts and asking when they can stay there.”

Not everyone, however, has focused on the renovation itself.

“The train community is alive and well,” Rich says. “And boy, are they divided.”

Some commenters insist the subway car is a modified R62, others are convinced it’s an old Chicago CTA train, while others believe Marvel built it from scratch.

Meanwhile, plenty of New Yorkers have argued that it can’t possibly be an authentic MTA subway car because the seats are blue and the car itself is shorter than expected.

“The seats weren’t blue until they were painted for Agatha All Along, and the subway car itself is cut in half to make it easier to transport around the studio,” he explains.

The project has also attracted plenty of current and former MTA employees, many of whom have reached out with their own thoughts.

“A handful of MTA folks have messaged me and said they loved it,” Rich says. “They’ve given me great feedback and told me they were going to show all their MTA friends. And New Yorkers are all over the comments. They’ve mostly been really supportive, and they’ve definitely got jokes about what we could add to make the experience even more authentic.”

The attention online wasn’t the only unexpected consequence of parking a subway car outside his house.

Because the railcar remained in his driveway while he waited for permits, an anonymous neighbor reported him to DeKalb County, ultimately sending Rich to court twice.

“I’ve always been a rule follower,” he says. “Owning a subway car and needing somewhere to store it kind of forced my hand to break a rule.”

Rather than becoming a nightmare, Rich says county officials were understanding throughout the process.

“They always said their goal was getting residents into compliance, not running up fines or legally going after people,” he says. “That was absolutely my experience.”

The second court appearance ended with one unforgettable exchange.

“When the solicitor explained why I was there, she said, ‘This gentleman bought a subway car from Marvel Studios and parked it in his driveway,’” Rich recalls. “The judge smirked, laughed and said, ‘I can honestly say I’ve never heard that one before.’”

Rich ultimately paid a $250 fine, including court costs, and continued moving the project forward.

The foundationCredit: Christopher Rich

Looking back, he says he never imagined a spontaneous purchase at a movie prop sale would resonate with so many people.

“I think the lesson is that we’re all a lot more alike than we are different,” he says. “I saw a subway car and had an idea that I thought would be cool. Maybe other people wouldn’t have bought it, but I think a lot of them would’ve stood there for five minutes imagining what they could do with it.”

Those reactions are exactly what Rich hopes guests experience once the Airbnb officially opens.

“I hope it becomes a destination for families with kids who love trains and superheroes, and adults too,” he says. “I’m a child in an adult’s body, so if adults and kids alike leave smiling, that’s a huge win.”

“I think the natural progression would be going from a single-story tiny home to two stories,” he adds. “So if there’s ever a version 2.0, I’d love to turn a London double-decker bus into an Airbnb.”

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”