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 Post subject: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:41 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
This just in:

http://wjactv.com/news/local/new-dining ... -in-dubois

Features two RR cars as "dining" space, one billed as a "PRR Parlor Car" and the other a "1950s experience" diner from 1947. Along Rt. 219 northwest of downtown DuBois, Clearfield County. A third passenger car, stainless-steel, is also on site.

The location, according to a November 2015 view on Google Earth, also sports D&H wooden caboose 35789R, a narrow-gauge Plymouth/Brookville lokie, a boxcar with windows (ex-crew car?), a miniature golf course, a Sasquatch, and more. The property has a "station" that was either relocated there or is a darned good replica.

Website says one in-use car is ex-PRR and one ex-Milwaukee, but no details:
http://www.drdoolittlesroadsidecafe.com/

Details, anyone?

Take a look for yourself--the Google-Mobile even drove up through the parking lot!

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1351105 ... 312!8i6656

UPDATE: Other local websites report the "station" is a replica of a B&O depot.


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:24 pm 

Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:16 pm
Posts: 41
I have driven past it a bunch of times. Owned by a local Doctor who is a train buff. Started pretty much as a hot dog stand and grew from there.
Pretty sure there have been some cars added very recently. Just off Interstate 80


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:57 pm 

Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:40 pm
Posts: 70
Looks like an interesting place to stop for a bite to eat. Noticed there are active tracks on the other side of the road. Wish I still lived out in State College. We don't get out that way much anymore.

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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 3:50 pm 

Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 7:10 am
Posts: 58
It's a real interesting place for sure. I hadn't been up that way in awhile and was surprised to see how expanded it had become. It's an interesting, if somewhat eclectic, collection of stuff.


Attachments:
File comment: Unidentified ex-Conrail N7E. I think this is the 21164, which had been in Dubois before.
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File comment: This is an ex-B&M International Steel car. This one surprised me.
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File comment: Ex-Shawmut caboose
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IMG_1332_1024.jpg [ 159.04 KiB | Viewed 12620 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 3:53 pm 

Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 7:10 am
Posts: 58
Three more cabooses....


Attachments:
File comment: PRR N8 with a case of identity confusion.
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File comment: B&O I-1
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IMG_1338_1024.jpg [ 159.05 KiB | Viewed 12618 times ]
File comment: D&H wood-sided caboose
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IMG_1336_1024.jpg [ 149.73 KiB | Viewed 12618 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 12:17 am 

Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 7:10 am
Posts: 58
Last post. Two more photos.


Attachments:
File comment: The replica B&O depot, which is quite nice. When I was there, a children's birthday party was going on. There's quite a bit of memorabilia and photographs inside, including a few binders full of information on the histories of the various pieces of equipment.
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IMG_1340_1024.jpg [ 157.65 KiB | Viewed 12419 times ]
File comment: A baggage car (marked as NYC) and a C&O caboose.
IMG_1341_1024.jpg
IMG_1341_1024.jpg [ 136.27 KiB | Viewed 12419 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 6:55 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Video story on restaurant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcy5Qjws8F8


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 12:50 pm 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
Posts: 1742
Location: Back in NE Ohio
Hopefully the facility outlives it's founder/owner. These railroad-themed restaurants/attractions frequently become dead-ends for the equipment and artifacts "preserved" for them. In Northeast Ohio there are two examples I can think of off hand: The late Mac Lowry's Railways of America/Quaker Square, where Mac's collection of model railroad and full-size rolling stock (mostly from the 1938 Broadway Ltd.) went from his own place (still exists as a furniture store) to the Quaker Oats factory conversion festival marketplace in downtown Akron in the mid-1970's. Eventually was absorbed by the University of Akron, and most of the cars were sold off, except for a couple that were built into the facility. Hopefully, many of them still exist, especially the late 1800's business car that was part of the collection.

The other example was one that my childhood orthodontist was an investor in - "The Rail" ice cream parlor in Hudson Ohio, near the recently torn down Hudson PRR station, started about 1972. Again, based in ex-PRR heavyweight coaches moved to the site on their own wheels into an abandoned siding of a local propane dealer that went out of business in a rather spectacular explosion that made the national news (unnoticed gas leak set off by a passing car in the middle of the night). "The Rail" Lasted about 10 years before it went out of business and the cars were cut up for scrap.


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 2:15 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:07 pm
Posts: 203
This is a bit concerning. The video suggests modification of these cabooses as motel rooms. In some cases, the cars are pretty well represented in museums elasewhere, so that's not a problem. But it would be a terrible shame to modify some of the rarer examples, especially the B&O I-1 wooden caboose.

By the way, it would probably be more appropriate to identify the station as Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburgh architecture, rather than B&O. B&O acquired the BR&P, which gave it access to the DuBois area. B&O's architectural designs were different.

Tom


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:16 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:10 pm
Posts: 84
Moved during 2016 from Delaware, Ohio, were the NYC baggage car no. 1182(dark green with yellow stripe)and blue caboose (B&O 8662/CR 23374). I think the yellow C&O/Chessie caboose also came from Delaware, Ohio. The Carl Nourse collection in Delaware was sold after he died in 2015.


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:49 pm 

Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:29 pm
Posts: 1899
Location: Youngstown, OH
The fireless Porter that had been in Sykesville for years is now missing. Anyone know if it ended up here?

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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:56 pm 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am
Posts: 2499
The steel Shawmut car should be ex Lehigh Valley. I don't have a number handy.

Rob


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:57 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
In quickly trying to ascertain the alleged P&S/LV caboose, I hit upon this:

The fake B&O caboose is ex-Conrail 23374, later apparently used for a short spell by the Nittany & Bald Eagle RR around 2012, is former PC 23374, ex-PC 4705, nee-PRR 478031--and yes, it was in Delaware, Ohio for a spell in 2014.

As to the Shamut caboose, two possibilities: another false identity to a caboose plan used by the LV and others, or a true ex-P&S loco, possibly brought in from nearby Brookville. The P&S rostered at least three ex-LV cabooses at one point, 195-197, and 196 was once photographed with the same air horn as seen on the one above:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=845916

This caboose, however, is apparently not listed in the Captive Cabeese listing by ARCHES (see FAQ).


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 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:52 pm 

I actually made it to this restaurant on Tuesday the 27th, along with my extended family. I'm happy to report the service and food were good... at least what my nieces/nephews had at our booth. (One flaw... broccoli mixed into the macaroni & cheese -- a most hideous foul, at least in my book.) We ate in the 1950's ex-PRR car, decorated with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe references, and the everything was clean and in good repair. There is also a fancier car, probably once a sleeper, with a couple small tables in the former rooms and lots of dark wood. We arrived about 11:30 and by 12:30 our car was mostly filled, so they seemed to be doing a good business.

Outside, some things have changed and there was a bulldozer out back working. Several of the cabooses (the "B&O" Pennsy N-8, the D&H car, and the P&S car) were not visible. A truss-rod (EJ&E?) business car is now sitting just uphill from the 'depot' where the "B&O" hack pictured above used to be. There is also a Conrail boxcar, Plymouth gas engine, and yes, a blue-painted fireless cooker there. The Plymouth and Chessie caboose were open and the kids enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I was battling a pretty good head cold and didn't think to pull out the camera to take any photos. Maybe I shouldn't have been driving...

Anyway, the place seems to be doing OK and I'd say is worth a stop. It's just off the I-80/Rt. 219 exit "Brockway/DuBois" and a half mile 'south' on Rt. 219. The area is also generally known as Falls Creek and the former BR&P/PRR junction is nearby, along with today's B&P yard.


  
 
 Post subject: Re: Restaurant/passenger cars/caboose/etc. at DuBois, Pa.
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 9:07 pm 

I think the P&S caboose is #191. Only one of the RDG/LV cabooses got the late-70's PS&N emblem. The ex-LV cars 195-197 got heavy block lettering and stayed that way until the end; by contrast I think it's the #190 that had all the lettering fade off to 'Undec RR' status by the late 80's, and the lettering is pretty much gone from this one as well.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2256178


  
 
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