It's not actually a restaraunt yet, but the ex-NP Business car from Kettle Moraine was moved to Oconomowoc, WI and is in the process of being converted to be part of the depot restaraunt there.
Also, I remember some years back eating in I think it was an ex-PRR P-70 coach at the Red Caboose motel in Strasburg, PA.

KM ex-NP Business Car Restaraunt
ddg14@attbi.com

It seemsthat I remember stopping at a restaurant with a very nice buffet that had a dining room that was an old caboose. It was located on Hwy66 between Evansville and Tell City, Indiana.(This is not too far from the Ohio river and is considered the scenic route. It's been some few years back and I can't remember the name of the place or what other railroad related stuff was there. But the food was good and homey and the place was packed with the locals.
-Angie

Ladypardus@cs.com

Here in the Garden State there are several restaurants with train cars, but other than the one mentioned in Sea Isle, I am not sure about any that ARE train cars.

The most unique was the now-closed "Boxcar" in Phillipsburg, NJ which was last used as a go-go bar. It has a Budd fluted coach (NYC, me thinks). I was never inside, though it must have been good as many Conrail boys ventured over from Allentown. It seems those CR boys always knew the best shaker bars.

Ahhh, the railroad life... ;-)

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com

Quaker Steak & Lube in Sharon, PA (Best wings in USA) has a fireless cooker and an aluminum sided car. Unfortunately, I think the car is now used mostly for storage, although at one time you could rent it for parties.

Don't forget the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Not only can you sleep in reconfigured sleeping cars, you can also eat in a diner. There is also an ice cream parlor here in Chattanooga that is made of some old Southern boxcars.

I had dinner last year in a restaurant in the Portland, OR area (it may have been in Vancouver, WA) that was made from passenger cars.

G. Mark

TVRM Shop Updates by Steve Freer
aw90h@cs.com

Hey James, I am trying to track down a rumored ancient wooden C of G coach as part of a restaurant in ElDorado Arkansas. Ring any bells?

In the cyclical universe file, an ACL caboose went to a McDonalds and then to the Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah where it is a caboose again (although severley altered inside). While it doesn't fit the criteria, you can eat in a C of G diner at the old C of G passenger terminal across the street as well. There is also a beautiful old heavyweight sleeper gutted years ago for a meeting room - I could cheerfully strangle the bureaucrat that allowed that car to be vandalized with official sanction!

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> Mickey's Diner in St. Paul, now considered a
> local treasure with city planning taking the
> landmark from before I can remember into
> consideration.

That's a great place. However, it's not actually a railroad car. Mickey's Diner was built by the O'Mahoney company of New Jersey, which specialized in building diners that looked like converted railroad cars. O'Mahoney diners are wider, though, and lack a strong frame (although at least some of them did have truss rods!). I don't know how many of these diners are still around, but IRM has one that has been incorporated into our nearly-completed Diner Annex building.

Frank Hicks

fullparallel@wideopenwest.com

> In Harpers Ferry, WV there is an old Western
> Maryland bagage car that my Grandfather once
> had his toy train collection in.

(Drumroll) ...is THIS your car?

Photo taken April 1999 by Randall Hicks, Harpers Ferry.


fullparallel@wideopenwest.com

I love this sort of stuff and have a few shots of former and current area establishments. Within an hour of Scranton you can see restaurants containing:

A heavyweight coach
A gravity coach.
Former Reading MU cars.
Former Reading passenger cars.
A former Scranton Trolley (now moved).

Check out...

www.geocities.com/scrantontrains/misc.html

Diners, restaurants and other oddities...
bing@epix.net

No, the car in Harpers Ferry was once owned by my Grandfather Robert Wallich. When he owned the car it was painted Western Maryland green and I must say was in much better condition. He sold the property it sits on and the car back in the eighties. Thanks!

Aaron

> (Drumroll) ...is THIS your car?

> Photo taken April 1999 by Randall Hicks,
> Harpers Ferry.


asholley@hotmail.com

Captain Nick's in Bangor, Maine, is an old Canadian Pacific heavyweight diner. I also saw a stainless steel boattail observation in front of an empty real estate building near the airport in Cleveland.

glueck@maine.edu

A few years ago I eat in an observation lounge car in the "gaslight" or old town area area of Vancouver, B.C. But, you cannot do that anymore. The car was moved during this past year to the West Coast Railway Heritage Park.

******

Orange Empire has a unique artifact. It has a relocated road-side cafe. This is a one-time Santa Fe coach from 1906 that became part of the cafe during the 1930s. It moved several times as Highway 395 north of Perris was widened and improved. Finally, its last site was bought by CalTrans when the highway was improved to freeway status.

On the second offering the OERM board voted 5-4 to accept the donation of the car/cafe. On the second try CalTrans did not ask for reports, etc. but did supply funds for the foundation and moving. The body and the add-on kitchen are being preserved to show the secondary use of railway passenger cars.

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

This sort of adaptive reuse of railroad cars had its last hurrah in the 1970s and 1980s. I cannot recall any existing ones. I can cite a few from past decades:

1) Track One Restaurant in Chicago-- a diner and lounge car parked at Lasalle Station and operated by the Rock Island into the early 1970s. Both cars had been used by RI in passenger service and had previous RR owners. I think one was ex-NYC.
2) Iron Horse Restaurant in Tulsa--- several ex-IC and ex-MP lightweight passenger cars formed this theme restaurant in the early 1970s.
3) In Santa Fe, NM, into the late 1980s was a Budd diner or lounge used as a local diner. It was located down the street from the former Santa Fe and D&RGW/NMC depots.
4) In Houston was another Budd Santa Fe car which was a steak house through the 1970s.
5) In Galveston at the RR museum was a restaurant operated in Burlington round-end car "Silver Hours" into the late 1980s or early 1990s.
6) I seem to recall in Tukwila (sp?), WA a couple of ex-GN lightweight cars (one was a round-end obs.)that formed part of a restaurant. This was in 1989.
7) Most recently I recall two cars near or south of San Luis Obispo, CA being used as a diner or restaurant. This may still be in operation.

> This sort of adaptive reuse of railroad cars
> had its last hurrah in the 1970s and 1980s.
> I cannot recall any existing ones. I can
> cite a few from past decades:

Another I forgot in the SE Texas area was a collection of rolling stock operated as the "Sawmill Resturant" in Silsbee, Texas (north of Beaumont). I always intended to eat there, but I think it is gone now.

It all leads me to wonder why they rose up like that in the 1970s and 1980s, and disappear now. I guess a bunch of rolling stock became available a a reasonable price at the time, but required major repairs to stay in operation, and disappeared instead?

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Other Industrial Artifacts in the Mid-South
james1@pernet.net

> Hey James, I am trying to track down a
> rumored ancient wooden C of G coach as part
> of a restaurant in ElDorado Arkansas. Ring
> any bells?

No, but I can ask on the Railspot Mailing List on Yahoo if anyone knows anything about it. I am familiar with the town, but haven't personally driven through it that I can recall.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a


Other Industrial Artifacts in the Mid-South
james1@pernet.net