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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 6:27 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:26 pm
Posts: 612
Location: Pure Michigan
Alan Walker wrote:
I forget exactly where it is, probably the cross roads where you get off I-10 if you're heading to Silver City. Only reason I remember that was I ate there on a trip to Silver City.


Lordsburg or Deming?


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 7:16 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:49 pm
Posts: 520
I recommend the ex-NP North Coast Limited diner "Monterosso's" at 1026 Lee Blvd in Richland, Washington. It's an Italian restaurant where the original owners failed to follow the usual proper protocol of gutting the interior, cutting one, if not several holes in the side of the car, and overall making it look like anything but an old train car. The car is remarkably un-modified from it's use on the Mainstreeter as a buffet diner prior to Amtrak. This is car #451 built by Pullman Standard in 1947. The food is good and it's reasonably priced.


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:20 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:26 pm
Posts: 612
Location: Pure Michigan
I recommend the Club Car Grille in Kalamazoo, Michigan. However, the restaurant is temporarily closed as they suffered a fire a few months back and are currently remodeling (the coach was not damaged in the fire).
The car is from the now defunct KLSC tourist operation that was in Paw Paw, Michigan.

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There used to be two more passenger car restaurants in Michigan, Clara's Lansing Station (old Pullman coach) and Fennville Station (ex-Cuyahoga Valley Scenic coach), but they have both since closed. Equipment remains at both sites.


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:07 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
I'm surprised no one has mentioned La Estacion In Waukesha, WI. Admittedly, I haven't been in there since it turned into a Mexican restaurant, but the four or five ex-GM&O heavyweights are still there, outside the ex-C&NW station that houses the kitchen, bar, and restrooms. What is missing is the ex- Soo Line 4-6-0, which went to North Freedom when the CNW/SOO crossing was revised with a connector track to accommodate the Wisconsin & Southern. Back when it first opened as an upscale American restaurant in the eighties, I was on the BOD of the Soo Line Historical & Technical Society, and we occasionally had board meetings there, in one of the cars, with lunch afterwards.

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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:39 am 

Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm
Posts: 1227
China Express Seattle, WA
Franks Diner (2 locations) Spokane, WA
Knight's Diner Spokane, WA


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 2:32 pm 

Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:54 am
Posts: 1184
Location: Tucson, Arizona
NS 3322 wrote:
Alan Walker wrote:
I forget exactly where it is, probably the cross roads where you get off I-10 if you're heading to Silver City. Only reason I remember that was I ate there on a trip to Silver City.


Lordsburg or Deming?


Probably Deming.

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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 4:47 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:26 pm
Posts: 612
Location: Pure Michigan
Alan Walker wrote:
NS 3322 wrote:
Alan Walker wrote:
I forget exactly where it is, probably the cross roads where you get off I-10 if you're heading to Silver City. Only reason I remember that was I ate there on a trip to Silver City.


Lordsburg or Deming?


Probably Deming.


I just reached out to the visitors center in Deming and they told me that the restaurant with the passenger car is in El Paso. Does that sound right? I am just personally curious where this car is as I frequently visit the area, and I like finding a restaurant with a railcar attached :) .


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:09 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:12 pm
Posts: 204
1880 Town in South Dakota has what they call a "50's Diner Train" made up of Santa Fe cars.


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:47 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:49 pm
Posts: 520
"1880 Town in South Dakota has what they call a "50's Diner Train" made up of Santa Fe cars."

That would be the cars in Murdo, SD. Certainly an odd place for Santa Fe lightweight cars to have wandered off to. It is really more of a hot dog stand than a restaurant per se. Both the baggage car and the lunch counter diner are very original. Sadly, the otherwise mint condition full diner has had it's kitchen ripped out and turned into additional seating. A true hatchet job in the grand tradition of RR passenger car "restorations".


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2018 8:19 pm 

Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:12 am
Posts: 822
Location: cheyenne
North of Williamsburg NM and North of a rest area on I-25 is a lonely gas station and restaurant with a passenger car built in, out the bank down the hill is a former SP car as well, I haven't seen any I Deming or Lordsburg but there could be.
Also in Nederland CO is a C&S car and CC baggage car and caboose serving as a restaurant
Mike Pannell


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:55 am 

Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:21 pm
Posts: 534
Location: Danbury, CT
Valhalla Crossing in Valhalla, NY is a restaurant with a former passenger car and a caboose. I haven’t had an opportunity to stop and eat there, so I don’t know any specifics on the cars.

valhallacrossing.com

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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:27 pm 

Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2017 4:39 pm
Posts: 7
For those on the left coast, the Rock and Roll Diner in Oceano, CA has a PS dining car and a Budd round-end obs you can eat in. I believe they are ex-Great Northern and Seaboard respectively, but I won't swear that is correct. The cars are somewhat intact and the food is is pretty good as I recall.

http://www.rockandrolldiner.com/


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:31 pm 

Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:41 pm
Posts: 53
Bob's Train in Sarasota, Florida is made up of four passenger cars, a mixture of heavyweight and lightweight cars. Interior decor is circus memorabilia and photographs, as Sarasota was the winter home of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:22 am 

Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm
Posts: 1227
Here is some more info on Washington diners.

Spokane Knight’s Diner Northern Pacific wood coach #988
http://www.knightsdiner.com/Knights_Diner/Home.html
http://properties.historicspokane.org/_ ... y-1853.pdf

Spokane Frank's Diner Northern Pacific wood observation #1787 and Great Northern #4216 "Laketon"
http://franksdiners.com/

#1787 became Knight's Diner in Seattle in 1938 and was moved to Spokane to become Frank's Diner in 1992.


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 Post subject: Re: Where else can I eat in a parked RR car?
PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:40 am 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
It wasn't clear to me if a "stationary railroad car" includes diners or not. Railroad cars make lousy restaurants; they are too long and narrow and there is no place for a decent kitchen. Most car bodies that have been converted to diners have had part of one side removed to allow at least a separate kitchen, also possibly additional dining room. The flip side is most the neat old cars have long since been converted to diners. Two of my favorites:

Silver Coach restaurant in Stevens Point Wisconsin, on US 10 within a mile west of I-39. This is a 1903 Barney and Smith sleeping car named Glen Flora. The original car body contains the bar, with the original stateroom used as a private dining booth.. Additional dining space is in a wing off the back of the car. This is a fine restaurant and the food is excellent.

Bull Moose Tavern on US 34 in Sandwich, Illinois. This is a 1906 AC&F coach that is remarkably intact inside. For a long time it suffered the indignity of having a fake sheet metal shovel nose applied to the outside of the end that faces the main intersection in town (the CB&Q Denver line passes one block north). Recently the new owner has restored the car to its former glory, although the end that replaces the shovel nose is rather fanciful. The history is almost as bad; once billed as a dining car that ran to the 1893 Colombian Exposition, it is now billed as Teddy Roosevelt's private car. This is a tavern, so the fare is bar food, but the food is good with a good selection of beers. The car is used as a dining room, with the kitchen, bar, and additional dining in a connected building.

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