2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the beginning of Flying Scotsman's North American Tour. After Flying Scotsman ceased working trips across North America in 1972, it returned back to Britain. The Observation Car went to San Francisco and was used as a Board Room in Chestnut Drive? and eventually was repatriated to England and is now on the Swanage Railway. The two Pullman Cars came back also. Two exhibition cars were seized by the IRS in lieu of unpaid charges and were broken up for scrap in Stockton? The remaining vehicles were modified as dining cars and went into use at the Victoria Station Restaurant, Universal Studios, California. I saw them there in 1977 when the restaurant opened. The Victoria Station Restaurant complex has now been demolished.

My question is "What ever happened to the four vehicles that went into use here, were they destroyed in the demolition process which took place during November, 2014?

I have spoken with a Vice President at Universal Studios who says that he "... doesn't know what happened to the exhibition Cars, or the artefacts that adorned the restaurant complex".

Does anyone know what happened to the cars or ephemera that adorned the restaurant?

Does anyone have any images of the exhibition cars in the scrapyard or at the Victoria Station Restaurant complex? Any info at all will be very much appreciated. Many thanks. JoBo.

I highly suggest you read Tom Blake's "Prime Rib and Boxcars. Whatever Happened To Victoria Station?" It is a great read, and explains why the company is no longer with us today.

I found these photos from thestudiotour.com and they seem to be the only photos of the Universal Studios location on the internet. I am not sure if the incline was ever built, it is mentioned in the book but Blake never says if it was actually built. Perhaps someone can comment on that tidbit?





http://www.thestudiotour.com/ush/attrac ... tation.php

Very many thanks for this NS 3322. Thank you for the suggestion to read the book - this I did sometime ago and in fact I was in dialogue with the author - who said that although he was aware of the Scotsman Cars at Universal - he was not aware of their ultimate disposal details. Thanks for the images.

The Vintage Carriages trust register here in the UK only appears to indicate that two former LNER full brake (baggage) cars ended up in the Victoria Station complex there - #70632 and #70636. Judging by the photos further up this thread, they were certainly "doctored" a bit from their original configuration (no windows...) !
Only ever managed to visit one Victoria Station (Denver, CO) but was amazed at what UK railwayana was on display inside the building.

It's been reported in railwayana collectors' circles that although a lot of the railwayana displayed in VS restaurants was indeed purchased in bulk from BR's own Collector's Corner surplus outlet in Euston Station (or around the corner from it), a good number of displayed items in later outlets were in fact replicas made/"forged" from the originals by VS.

That's interesting, but quite feasible if the number of outlets expanded quicker than they could source the stuff from Collectors Corner.
There was certainly a nameplate from one of the original NBL "Warship" class pilot scheme locos in the Denver branch, and I came across a number of "Totem" style BR signs for sale at the antique shop in the old station at Palmer, MA, back in 2003 which could well have come from a defunct VS branch.

I was not aware that there was a VS which actually had British-heritage cars. I guess the Universal Studios/Universal City site was the flagship for the restaurant.

From what I could gather online, there were four cars total at this VS, the cable car from the parking lot was constructed, and it was at least in operation until 1988. I don't know if all four cars were from the UK.
https://oldlarestaurants.com/victoria-station/comment-page-2/

And the topic of Victoria Station is probably one of the reasons why there should be an FAQ associated with this site:
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42551
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28709
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18691

And one chain site or another is mentioned in several threads.

This thread on the Flying Scotsman train set may be of help:
http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30923

This may not add any new information for the IP's question, but it is interesting to see.

A number of years ago there was a British Railways Warship class nameplate on Ebay that the seller claimed came from Victoria Station a number of people concluded that it was a reproduction plate so some of this stuff made it into the market .

Several years ago I happened upon some reproduction LMS (Crewe) and LNER loco builder's plates at an antique shop in South Carolina. They were cast aluminum so clearly not the real thing, but even so I couldn't imagine how something like that would turn up in such an unlikely location, or why anyone in the US would have gone to the trouble of having them made. Could these have possibly come from the Victoria Station in Atlanta?

-Philip Marshall

One of the problems with collecting british locomotive builders,number and name plates is there is a large industry over there in manufacturing reproduction plates.partly due to the crazy prices the originals go for the ones you saw could have been brought over from the UK or could be from VS

The "large industry" is pretty much one company, the contractor that also made/makes new plates for named UK locos:

http://newtonreplicas.com/

My understanding is that replicas are plainly marked to not be able to be passed off as the real thing; further, a couple of the UK railwayana auction houses, notably Sheffield, and their officials have become absolute authorities to knowing the whereabouts of virtually every "known" plate out there. If you're going to offer plates that people are going to bid to over £25,000, provenance is paramount.

The irony is that at the time Victoria Station was acquiring stuff, it was most likely cheaper buying old BR cast-offs than replicating them, even given freight costs!

To that end, however, I am unaware of any VS in the States ever exhibiting true treasures such as loco nameplates or builders plates, or headboards of named trains. Rather, what I have seen from supposed VS detritus amounted to little more than cast iron "BEWARE OF TRAINS" or wordy anti-trespassing signs, with maybe the equivalent of a couple semaphores, cast-iron car builders' plates from freight wagons, whistle posts, gradient signs, etc. I'd still take some of it, but none of it was likely to be of high value or worth repatriating.

The McCormick Stillman Railroad park in Scottsdale has some ephemera from the Victoria Station chain. Would love to know what happened to the cars at Universal as well.

Mike

I'd never even heard of this chain until recently, but I was born in 1969 so I would have bene very young about the time it was circling the drain.