http://www.tramrestaurant.com.au/en/special-offers/celebrate-your-next-anniversary-in-style/

I'll make a reservation for two!

You mean, have they gutted a streetcar/interurban and fitted it with tables and a gaudy paint job to attract tourists? For better or worse, yes. Many cars were transferred from the collection of an Oregon trolley museum to make the initial developments of the Old Spaghetti Factory. Perhaps some cars never were shipped to Oregon but were retrofitted elsewhere. One of the OSF cars, a Texas interurban, is now located at the New York Museum of Transportation and they have held spaghetti meals in it on occasion. The operation at East Troy Wisconsin is as much a tourist railroad as a museum, and they have converted a few South Shore interurban cars to diner configuration and offer meals in them.

Other than that, I am aware of a number of independent diners made from trolley cars.

Actually (according to the website) they are working cars (3 of them) that run like regular interurbans. I imagine there must be an off site commissary to support the venture, but wow, that's a neat way to put a gutted out Melbourne car (or Peter Witt) to use.

Not horridly priced (assuming prices are $AU).

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in Dallas offers the Dine-around charter which is a progressive dinner involving transport to 3 restaurants. They have offered onboard catered meals but it is not very easy on their existing fleet. The NTT interurban freight motor #332 they are restoring is to offer on-board dining since it will be specifically equipped to handle catering. That project is unsponsored though, so work continues at a slow pace.

http://www.mata.org/dine.shtml
http://www.mata.org/332specs.htm

I had the great fortune to experience the Tramcar Restaurant several years ago, thanks to some good friends in Melbourne. Reservations had to be made well in advance, and we were fortunate to be able to get seats. The ride was on regular city tramcar lines, running between scheduled operations on the MT system, and the food, wine, ambience and total experience was first-class all the way. It was sort of a dinner-sightseeing luxury land cruise of the city.

There are probably few places in the US where it could be recreated - extensive city trackage and a management that is willing to allow a small fleet of private cars to run in between their scheduled traffic might be harder to find here. I could see it in Pittsburgh, Boston, DC, Philly or Chicago, certainly San Francisco would be a great venue. Exciting urban rather than dingy urban or suburban or interurban was what made it work.

A disconnected bit of museum line running through nothing much - probably a bad fit.

dave

Having grown up in Melbourne, I've seen just how successful the tramcar restaurant has been. Not amongst the railfan set, but certainly amongst the tourist market. It is an interesting way to see Melbourne and the food is good.

Initially one tram was converted in about 1982, but in recent years, two more have been modified. There is no pretence that the trams are heritage units, but they have come from a large fleet and there is no real loss of historical accuracy as many, many trams of their type have been preserved as they served.

A tram restaurant was also tried on the Adelaide-Glenelg line in South Australia, but the single line and lack of interesting scenery meant it wasn't a success.

The heritage/tourist operation in Bendigo (a provincial city in Victoria, Australia) has a similar car in use on Saturday nights. It is quite successful.

Another ex-Melbourne W2 car was converted to cafe/restaurant use and is used in Christchurch, New Zealand on their city circulator.

The idea can work, but moreso in street-based operations with interesting scenery than on museum lines. Mind you, the East Troy dining trains seem to be a success.

Cheers,
Matt