Mr. Ed wrote: OK. Now that we have stirred memories of the hobby shop in New Oxford, Pa, I have a questions about another memory on Route 30 in Pa. See, I would drive north on I-81 from Hagerstown, Md, then east on Route 30 towards Lancaster. On the trip and long before you get to New Oxford, there was a restaurant on the left in an old restored passenger car. It may well have been an old dining car, I am not sure. I seem to recall that it looked like a Jackson Sharp car but I also seem to recall that it was a long car, longer than I picture the JS cars. It was either a dark green or black. Keep in mind this was the early '80s, like '81 or '82. DOes anybody remember this car and it's history?
Thanks.
Later!
Mr. Ed
I know this well. This was the Caledonia Station Restaurant, owned by Bill Putch, the Producing Director of the Totem Pole Playhouse in Caledonia State Park, on Route 30 between Chambersburg and Gettysburg. I have worked at the Playhouse for 30 summers now and recall my first year in 1982 when Bill had just opened the restaurant. There indeed was a Jackson and Sharp coach used as a dining car, connected by covered platforms to 2 wood cabooses outfitted as kitchen and dishwashing facilities. A large station-style building housed a bar area and additional dining seating and was built resembling the Victoria Station restaurant chain. Bill ran the restaurant for 2 years prior to his death in 1983. His wife, actress Jean Stapleton and family operated it one more season until selling it to an entrepreneur in 1985. The business went under in the late 1980s and was sold at auction. All cars and buildings were removed from the site. The restaurant building traveled down Route 30 to the I-81 interchange and is now the Broadway deli. Although I have some photos of the cars, I don't know their disposition.
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