MONTEVIDEO, Minn. - The remains of two former Milwaukee Road Skytop sleeping cars once used on the Olympian Hiawatha are headed for a Minnesota museum.

The Milwaukee Road Historical Association organized the effort to preserve the remains of the two cars, which were used as part of a floating restaurant on the ferryboat Lansdowne. At one time the barge/restaurant was located in Detroit, then Erie, Pa., and finally Buffalo, N.Y., where efforts to reestablish the restaurant failed.

The iron-hulled Lansdowne was moved east to Buffalo in 2006 after being kicked out of Erie, where it had long been considered an eyesore while it was moored along Erie's west bayfront.

In Buffalo, the Lansdowne's owner, Specialty Restaurants Corp., continued with plans to turn the barge into a floating restaurant. The Lansdowne had taken up residence at the South End Marina, a coveted spot in Buffalo's outer harbor.

Plans for the Lansdowne lost steam when Specialty Restaurants' original owner, David Tallichet, died about 18 months ago. With no action taken toward opening a restaurant, politicians asked Specialty Restaurants to move the barge out of Buffalo because they said it was unsightly. Under pressure, the company finally agreed to sell the barge for demolition, which began in April.

The Milwaukee Road Historical Association negotiated for months with the scrap company to salvage the two cars on the boat. The cars are the former Milwaukee Road Arrow Creek and Gold Creek, two of six eight-bedroom lounge-observation Skytop cars built by Pullman Standard in 1948-49 for the Chicago-Seattle/Tacoma Olympian Hiawatha. The Hi was discontinued in 1961, and the six observation cars were sold to Canadian National in 1964, where they continued in service until 1976.

Three of the cars were scrapped, but two ended up as part of the restaurant. By the time they arrived in Buffalo, the cars were mainly hulks, with no interiors and only the outer shells remaining. To save what remained, the bodies were cut away from the underframes and the remaining bodies were cut down the middle from roof to floor. The floors and the trucks from the cars were left behind, as the equipment being used was not heavy enough to lift them.

The remains of the cars were placed on flatcars for shipment to Montevideo, routed over CSX, Union Pacific, and Twin Cities & Western. Eventually the cars will be displayed at the Milwaukee Road Heritage Center in Montevideo. A third Skytop sleeper, the Coffee Creek, survives and is being restored in Fargo, N.D.

The Milwaukee Road also owned four Skytop parlor-observations used on the Twin Cities Hiawathas. Three of these cars survive, including the Cedar Rapids, in operating condition and based in Minneapolis.

I just heard from a non-railfan friend who lives in the area that the Skytops have been cut up into 3 or 4 pieces each and have been loaded onto flatcars - destination unknown. Does anyone have further details?