Regarding the ex-BCR coaches at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad:

"Morton" was ex-BCR "Clinton".
"New Reliance" was ex-BCR "Lone Butte."

For some reason my equipment roster doesn't show the ex-BCR name for the "Eatonville." I'll have to correct that.

Brian Wise
General Manager
MRSR

Also, regarding the coach lettered "BA&P" #441 at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad, one truck is cast "D&RGW" while the other truck is cast "D&SL". And as an FYI, the car in question was never on the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific to the best of my knowledge. It was lettered that way by previous owners who had plans to start a steam excursion program on that line. Any factual information about the history of this car would be greatly appreciated!

Brian Wise
General Manager
Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad

The two Skagit River cars (ex-Oregon Electric) at Andy's Diner were purchased by the City of Seattle in July 1934 and sold to Dulien Steel in March 1954. A friend crawled under the car next to the FDR car and says that it is a steel covered wood car with NP castings.

Thanks, Brian and John, for the info!

I did some digging on Andy's Diner and found these:

June 17, 1949 Andy’s Diner opening next Monday in a “regulation steel dining car” at 2711 4th Ave. South

September 19, 1962 Consists of six plush railroad cars seating 300

September 12, 1965 The 7th and last car added to Andy’s Diner. The car is about 30 years old and was purchased from the Northern Pacific. The mahogany paneling will be refinished. 60 feet of car will contain a cocktail lounge.

December 9, 1965 Andy’s gutted by fire, two car interiors destroyed

Did some more digging on Andy's Diner. After driving around it today I can state that there are six cars there. From north to south you have the Harriman car, a wood clearstory car, the two Skagit cars, the unidentified car and the Gallatin River. Just to keep it interesting the restaurant moved two blocks south in 1957/58.

June 17, 1949 Andy’s Diner opening next Monday in a “regulation steel dining car” at 2711 4th Ave. South

February 21, 1952 Open after remodeling at 2723 4th Ave. S

February 13, 1955 Ad drawing shows clearstory car on north side, Harriman car not shown, only one car shown south side with round window in vestibule. 2723 4th Ave. S

September 23, 1957 Address shown as 2711 4th Ave. S

January 5, 1958 Address shown as 2963 4th Ave. S (currant location)

September 19, 1962 Consists of six plush railroad cars seating 300

September 12, 1965 The 7th and last car added to Andy’s Diner. The car is about 30 years old and was purchased from the Northern Pacific. The mahogany paneling will be refinished. 60 feet of car will contain a cocktail lounge.

December 9, 1965 Andy’s gutted by fire, three car interiors destroyed
Photograph shows Harriman car

Gallatin River purchased after 1969 BN merger

John--

Thanks for doing the additional research on the Seattle location of Andy's Diner.

Looking at your notes and what I observed and photographed back in October, I think that there are currently 5 cars, unless the "wood clerestory car" is so buried in the structure of the building I missed it entirely. Looking at the front of the restaurant from north to south (right to left) is the Harriman coach (painted red), then the central building with main entrance, then the 4 other cars: the 2 ex-Oregon Electric/Skagit River cars (only 1 can be seen from the front, painted yellow, the second is directly behind the first, painted red), the unidentified car (painted red, which for the first time today I noticed was equipped with AC), and the NP business car Gallatin River (green).

That being said, I think I comprehend how the last car added 9/12/1965 was the "7th car" and yet today, there are only 5: when the fire occurred in December 1965, you noted that 3 of the car interiors were destroyed. So, rather than make costly repairs, the restaurant removed these cars, meaning that the restaurant would've been left with only 4 cars, and that the Gallatin River was purchased to make up for lost floorspace. However, it could be that the Harriman coach was only damaged in the fire (you noted that the news article covering the fire had a photo of this car) and was subsequently repaired, which means that afterward the restaurant had 5 cars, not 4. This would mean that the "7th car" acquired in 1965 was indeed the Gallatin River, which you noted was purchased from NP. The description of mahogany paneling and the car's age of "30 years" would line up with this. The car was built in 1916, but was modified in 1936 for use in the Rexall Train.

Or maybe I'm going around in circles and missed something.

Of course, Andy's Diner later opened a second location in Tukwila, using lightweight cars purchased from GN and CB&Q. Besides the St. Nicholas Mountain, the other cars from the Tukwila location are still scattered around the state.

GN high-windowed buffet lounge observations #1291 St. Nicholas Mountain (CB&Q owned) and #1294 Trempealeau Mountain (both built by AC&F for the Mid-Century Empire Builder). The St. Nicholas Mountain is now owned by Ben Ringnalda and was moved to the Western MD Scenic shops for restoration work. The Trempealeau Mountain at last report was up at Snoqualmie Pass.

GN 60 seat "short distance" chair #1212 (also built by AC&F for the Mid-Century Empire Builder, intended to be renumbered BN #6015). Now located in Bothell at Country Village.

CB&Q snack bar-42 seat chair #342 Silver Top (built by Budd in 1937 as FW&D 52 seat chair #403). Now located in Bothell with the #1212.

CB&Q snack bar-42 seat chair #344 Silver Spur (built by Budd in 1938 as C&S 52 seat chair #601). Randall lists that the C&S #600/CB&Q #343 Silver Mine was sold to Andy's, but seeing as how the Silver Spur is at the Red Caboose Getaway in Sequim, I've concluded it was the car sold to Andy's.

Andy's Diner just gets more mysterious. A series of photographs at the Seattle Municipal Archives shows Skagit River Ry car #17 being moved into the original Andy's location near the corner of 4th & Lander in March 1956. There are also a few shots of the original restaurant in 1954 after the second car was added. Go to http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/ and put Andy's Diner in the photo search box.

I found an undated post card on Flickr that shows Andy's second location at 2963 4th with just four cars, the two Skagit car, the wood clearstory car and the Harriman.

Questions
1. If Andy's got Skagit car #17 in 1956 why are #18 and 23 there now?

2. What were the two original car?

3. What happened to the two cars from the original restaurant?

I just talked with a friend who has photographic proof that the two Skagit cars at Andy's are the #17 & 21. They were installed at the original Andy's in March 1956 and moved two blocks south to the new Andy's in mid-1957. The two original cars were not moved. The Harriman car and the wood car next to it were installed on the north side of the new restaurant and the Skagit cars on the south were they are today. Sometime between 1957 and 1965 three more cars were installed on the south side for a total of seven. It looks like two cars were removed after the 1965 fire. The Gallitan River arrived in 1970 or 71.

I thought that the exposed arched window on the wood car adjacent to the Harriman car, is of the same style as the two interurbans on the other side of the restaurant. Just saying, maybe there are three interurbans there. The arched front can be seen above the entry way ceiling, I think at a bar area, this car has been extremely modified.
I took a photo of the window but don't have it on hand right now.
O. Anderson

Here are two postcard views of Andy's. There is now zip code so they are pre-1963.

http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhib ... /g-28.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lornalou/2666848822/

I went by the diner again back on Sunday, and John was right in his report of there being a sixth car located directly behind the Harriman coach. This sixth car is painted red in front, where the double-doored main entrance was built into one of the vestibules, and green in back. I did some visual comparisons between it and the car formerly identified as a former MU coach located next to the NP #4 Gallatin River (painted red), and these 2 cars appear to be of the same design and origin. Comparing these 2 cars to historic photos, at this point I'm thinking that both are ex-NP cars built by Barney & Smith. However, at this point that can't be confirmed as the trucks, which could provide identification, are completely hidden.

Ted,

The "Eatonville" at MRSR is ex-BCR "Squamish."

Brian Wise
MRSR

Thanks, Brian, for the correction! Therefore, the Eatonville was originally CP #2283.

As for the #2286/Alexandria, I checked the Bytown listings, and in the "changes from 2013" section, the Alexandria is listed as sold by the West Coast RY Association in 2005 to the Kettle Valley Steam RY (Summerland, BC), however, the car was not actually delivered to Kettle Valley and as of May 2013 it was located on a barge in Vancouver. Besides the #2286/Alexandria, Kettle Valley owns 3 of the CP/BCOL cars:

#2289/#6600/Shannon Falls as Canyon View

#2270/Mackenzie as Faulder

#2241/Lillooet as West Summerland

This car is not Great Northern... it is the passenger car formerly known as Illinois Central 2636. ; )

The car was sold by the IC to Black Hills Central, which in turn transferred the car to Oregon Pacific & Eastern when its manager moved to that operation. Where the car has been since that time is difficult to say but at least part of its history is known... thankfully.

So now you know!!!