Courtesy of a chap at the railroad.net forums, an update on a floating restaurant plan gone awry, with a MILW Skytop observation car in peril as a result...... article reprinted at link below.

Story on Erie's Milwaukee Skytop diner afloat

lner4472@bcpl.net

According to WebLurker's dome page there were two MILW skytop lounges stored on this barge, #14 Arrow Creek and #16 Gold Creek. Only one is visible in the article pictures, I wonder where the other one is.

> Courtesy of a chap at the railroad.net
> forums, an update on a floating restaurant
> plan gone awry, with a MILW Skytop
> observation car in peril as a result......
> article reprinted at link below.


http://www.trainweb.org/web_lurker/MILW/
davew833@yahoo.com

> According to WebLurker's dome page there
> were two MILW skytop lounges stored on this
> barge, #14 Arrow Creek and #16 Gold Creek.
> Only one is visible in the article pictures,
> I wonder where the other one is.

Gentleman, Gentleman: you act as if this is something new! This is what remains of the once proud GTW ferry Landsdowne, the last sidewheel car ferry on the Great Lakes. The cars were puchased from CN in the 1970's, and cut as you now see to fit into the ferry and make it easily accessible as a restuarant. It was moored along the Detroit waterfront for nearly 25 years as a restuarant, with these cars hacked apart for the better of part of that time. This damage is by no means new. Its just the sad continuation of an even sadder story of a car ferry that should NEVER have left the Detroit River. Historical context, anyone?

TJG


Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

I don't think there's any reason to panic about these cars yet. I've talked to the owners of the Landsdowne several times in recent years and they are determined to complete the renovation of the car ferry and open it as a restaurant. The stripped condition of the ferry and the obs cars is fairly recent and is evidently part of the renovation. In other words, the cars haven't been sitting with the windows out for years, and they are not "abandoned" to the best of my knowledge.

domeliner@hotmail.com

For some reason I never got aboard this when it was a restaurant at Detroit, but I was told that much of the length of one side of each of the Skytops was cut away. Effectively the cars were built into a room of the restaurant erected on the car deck. The wheels were welded to the rails of the ferry.

I was also told that at least one of the long-stroke 1860's sidewheel engines was scrapped, perhaps one that had a catastrophic failure at the end of the boat's service. (The engines are older than the iron hull, being, I think, from a wooden predecessor.)

Detroit and historic preservation, for the most part, do not mix. (Although, to continue an earlier thread, this weekend's Detroit Free Press reported that Detroit's MC Depot is "on a short list" of alternative locations for the city's new police headquarters. The 1920's Albert Kahn headquarters is to be flattened. Another probably more likely alternative is the vacant 1930's moderne Detroit Free Press building downtown. Either the baggage or press rooms in these buildings' basements could hold plenty of miscreants.)

Aarne H. Frobom
The Steam Railroading Institute
P. O. Box 665
Owosso, MI 48840-8482

Have to agree with Aarne here. Leave it to Detroit to save one historic structure by tearing down another equally historic structure. One seriously wonders if anyone within the higher-ups of the City of Detroit even knows how important Albert Kahn was to urban architecture. Half of the buildings he designed are already gone! You know, that would be a good one to ask Kwame......

TJG

> For some reason I never got aboard this when
> it was a restaurant at Detroit, but I was
> told that much of the length of one side of
> each of the Skytops was cut away.
> Effectively the cars were built into a room
> of the restaurant erected on the car deck.
> The wheels were welded to the rails of the
> ferry.

> I was also told that at least one of the
> long-stroke 1860's sidewheel engines was
> scrapped, perhaps one that had a
> catastrophic failure at the end of the
> boat's service. (The engines are older than
> the iron hull, being, I think, from a wooden
> predecessor.)

> Detroit and historic preservation, for the
> most part, do not mix. (Although, to
> continue an earlier thread, this weekend's
> Detroit Free Press reported that Detroit's
> MC Depot is "on a short list" of
> alternative locations for the city's new
> police headquarters. The 1920's Albert Kahn
> headquarters is to be flattened. Another
> probably more likely alternative is the
> vacant 1930's moderne Detroit Free Press
> building downtown. Either the baggage or
> press rooms in these buildings' basements
> could hold plenty of miscreants.)

> Aarne H. Frobom
> The Steam Railroading Institute
> P. O. Box 665
> Owosso, MI 48840-8482


Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Photo of the carferry and obs cars prior to being stripped for renovation:


ddg14@attbi.com

Why does the name "David Tallichet" ring bells in the depths of my cobwebbed old mind? Was he not a collector or museum operator of World War II aircraft?

fitzrr@pioneer.net

david Tallichet was (is?) the founder of the Speciality Restaurants Company.

His Aero Squadron restaurants catered to his interest in flying antique planes.

He also did something with trains, not sure what, but he or his corporation owned several steam engines over the years.

I actually worked for him; when he owned the largest square rigger in the world at Philadelphia, PA. Was definately odd seeimg a man in cowboy boots and ten gallon hat in the city of Brotherly Love. The sailing ship continues as a restaurant under different ownership.

ted_miles@nps.gov

a couple of new pictures of the Lansdowne have been posted over at Trainorders.com a detail of one of the cars and a end shot of the remaining (?) engine ...Rick take a look at this one and see how she compares to the Todd!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> a couple of new pictures of the Lansdowne
> have been posted over at Trainorders.com a
> detail of one of the cars and a end shot of
> the remaining (?) engine ...Rick take a look
> at this one and see how she compares to the
> Todd!

Link?

-James


Surviving World Steam Project
james1@pernet.net

> Link?

> -James

see if this works


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2
lamontdc@adelphia.net