Per Wayner, Silver Restaurant was built by Budd as CB&Q 195 in 1948-1949 for the California Zephyr.

Phil Mulligan

There was an ex-Seaboard Air Line coach that had last been used as a restaurant for sale for $11k in Indiana last year, I have no clue what happened to it, but $250 and able to be moved by rail beats $11k and needs to be trucked, even if SAL is more appropriate for your mission: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43498&hilit=+sal

Well, probably because of where I live, I would say any diner with a CZ heritage would be best restored in CZ style. Silver Restaurant seems like a very marketable name for such an establishment too. And the "Art Deco" (it's actually Streamline Moderne) CZ lettering looks so cool.
I can tell you that the heat & peel method sounds best to me, sanding on the stainless will give you problems you don't want to deal with. The other railroad's lettering on WP805A was removed with a sander or grinder (I wasn't around, so only have the results to go by). I spent days sanding out those scratches (gouges really) working up to finer & finer grits and then polishing, and it never, in my opinion, came up the the finish that the un-sanded areas were. Now I've polished automobile stainless trim to a see-yourself reflection, but those large flat side panels are another thing--there is a LOT of area there.
So if you can heat & peel, go for it!

Obviously it would be a major project to redo the interior fixtures on one of these diners. My suggestion would be to do what you can to make it feel like a Burlington dining car. If possible, make the interior walls and ceiling match the original colors. Install carpet/vinyl on the floors to approximate the original style.

Then the biggest thing is to give people the Burlington "experience". Study the menus and recipes that they used. You'll want to update them for today's culinary tastes. I used a CIA chef to put a modern touch to circa 1950 Erie and Lackawanna selections. Use glassware, china and flatware that is similar to what they used. If you want you could even to reproductions of the original china and flatware - some have found that to also be a great fundraiser (PM me if you want details of where to start with those).

We have to work with what we have. If you can give visitors the experience of traditional dining car service you will have accomplished a lot.

The car in question has arrived, notice the damage above the coupler.

It would be neat if you could come up with replacement skirting for that car, it just looks so "naked" without it. I hope that amtrak band does peel off.
So did they ever admit to what they hit with your car?

A CZ diner would have full-length skirting.

Also the window nearest the kitchen needs unblanked. A CZ diner has six tables and windows on each side. The window in question would be in a banquette with couch-type seats rather than chairs. There are banquettes at each end of the seating area. The banquette windows are slightly smaller than the table-and-chair windows, and the banquettes each have a half-height partition separating them from the table-and-chair seating. In the table-and-chair area, alternate tables have drop leaves to convert them to two seats.

Here are a floor plan and kitchen side drawing.

http://calzephyr.railfan.net/cars/dinerplans.jpg

Phil Mulligan

A lot of museums have aquired these cars and I think it is a poor choice in every way imaginable. I saw on their face book page the word "granduer", really? Those things look like an airplane on the inside and the kitchen was created to provide school cafeteria type meals (which are all pre-prepared frozen junk now-days). Have fun with the local health department. No bathrooms...explain that to customers and health department alike. Fire code???
Beyond all of that...why are there so many historic diners sitting that nobody will even think about restoring?
I predict in 20 years these will be full of wasp nests and used for storage.
T7

Your school cafeteria cooked steaks to order!?

Wow, that's a rather harsh appraisal, I actually am intrigued by their idea, I have seen comments on museum sites about how the public shows up to a train ride and asks for food/beverage options and there are none, and how to remedy that without saying "there is a gas station five miles from here that sells nachos" etc.. I live in the Portland area which is famous for the food truck culinary experience, low overhead and unique tastes at affordable prices, they are literally everywhere here, there is a park a mile or so from me (right next to a light rail stop/city hall) where you can get German, Chinese, Thai, etc food, plus cheeseteaks wings etc. from out of a 4' by 8' trailer (though most are larrger, think the utility trailer you can pull behind a pickup), the "kitchen" is a stove top and some coolers. They wouldn't need to produce much more than hot dogs and pizza, plus beverages, in this car to make people happy I think, I really think they may be on to something here.

Has the diner been placed on a piece of isolated track? It kind of looks that way in the picture.

No.

Here’s a photo I took on my last trip in an Amtrak heritage dining car. I was southbound on the crescent. I’ll miss those cars and I’m glad they are being saved as they have great history.

To the several questions asked and comments made:

a) Yes, CSX knows they damaged the car and have acknowledged as such. They are waiting on our estimates for damage repair. Basically, they humped a string of these Amtrak cars into a string of tankers with top shelf couplers. Unfortunately, our car took the brunt of the collision.

b) No, the car is not on isolated track. We have a live lead coming in from Norfolk Southern off the old Carolina & North-Western mainline.

c) As far as the car being a "poor choice" for ours or any other museum, we appreciate your opinion. BUT, it is not what has been asked for by our many patrons, and its revenue potential will let us expand public programming, equipment restoration, and further our primary mission. The last I heard, ignoring suggestions and requests by patrons isn't probably the best way to conduction business.

d) As far as the other "conjured reasons why it will fail" department, note that 1) In the museum setting, we have VERY NICE restrooms nearby not in this photo, 2) we have already talked with the health inspectors and building inspectors, and there are no significant impediments that will prevent us from making this car operational as a static operating diner. And if your beef is with us using the word "grandeur" on a social media page trying to generate excitement for our museum, well, you have bigger problems than us to worry about or comment on...

Matt Bumgarner