About Our Rail Cars

interior of car #447

another view of the #447

the outside of new york central #447

The New York Central
Dining Car #447

The New York Central Dining Car was ordered by the New York Central in 1945 from the Edward G. Budd Company. Building of the car was completed in 1947, where upon the car was put into service as a dining car until 1967 when it was retired to work train service.

In 1968, New York Central merged with The Pennsylvania Railroad and became Penn-Central. It went on to become Conrail in 1976. Upon obtaining the dining car Conrail converted the car into a police training car. Conrail was divided between CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1999. The car came under the ownership of CSX at that time and was parked in Waycross, Georgia. CSX sold the car to the Illinois Transit Assembly Corporation (ITAC) in Madison, Illinois in 2000.

In November 2002, the dining car was purchased by its current owner, Bill Thomas. In 2003, he had the car railed from Madison to Cincinnati. It was then removed from the railroad track by crane and trucked to BBQ Revue's parking lot. Over the next six months the interior was restored. It was then turned into an ice cream parlor in August 2003 and operated as such until its closing in the fall of 2006.

In October 2007, the car was craned and trucked out of the parking lot. It was put back on live track and sent back to ITAC which is now Gateway Rail Services. The car returned to Cincinnatii in December 2008 in anticipation of the launch of the Cincinnati Dinner Train in the spring of 2009.

 

interior of car #201

the outside of the Milwaukee road #201

Dining Car #201

This car was built in 1946 by ACF (American Car Foundry) for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad as a long distance coach. Later, it was sold to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, where it operated in commuter service out of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The car was then sold to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society in the early 1980’s. During this time, it accumulated several thousand miles and passengers, behind restored steam locomotive #765.

These trips operated all over the Midwest and Northeast. In 1994, the car was then sold to North Star Rail in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It operated trips all over the Midwest and Northeast behind restored steam locomotive #261. In 2005, the car was sold to Railroad Associates, where it operated in excursion service across the state of Michigan. In 2008, it was purchased by its current owners, Brian Collins and Bill Thomas for the Cincinnati Dinner Train.

 

bar area of the queen city tavern #1379

another view of the #1379

The Queen City Tavern

The Queen City Tavern car, RPCX 1379, was initially built as a coal-fired kitchen car by the St. Louis Car Company in 1953 for the United States Army. It carried the U.S. Army number 89687, and was painted standard olive drab. Car number 89687 saw service in troop trains until some point in the 1960's when it was stored.

It was acquired by Amtrak from the U. S. government as a surplus equipment transfer in the mid-1970's, part of a group of 50 similar cars.

The car was numbered 1379 by Amtrak. This group of cars was not usable as kitchen cars by Amtrak, and so in 1975 and 1976, Amtrak rebuilt 30 of the cars, including number 89687, into 50 foot baggage-mail cars for service on long distance trains. Because they were 20 feet shorter than most standard baggage cars, these major restorations were commonly called "shorties". At the time of the rebuild, Amtrak made major improvements to the brake and electrical systems on the cars, and they were used widely throughout the system in so-called Heritage Fleet trains until about 1990 when the arrival of newer, higher speed equipment began to displace them.

The 1379 was acquired by a private owner in an Amtrak equipment auction in 1993, and it was used as a passenger car maintenance work shop. In 2008, it was purchased for the Cincinnati Dinner Train and rebuilt for use as an entertainment car.