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Reply to "Trains, Trolleys, and Diners: The real story"

While searching for a good picture of the Fall River, MA McDonald’s Restaurant with the streamliner coach that Silver Lake mentioned, I was surprised to find three more examples of a rail car or interurban car with Golden Arches. Only one remains today.  Modeling inspiration anyone?

Bartow Station, Barstow, CA

 

Opening in the summer of 1975 on Route 66, this McDonald’s has always rail cars attached to it. It was originally built with “the best dining cars from across the country” – according to their website. Google maps reveals 6 cars at present. (There’s even a Subway Restaurant but no cars :-). Photos by SpecialK: http://www.pentaxforums.com/fo...arstow-remnants.html

Crystal Lake, IL

The Crystal Lake McD’s was built in 1959 as a take-out only restaurant. In 1984, a retired Chicago Transit Authority (St. Louis?) was attached to provide seating. This side-ways arrangement had much better fung shui than the Fall River car, which stuck out of the side of the restaurant at 90-degrees!  In 2006, this building was demolished and parts of the car went to the Illinois Railway Museum. Some better close-ups of this handsome Lake Street “L” car can be found on the web. Here are some history links (hopetunnel.org photo):

http://chicagoist.com/2006/12/..._closing_forever.php

http://www.hopetunnel.org/subw.../051120/mc4000_1.jpg

Boulder, CO

Once located at 29th Street, it looks like the caboose in the following link is gone. Waymarking.com is a good source for photos of railcars-turned-diners/dining rooms, along with GPS data:

http://www.waymarking.com/waym...Boulder_Colorado_USA

Tomlinson Run Railroad, Somewhere in the USA

This previously unknown McDonald’s was created from a PRR coach, appropriately named the Henry J. Heinz. In its heyday, this car was called the “King of the Condiments”.  In this 1977 view, Tina is leaving with a bag of breakfast pancakes while Joe is checking his watch to confirm that he has enough time for some Newman’s Own before heading off to work. The next two photos suggest why so few of these McDonald’s + rail cars remain in the U.S. 

Dinosaur view -- looks like a tasty hotdog from up here:

“Hold the pickles! Hold the lettuce, some thing tall’s gonna get us!”  Humm, maybe Dan P. was on to something?

Tomlinson Run (for the hills) Railroad

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Last edited by TomlinsonRunRR

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