California Zephyr as food court at Disney's California Adventure Park
I stumbled on this little tangent recently and thought it was worth sharing because of the nice photographs and details that the article provides. The parent website covers the history of Disney park features that are no longer. Here's a summary of the relevant train and food bits; click the links for the photos and full story.
From 2001 to 2011, the California Adventure Park in Anaheim, CA had a non-operational EMD FP7 cab to which they added a rear section and Disney-manufactured streamliner cars that served food. The observation car at the end sold toys. The FP7 cab was built in 1952 for the Canadian National Railway as #9104. They rebuilt it in 1973 as #9165, and retired it in 1989. Disney picked it up in Illinois in 1990.
The article says that the park numbered the cab "804-A" in Western Pacific livery after the last Chicago to Oakland run in 1970. But, the article says that this wasn't the actual engine because that engine was wrecked in 1972. (Various Wikipedia mentions about "804-A" seem to dispute that. I'll leave the investigation to others.) The Disney Company donated the cab to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, CA, for their "Zephyr Project". There's a photo of the cab's removal as part of the story: The full "Yesterland" story and photos
Here's the food part:
1. Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream accessed via the side of the engine. More info and photos
2. Baker's Field Bakery accessed via the "Silver Platter" dining car. This section had a train mural and actual framed Zephyr memorabilia. More info and photos
(The bad food puns could have come straight from the Tomlinson Run Railroad, but thank goodness, they didn't!)
Tomlinson Run Railroad
