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

Missouri has two more repurposed cars that I'm aware of.  This post features an interurban -- one of my favorite rail car types.  Located on the first floor of the Crown Plaza (mall) in Kansas City from 1984 until the end of 2015, the fate of this car is currently unknown.  Can anyone help?

A Streetcar Named Desire, Kansas City, MO

2450 Grand Avenue (Crown Plaza, Suite 113

This car was former interurban #52 of the Kansas City, Clay County, and St. Joseph Railway (1913-1933).  St. Joseph was known as Excelsior Springs.  Some Don Ross Collection photos show what look like working cars photographed as late as 1935, so there's an inconsistency surrounding the end dates in my brief research.

(Flickr)

 Interurban Origins

Don's Depot (Don Ross) has photos of cars that bracket number 52.  It is possible that this car had a similar history, that is, manufactured by the Cincinnati Car Company, dual poles, and a "submarine" body style.  Here's #63 with a link to background on this route and photos of other cars:

The Excelsior Springs route: Background on the Interurban Line and other cars

Photos of A Streetcar Named ... show a body that is shorter than most of the photos at the site above.  Number 50 was built in 1912, and number 63 was built in 1915, which potentially brackets our car between those years.

First Restaurant Incarnation

The car was retired and sold at some point.  George Kapsemalis (d. 2003) found the car sitting in a farm field near Lone Jack.  He purchased the car to add to the front of his restaurant located in a house at 4922 Main Street, Kansas City (Pinterest). He and a partner founded the restaurant in 1964:

Notice the door configuration.  Counting from the left three windows, it looks like there's a seam where perhaps the car was shorted?  Here's interurban car #22 from the same line for comparison -- what a difference. However, notice the plate under the window with the number "16" and compare with the restaurant photo :

(various web sources)

Second Restaurant Incarnation

The owner of the land the car and restaurant sat on needed it, so Mr. Kapsemalis disassembled the car and moved it to the first floor of the Crown Center Shops/Plaza.  Opening in late 1984, the car was both entrance and seating for a large dining room, bar, and side patio. 

Notice how the entrance has been moved to the left a bit and seems to mimic the original central style car entrance (various sources):

Above and below you can see how one car side has been cut away, but the rounded front/ends were left intact.  Photos on an auction site showed that the ends had seat cushions:

The plaque on the side -- obviously based on the postcard of car #22:

These interior shots also show how much of the opposite side was removed:

The interior looks fun but apparently food was served on Styrofoam plates (!).   In December 2015, the founders' three daughters decided to close the restaurant when the lease expired.  The restaurant contents were put up for auction

Current Whereabouts?

A news story said that there was lots of interest in the car but I couldn't find anything saying what became of it. 

'“It’s more work than it’s worth. It won’t be that easy to get out of there,” said Andy O’Hanlon, president and CEO of Equip-Bid.

But Crown Center officials and Streetcar’s owners said they are getting calls from people who want to buy it.'  Source of quote

Interestingly, the seats at each end of the car didn't sell at auction, suggesting that perhaps they went with the car. (Or else the shape was impractical for reuse.)

What's odd is it seems from a web search as though two different restaurants claimed that spot (Unforked and Fritz's Railroad Restaurant).  One ironically is a train-themed chain with Rube Goldberg-like contraptions that lower the food down to the tables from a "train".  In fact, the boy shown in the side shot above looks like he's wearing a paper-hat from that very chain: Check this place out!.

So, as the TV show title (almost) goes, "Car 52 Where Are You?"

Tomlinson Run Railroad

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Last edited by TomlinsonRunRR

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