i am wondering if anyone has ever seen a Reasraunt made out of a caboose? i was playing around with a cheap caboose and i decided to make it into a reastraunt i took the wheels off and painted it bright colours then added some interior details and a sign outside and i just want to know if its ever been done before.
(P.S i will have pics soon)
I know where there is a restaurant made from an old passenger car, and I’ve seen a house actually made from an old passenger car. While I’m writing this, it just dawned on me that I may have seen a restaurant from an old caboose in a book. I’ll do some reading and get back to you if I can find it.
I did see a video about a motel (I think it was in Pennsylvania) that used old cabooses for rooms. Each caboose was from a different line so you could pick what you wanted.
Tom
What brand caboose do you have? Is it cupola or bay window? What paint scheme is it in?
In the 1970s, Victoria Station Resteraunt in Tampa, Florida was made up of a caboose and two boxcars. Was really neat! Sadly, it went out of business. I think with today’s appreciation of antiques, it would survive were it built today.
There is a BBQ resteraunt in a Georgia town I drive through from time to time. (I think it’s Pearson, GA). It is shaped and painted like a red, wooden caboose.
You have a good idea! If I may suggest, from what I’ve seen in real life:
Consider adding a wooden deck with a railing along one side of the caboose. Add a couple of tables with umbrellas, chairs and decorative street lamps that function. The caboose itself would be the kitchen and the cashier center. Basically a popular outside cafe! Don’t forget to add one or two trash receptacles near the caboose, perhaps on or near the rear platform. [;)]
If you want to go ALL OUT, you add functioning lights to the interior & exterior of the caboose. Would be a real attention getter.
Something different, yet still model railroading! [:)][:D][8D][8)]
Cheers!
There’s a former Victoria Station restaurant not far from my home that’s a seafood place now!! [4:-)] It has 4 boxcars and a caboose, all painted gray and with a fascia around the wheels to try and disguise its heritage. [oX)] The boxcars make up a large part of the dining area while the caboose serves as the waiting lounge. There’s no mistaking the cupola though!
I think MDC/Roundhouse makes (or made) a “kitbash” kit for a Victoria Station restaurant. It had an undecorated boxcar, caboose and a basic building to approximate the style of the place. Pretty cool thing to model if you ask me.
The McDonalds in Orangeville, Ontario (Canada) had a caboose as a playroom that could be rented for parties for kids. I don’t know if it is still there, but it was kind of different, and a definite improvement on the “in-house play yards”.
Andrew
There used to be a place near where I lived that was an ice cream shop in a caboose. It’s up for sale now (with EVERYTHING included) if anyone wants to buy it. It’s in Downingtown, PA
In West Seneca, NY there is an old caboose that is an ice cream stand.
In Concord, California in the early 1970s there was a Victoria Station resturant that had two cabooses and two boxcars. The reason the resturant went out of business is they didn’t have good food.
It is in Strasburg, just down the road from the Pennsylvania Railroad museum and the Strasburg Railroad.
Also in Chattanooga, the Hotel in the station has accommodations in railcars in the “yard”.
There used to be a restaurant in the River Quay area of Kansas City made up of old boxcars. Don’t remember if they also used a caboose or not. I believe it was called Victoria Street Station. I ate there once and the food was good; but alas, the entire River Quay area is pretty much just history now. A few unfortunate fire bombings kind of killed the atmosphere.
It’s not a restaurant, but in Las Vegas (Henderosn), Nev. there is a Santa Fe caboose that has been turned into a tourest info station. You could do that too.
There is a bar in Chciago that added on a stainless steel passenger car.
There is a small shopping center in Des Plaines or Mt. Prospect where an old BN caboose is the shopping center’s sign. (It’s called Oakton Junction.)
The Des Plaines Lumber and Coal Company had an old CGW boxcar it used for a storage shed. Alas, it and the coal elevators are gone now.
An old farm around here had a couple of old CGW piggy-back trailers behind the barn for storage. In one place in Sacred Central Illinois, a farmer used an old Rock island flatcar as a bridge over a creek running through his farm.
Oh, the uses for discarded railroad cars!
There’s a resturaunt in Wisconsin Dells that is made out of an old caboose. It’s just a hot dog stand, btu it’s still neat. We didn’t stop there as we had just eaten luch but we will next time. It’s several blocks off the beaten path, so I dought they make a whole lot of money.
Noah
There was a Victoria Station resturant in Jacksonville Fl, also in the '70s. there were several boxcars and a caboose.
Tom Watkins
I’ve never seen a caboose converted into a restaurant before, That sounds like a neat idea. Down on the south side of Lake Geneva Wi. there is alot of cabooses hooked together on an old abandoned rail line that are used as a motel. Each caboose was a separate room. Also when I used to haul loads out of the port of Newark Nj. Near by was a stainless steel passenger car that was turned into a diner that I ate at a few times.
Columbus,ms. The old depot restarant used cabboose for private dining. Also a neighbor tried to buy the caboose but city would’nt sell , so he measured it and built one in his backyard to put his trains in ! How bout them apples,
Man i need to build me one too , I have 7 sets+looking at another today. Question what am i gonna do ? I yust started trains, collection christmas this year !
I believe that I ate a burger (very good one) / meal at this restaurant in '89 or '91 on one of my trips to California - very nice[^][^]
There is a restaurant in Roseville, CA made of several boxcars and a caboose. The “Cochiti” dining car at the California State Railroad Museum was, for a while, a restaurant before being restored. Many railroad cars, passenger or otherwise, were converted to visitor centers, restaurants, gift shops, etcetera. The Sacramento Northern’s gorgeous “Bidwell” parlor car was sold and used as a mother-in-law apartment in someone’s backyard!! While that was something of an ignominous fate for such a luxurious car, at least it is still around and awaiting restoration instead of being burned like so many other wood-framed cars…