We are looking for a restaurant or diner model train set up that we can use in the new bar in our “railfan” B&B in Landgraff West Virignia (Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, our website is www.elkhorninnwv.com & we have a lot of railfan info and photos on the site). In a perfect world it’ll be the “Pokey” (Pocahontas line of the NS/NW), but the most important thing is that it needs to be set up for food & drink service, so it can run across/around the bar and stop at each patron to deliver food.drink safely. Would that be G gague? No idea really… just the wonderful memories of the Hamburger Train diner on Queens Blvd., in Queens, NY from my 1960s childhood that I’m trying to recreate here in WV! Help please! Please email us at elisse@elkhorninnwv.com
Thanks!
First off you want to operate in G-scale.
Second thing. follow the KISS Principle. The more fancy tricks you try to add, the more problems you are asking for.
I am assuming that you have two distinced areas One for the bar one for the diner.
I reccomend the follwing arrangement
a loop of track going around the bar. A fold down arrangement for the track can be built where the track has to cross the isle. The train can be parked at the back bar as the bartender mixes up and serves drinks. Place said drings on G-scale flat cars. Maybe with special rigs for holding drinks Bartender opens up power pack and delivers drink to customer.
Have another loop of track going round dining room. and into kitchen. Dinneer is cooked and prepared and various orders are placed on train. Train is then ran to table that ordered to deliver food and beverages. two or three trains hooked up to a DCC system so more than one train can be in transit at once. and eleminate alot of wiring can easily be arranged.
The most complicated I would make this is two or three loops of track. One for the bar and one loop for each dining section and into a common area in the kitchen. Hooking up a DCC system to allow more than one train on each loop will allow for alot of flexability without adding alot of complexity.
For your trains, I would reccomend one locomotive with perhaps 5 or 6 flat cars and the obligitory caboose and maybe equipping the flat cars with special holders so food doesn’t fall off in transit.
I would not go beyond this in complexity as it gets very complicated very fast from this point and the fun factor decreaces corrispondingly.
I am willing to consult further on this endeavor, email me if you are interested and we will work out and arangment and discuss terms and fees then.
James
Oh No can you say “Law Suit” I can just see it now a bar patron passes out and his/her tongue shorts the rails! Christmas in July!!!
Though I enjoy the novelty I think you’ld have problems with beer and other libations gumming up the rails and you would forver be cleaning them. If you had a train going around the walls and in behind the bar with the daily specials posted on them that would be a Grand Idea.
Then again having a string of Tank Cars with wine spigots would be very nice!
Fergie
There is a diner in Kansas City called Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant, they deliver food using an overhead Railroad system. The kids love it!
There used to be a "greasey spoon " in Detroit that delivered via Lionel running straight back and forth on the counter. Noting fancy, just straight track out and back.
I would use gondolas instead of flat cars for drink delivery.
I would serve the drinks by hand, and save the train delivery for food. The only exception would be that kids would get their drinks by rail.
Definitely go with G-gauge. They used to use Lionel because that was the biggest thing you could readily get back then. You need an on-engine whistle and a headlight, but please, please no smoke units.
There are two pizza places in Lafayette, IN that use trains to bring drinks to the tables. They both use G scale trains, and use a flat car with a rubber mat on it to bring the drinks. The tracks run behind a wall, that the booths butt up against. There is a band of plexiglass about 2’ high that has a swing-up door also made of plexiglass that you see the train through. The train stops at the booth, and you open the door, and get your drinks. There is an electric relay switch that keeps the train from moving while the door is open. The system has been in place at the older of the two restaurants for at least 15 years, and probably longer. They work very well.
HD
Right, I believe they are Pizza King restaurants. We used to go to one in West Lafayette when I was at Purdue 85-89.
Ort007
there is a restaurant in Louisville KY named Baxter Station…last time I was there they had a G-scale train running around the wall up high …did not serve food or drinks …but local business like Lawyers, Drs & such could rent ad space on the rail cars.
I would think that having a common area to place the food or drink orders on the rail cars would be better than in the kitchen. I would think that kitchen grease and/or other filmy crud would get on cars/engine/track and slowly spread the crud over the entire set up. Drink spills can be corrected, but the grease in the kitchen air would be bad…IMHO.
My recollection is that the beverage train at the Pizza King I visited in Lafayette five or six years ago was custom-built to wider than G gauge. If I remember correctly, the gauge was about equal to the width of a beverage pitcher- maybe 6 inches or so? Stability is the utmost concern when carrying glasses or pitcher of drinks.
You know, I model in HO scale, so everything bigger than that looks huge to me[:)] I may be mistaken about the gauge. I guess a visit to the Pizza King is in order.
There is a newer Pizza King on the south side of the city, and is the one I’ve been to the most recently. The locomotive is an Alco RS-3 I believe in PRR colors. It doesn’t appear to be scratchbuilt to me. It has what I think is a german made diner car behind it, and then the flat car which hauls the drinks. How wide would a G scale flat be?
Thank you all for all your info and advice!!![:)]
If anyone hears of a food-service train set up that is for sale, PLEASE email us at elisse@elkhorninnwv.com or elisse@hotmail.com. We would really like to find one that’s been designed for food service because of the the safety issues. At the moment my “dream train” is in the planning & deign phase; I would Love to have it up by & running by July 1, as we have a big group coming to the Inn at that time…
Thanks again!
Elisse & Dan
Elkhorn Inn & Theatre
On the Pokey! Route 52, Landgraff WV
Tel/Fax: 304-862-2031
Toll-free: 1-800-708-2040