I just thought of this one I was wondering what are. Some of the coolest railroad resturants has anyone ever been to like the. Mexican resturant out in waukesha where a whole train has been turned into a resturant. Also what are some of the coolest railroad museums have you ever. Been to just like the Greenbay RR Museum or even the ILL RailRoad museum. Or even the colorado RR Museum [:D][bow][bow]
The depot in Huntington, Indiana is a pizza place now. The NS automotive artery runs right outside. If you stand on the platform you could probably almost touch train going by and their moving. Most have to be doing 50 through town. every seat is a good seat.
When you think McDonald’s you usually think that one restaurant looks just like the next. There’s a Mickey D’s in Crystal Lake, IL that was built with an old passenger car into the side of the building. It’s actually part of the restaurant where you can sit and eat. I don’t know the heritage of the old passenger car. It’s an old Mickey D’s and I wouldn’t be surprised if they replaced it.
CC
The old depot in Norcross, GA is now a restaurant. It is right on the NS mainline. You get at least 2 trains during your meal. It is between 2 crossings, so you get some warning before they come. Seating outside is a away from the tracks, but you can still see them coming and going as there is a curve right before the depot. There is also a puclic park on the other side of the tracks with benches facing the tracks. The food is really good and reasonable too!
I would have to say for where I live, Gosse’s at the Northwestern house. It is a normal resturant but has a lot of train pictures and is right accross from The Sheboygan Yard.
When I was younger and then CNW owned the RR tracks in Sheboygan. Then Northwestern House was a resturant on the 1st floor and the 2nd(top) floor where rooms that could be rented and a lot of the Engineers and RR crew would stay there.
If your ever in Sheboygan find Union Ave. Find the Trains (Which you can’t miss) and EAT AT GOSSES’S[:D][:D]
Dustin
The old (100+yrs.) C&NW depot in downtown Green Bay now houses Titletown Brewing Co., an excellent brewpub. During the summer months you can sit outside and dine on the platform. The CN main line through the Fox River valley still runs by the depot and is pretty busy. In Crandon, WI the old frame Soo Line depot has been moved to a shopping area along Hwy. 8 and converted to a restaurant .
That’s no ordinary passenger car, friend. In fact it’s the last piece of equipment that I’d ever expect to see converted to a dining space: a “Cincinnati Heavyweight” built for the Chicago Rapid Transit Company in the mid-1920s! This car, before its savage transformation, was one of the elegant 4000-series and probably saw its last service in the early 1970s on the Ravenswood 'L (if it’s a “Baldy”) or the fabled “Evanston Express” (if it’s a “Plushy”). The only sight I can imagine that would be marginally less insulting than this carcass sitting at the Crystal Lake Mickey D’s would be to see “Lizzie” Windsor’s pristine Rolls-Royce converted into a London East End flophouse!
Spagetti Station in Kenosha Wis.
Do you mean railroad themed and not just a restaurant in a railroad station? Because the Oyster Bar and Michael Jordan’s, both in Grand Central, are excellent restaurants with good food and interesting themes, neither having much to do with railroading. The Oyster Bar is famous for its Manhattan style clam chowder (as well as its oysters and clams) and MJ’s is well known for its steaks. The OB is such a NY institution that it’s hard to think of GCT without it.
ESSEX MT
I like the ones where the owner’s relatives are put in charge of decorating the place, and picking out the uniforms. They stick crossbucks on the side of an old station, paint an old diner in hideous colors with garish circus lettering, come up with names for entrees on the menu such as “Brakeman’s Burger.” They then top it off by having waitresses wearing insulting outfits made of cut-off overalls, a huge red bandana, and an engineer’s cap. The owner struts around with a red striped shirt with sleeve garters and a straw hat and is referred to as “Gramps.” They play loud caliope music in the background. The owner’s wife likes to tell tales to the customers about how she rode the Waba***o Miami.
Could this be why the American public can only think of passenger trains, or railroading in general, in comic terms?
Mitch
The station in Joliet Illinois has a very nice sit down resturant in what used to be the main waiting room. The silverware bounces around a bit when a heavy train goes over the diamonds. The Depot Resturant in Union IL near IRM is more casual.
I’m not sure you can find a resturant in Durango that doesn’t have a train theme and I seem to remember a nice resturant in Denver Union Station, but that was quite some years ago.