Update: it was sold to Erik Thompson of Ironhorse Railroad Park in MN. Happy to see it preserved.

Anyone know what happened to the NYC heavyweight diner Lion Gardiner? Expecting bad news, but one never knows.

I second this.

I'm sure it is still sitting on blocks at the same location in Lorain, OH where it has been for some years. "Make offer".

While it is somewhat complete on the inside, that poor car may be the rustiest heavyweight I have ever seen. It is in extremely poor shape. Yes, anything can be fixed up to a point, but it would be a major, major undertaking. There have got to be better candidates for restoring a heavyweight diner than that car.

I'm sure you're right, but it's the last New York Central RR heavyweight diner. Just my observation, but NYC seems to be underrepresented in preservation from the late steam era, due to the guy who was running it at the time being disinterested, even though it was perhaps the premier passenger railroad in the east during that period.

This Trainorders.com thread has recent photos of these cars at Moffat, Colorado, awaiting installation at a nearby agricultural facility:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5528848

If a museum would be interested in these cars to augment their existing collection and educational mission, it would be a good idea to reach out to the new owners (identified in the thread linked above).

In many cases, businesses will purchase railroad passenger cars with the dream of "inexpensively" turning them into lounge or office facilities. However, moving costs, specialized HVAC conversion, challenges with required ADA access, and compliance with fire and building codes can quickly add up. Offering the cars to a museum that can use them to benefit their community would be an attractive solution to having cars stranded by escalating costs and regulatory problems.

Where exactly is the "Lion Gardiner" being stored in Lorain, Ohio? It was the only passenger car on the Iowa Pacific passenger inventory being stored there. I don't recall Iowa Pacific having any operations in Lorain, Ohio.

EH

"Where exactly is the "Lion Gardiner" being stored in Lorain, Ohio?".

It is at the old GM plant in Lorain. The car was trucked in there. I don't know why it ended up being stored there. But it is way off the beaten path and you really have to be looking for it to find it. So, it hasn't been vandalized much since being moved there. I only found it because I was looking for some other cars at the time and just drove in. I was real surprised to see it and didn't know at first what car it was.

Was there a small industrial locomotive builder operating out of the former GM plant not too long ago? I seemed to recall there was a firm doing that type of work in the greater Cleveland area....

Any uhhhh photographs if possible or no? Curious to see its condition now.

There was a GM plant in Lorain? I’m aware of an old Ford plant on the west side of Lorain. Production there was moved to the Avon Lake plant which is east of Lorain. Can’t find any GM facility listed in Lorain.

Thanks to Bing Maps here is an updated photo of Lion Gardner (Google Maps current imagery of the old Ford Plant is from 2015).




I believe Ohio Locomotive Works was operating out of this part of the plant until roughly 2016/2017 when they closed up shop. This explains the switcher locomotives stored nearby. However, do we know who owns the 3 passenger cars and caboose? One appears to be an ex-DLW electric MU, while the other two look like ex-C&O cars.

After further research it appears the C&O equipment (2 passenger cars and caboose) came from Amherst, OH and were to be refurbished for future use by Ohio Locomotive Works. It appears that project is dead...
C&O 1653 - Passenger Car
C&O "City of Waynesboro" 2612 - Passenger Car
C&O 90669 - Caboose
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37276&view=next

The 45 Tonner is ex-Army 7078/Amtrak 7.
The 25 Tonner is ex-US Navy 65-00036.
The SW10 is LOCX 1264.

I suspect the EL/DLW MU is EL/RPCX 3545. Which was stored at the Mad River & NKP Museum in Bellevue, Ohio for a number of years.

Yes, that would be the old Ford plant in Lorain. My bad.

Those 2 once beautiful ex-C&O cars are badly in need of a rescue. They are being destroyed by vandals, but are not yet too far gone by any means. That is if they are not burned to the ground this winter by bums/vandals.

The Lion Gardener has been under Colebrookdale ownership for sometime

https://www.colebrookdalerailroad.com/g ... -gardiner/

They never took possession of the real Lion Gardiner, although I believe it is still around and sitting on shop trucks in Ohio as I recall. Instead Colebrookdale have decided to rename another heavyweight car with the same name.