Note on TrainOrders says the Tennessean Restaurant in Collierville, Tenn. (just east of Memphis) has closed, leaving up for grabs a stainless round-end observation and another lounge car, as well as what appears to be the original depot......

So what does this mean for the Memphis Transportaion Museum equipment there? Or was that just a name used by the restaurant? I know one of the cars there would likely be of interest to the ELDCPS.

Kevin

I think the restaurant may have been just a tenant using the depot and the passenger cars, and that the complex is owned and operated by the city. Unclear if the Memphis Transportation Museum still owns those passenger cars or not, but I think it is unlikely that anything will be put up for sale.

The cars are all owned by the museum except the SCL office car. That is owned by the city. The round end car is ex-Wabash. There are several cars there, I know one is Santa Fe, maybe an old Chief car, and maybe also a CZ car? I cannot remember. The Frisco Mike that is there is actual on loan from the City of Memphis. They have plans to try and ove it downtown to the Central Station location and develop a museum of sorts here. We'll see about that.


Jason Greene
Birmingham, AL

Most of the posts above about the Tennessean Restaurant salivate over the possible availability of the equipment. What really would be beneficial is an examination of what went wrong. The business model seemed unique, but short lived. As I understand the facts, a swank restaurant operation with facilities for both the walk-in trade and for catered events existed for about one year. It operated on city owned land. So was the problem with the food, the restaurant manager, the agreement with the city, or some other factor?

One of my other paying jobs is as a beer writer:
www.beerinbaltimore.blogspot.com (This is an adjunct to my paid columnist work.)

As part of my work, I end up having to know too much about the restaurant trade. When it comes to analyzing venues, I pull as much from the restaurant news/reviews as I do from the beer side of things.

There are so many variables that enter into a restaurant's success or failure that opening a rail museum or excursion seems at times to be a safer proposition: Location, surrounding community, customer base and their location, food offered, pricing, beverage selection, accessibility, hours open............

Anyone who's been on this board for a while has no doubt seen plenty of railroad station restaurants that have thrived, and many that folded or went through multiple owners and rebrandings. I can show you a station that reopened as a brewpub, then was an Italian restaurant, and last I heard was an American diner......

One thing I've found in my experience is that most successful restaurants, aside from the place that's the "only place to eat in town," have one theme and stick to it to the exclusion of others. You can either be a terrific Italian place or a great wine bar, but seldom both. You can do terrific sushi, but don't try to simultaneously run a steakhouse or ice cream parlor. In the case of the Tennessean and other railroad car restaurants, the theme should be the experience (but that's no excuse to neglect the food, mind you). Everyone in the area will try the place once; the trick is getting people to come back again and again, or conversely to keep lots of people coming once (like along an interstate or near the Grand Canyon). Collierville appears to be just far enough outside the Memphis beltway to not be able to successfully tap the Memphis market on its own virtues.

I have ridden Amtrak into/out of Memphis on a couple of occassions. Central Station certainly has the possibility of being a good place for a railroad museum, although the stub end tracks into the facility are gone. But I think there is some room to put a couple back in. One of the Memphis streetcar lines runs right out in front. And the station served, not only the IC, but also the Rock Island and the Frisco, and possibly another line or two. The Rock's RDC cars started/ended their runs here, the longest regularly scheduled RDC runs; to Amarillo, Texas over 750 miles one way! Memphis Union Station was only 1/8 of a mile away, but I am unsure if that building still exists. I am not sure if the Frisco Mike is a USRA engine, or one of the 1350 class 2-8-2's that the railroad rebuilt from older 2-8-0's right at the end of the steam era. Either way, an historic locomotive.

Les

I've been in contact with one of the principals there over the last few years, and before anyone gets all excited, all they're currently doing is looking for a new operator for the restaurant.

Yes, we're aware of the ancestry of the dining car - it's the "other' Phoebe Snow diner, EL 769/DL&W 469 -- the sister to our second diner, DL&W 470. And yes, and we've already made our interest known, just in case...

Coupled up to 769 is a Wabash observation (which is an 1937 ACF aluminum car, by the way - it only <looks> like it's stainless steel ;^). Interior of the obs has been restored to its original lounge configuration, including the serpentine red leather upholstered settee -- I was down there when they were replicating it from the original ACF plans! It serves as the lounge/waiting room for the restaurant.

I'll post some photos in a little bit.

Best Regards,
John Isaksen
Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society
http://www.eldcps.org

Below is a quick shot I took in June of 2004 as I was photographing Frisco Mike #1351. That's the east/west NS main in the foreground.

I lived in Memphis from 99 to 05 and always planned to get better photos when the light was better. Moving this collection to downtown Memphis could be a great improvement for both the depot and the equipment if it's done right. Central Station is a nicely restored depot and would be a great tourist stop if this collection could be added.

The City of New Orleans stops at Central Station at about 6 am going south and at about 10:30 pm going north. Otherwise, no traffic typically passes through this depot.

The suburb/town of Collierville is pretty much out of the way for most unless you live there.

Here's another shot from MJ Scanlon in 2006: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 922&nseq=0

The entire collection is not going downtown, just the Mike. All the cars are owned by MTM, except the Office car (owned by the city of Collierville).

This is all in the planning period and should not be taken as a sure thing.

As for the old Uion Station, it is long gone. All that remains downtown is the Central Station and that does not include the old stub end tracks. Any equipment move to the station will be placed on display tracks

Jason Greene
Birmingham, AL