Based on photos and postings elsewhere, these two privately owned cars located in Homer Glen, IL (southwest Chicago suburbs) have been scrapped on site. The smooth side car was allegedly ex-C&NW. The stainless/fluted car said "Golden Banquet" on it. They are still listed on Sterling but photos posted show sections of scrap being trucked off. No word on the caboose on the site. I've not yet been over that way to verify that they are gone. Owner's business went bankrupt.

Sterling listings are still active as of this posting.
http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... hp?id=9435
http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... hp?id=9410

I am posting mostly just to get it into the record.

Steve

Haven't those only been on sterling for a couple weeks?

Scratch two lightweights.

Histories:

C&NW #555:

C&NW 38 seat club lounge #7902 constructed in 1949 by AC&F in Lot #3041. One of three such cars (#7900-#7902) built for pool service on C&NW-UP-SP trains, and painted in UP Armour Yellow, Signal Red & Harbor Mist Gray.

#7900 was sold in 1971 to the Midwest Railroad Historical Society, and sometime in the last several years was for sale on Ozark Mountain Railcar's website.

#7901 & #7902 were rebuilt by C&NW in 1975 to suburban club cars (renumbered #553 & #555 respectively) to be used in Chicagoland with their fleet of gallery cars, and were equipped with HEP at that time.

Suburban club #553 (ex-#7901) is still in active Metra service.

Suburban club #555 (ex-#7902) was retired by Metra at an unknown date and subsequently sold to Bengtson's Pumpkin Farm in Homer Glen, IL.

CRI&P #425:

CRI&P 36 seat diner #425 "Golden Banquet" was constructed in 1947 by P-S in Lot #6762 to Plan #7517. One of three such CRI&P cars built for the Golden State. It was sold to Tom Hill of Ottawa, IL, in 1971. It later went to Bengtson's Pumpkin Farm.

CRI&P #426 "Golden Repast" was scrapped at an unknown date.

CRI&P #427 "Golden Harvest" was sold to the Kansas City Railroad Museum in 1975, and was resold to the New York Dining Car Association of Warners, NY, in 1991.

SP also had three 36 seat diners built for the Golden State, constructed in 1949 by P-S in Lot #6806 to Plan #7581.

SP #10206 "Golden Chalice". No disposition information whatsoever.

SP #10207 "Golden Viand" was transferred to MofW service as SPMW #5923 for use on Cascade Summit (Natron Cutoff) during the winter months, and based in Oakridge yard. It was painted in the Daylight colors by the MofW crew and given the name "Snowflake". It is still part of the active MofW roster on Cascade Summit, along with heavyweight sleeper SPMW #7118.

SP #10208 "Golden Nectar" was sold to Amtrak in 1974 as #8501 and retired in 1975.

Sources:

1. Don Strack's Utah Rails website includes a list of SP, C&NW, MILW, WAB, PRR, and NYC cars painted in UP Armour Yellow for pool service, located here: http://utahrails.net/pass/pass-non-up.php

2. Rock Island Technical Society has a disposition list for CRI&P lightweight passenger cars, located here: http://www.rits.org/www/equipment/ripassdisp.html

3. Amtrak information for SP #10208 from "Amtrak by the Numbers" by David C. Warner and Elbert Simon. Ordering information at: http://on-track-on-line.com/pdfs/orderform-otol.pdf

The mention of Tom Hill of Ottawa, Illinois brings back a few memories. Mr. Hill had an old steam tender off of a CB&Q O5 class Northern, or possibly a M4 class 2-10-4, sitting next to the old Rock Island main line there in Ottawa. At that time, I thought that there might be a chance that our museum would be interested in the tender (which had been converted by the Q to a diesel fuel storage car) for use with our C&O Kanawha as an auxiliary water car, so I finally found out that Mr. Hill was the owner of the car and I managed to contact him. He met me at the siding with the tender and we talked and then he asked me if I wanted to see the other equipment. Other equipment? Well, there was a building next to the tender and he took me inside. Man! An old heavyweight business car, the diner and a lightweight CRI&P sleeping car. We walked through the cars, and I was impressed to say the least. Upon exiting the car, there was a wall just packed solid with old steam locomotive headlights (and maybe other locomotive stuff too). Well, I heard that the Q diesel tenders had leaks, and our museum really wasn't that interested. Eventually Mr. Hill passed away and the equipment, and other railroadiana, was put up for auction. I believe the heavyweight business car, which was ex-Green Bay & Western #600, was sold and is still around, but I have lost track of it. I am not sure what happened to the Rock Island sleeper, but now I know at least, what became of the diner. I have never heard what happened to the steam locomotive headlight collection. There was a catalogue of his stuff when it was being auctioned off, and the headlights were not listed therein.

Les

Thanks for the details. A former employee of the owner commenting back in 2005 on Trainorders mentioned an articulated dining car but I have not heard anyone else say anything about one. There was more trackspace to the east of the two cars shown so there would have been space for something else. Caboose was to the west around a curve.

For the time being
41°36'45.07"N 87°56'18.77"W
will bring up the cars on Google Maps set to aerial view or Google Earth etc.

Steve

IRM is collecting "Silver _____" series cars from the California Zephyr at great expense, but apparently not "Golden _____" series cars from the Rock Island/SP Golden State.

Original Rock Island drapes, a nice interior, and only 70 miles from Union, IL. (Arrgh!!! and various expletives deleted.)

(Pics from the Sterling Rail ad).

CZ is partly CB&Q and thus part of IRM's Holy Trinity of Q, C&NW, and MILW. Not that RI doesn't have a following as well but the more counterclockwise you go on the compass it declines. Does anyone seriously think if those two combines at the old Thompson vineyard out in Monee (baggage/rider coach, baggage/RPO) that were donated had been from the Holy Trinity instead of ATSF they would have scrapped them as they did? They were in decent enough shape. One I know had a COT&S of 1970. If they'd been from the one of the three favorite roads they'd have bent over backwards to add them to the collection.

Steve

I really enjoy how two people here, not involved with IRM at all are bashing them for cars they allegedly didn't save. Were the cars offered to IRM? You probably don't know.

Did you help save the cars at the winery? Did you offer to raise funds or donate money? Did you perform an inspection of them to determine whether the cars were suitable for restoration? Did you perform a cost estimate, a budget and submit a restoration plan to IRM to save the cars? I can show you rail equipment that is abject garbage that has a sooner COT&S dates than 1970. That doesn't mean anything.

I guess all of the work IRM's volunteers have put into using parts from those cars to backdate the SantaFe combine doesn't count? I guess IRM's work in securing the Santa Fe sign from Chicago, or the work to repatriate a former RI suburban car from the CRANDIC don't count?

Also, where does FLO get the "at great expense"? I'm pretty sure IRM has only 2 cars from the CZ, a baggage car (Silver Beaver) and the dome car (Silver Pony).

It's always interesting to see those who don't lift a finger to help or open their wallets criticize a museum.

Let me throw a different query out there:

There are, or have been, lots of passenger cars that have been "tubed" (i.e. gutted to the walls from one end to the other) for dinner train and other "rail cruise" service hither and yon, some somewhat needlessly as other cars are available for that purpose. Yet in the photo above is apparently the dream of every dinner train operator, a table car you don't have to gut and install tables in!

Why did that car not get snapped up? Does no one want to run dinner trains anymore (a distinct possibility, mind you)? Was the price too high? Was the car faulty in some way (a cut frame, bad wheels, built by someone other than Budd)? Were the sellers idiots that tried to sell a passenger car in only two weeks and gave up and called the scrapper on day 15 (yep, seen those in my day)?

Those who "don't open their wallets"?

David, I gave $2500 to IRM last year. I had to stop making contributions to my retirement savings because of that gift.

The D&RGW, Silver Pony, was shipped by flatcar from AZ. It needed trucks and still needs a great deal of work, including windows. An expensive acquisition.

The Golden Banquet is (or was, alas) by all appearances a real gem. Intact. Display-ready. A 90-minute drive from IRM. And it was a type of Rock Island car not represented by the museum.

An IRM member and donor is entitled to an opinion.

Bashing? Where was I bashing? I stated my opinion about a museum's preferences, that is all.

IRM was given, so far as I know, the remaining Monee equipment. They moved the two derelict steam engines (extremely rough shape) and called in a scrapper to deal with the cars. I cited it only as an example.

As I have no idea if the Homer Glen cars were offered to IRM I have no opinion on that and have stated nothing much less bashed them or anyone.

Steve
IRM member (and donor)

To try to get this thread back to some form of civility, I have a question. Years ago, the Rock Island had a cutback in the number of trains they ran, but still had a agreement with the union to pay dining car attendants. Rather than pay them for doing nothing, they took one of their now surplus lightweight diners and installed it on track 1 of LaSalle Street station in downtown Chicago and served meals in it as a restaurant aptly named the Track One Restaurant. It was fairly popular to the lunch crowd. As soon as the union contract ran out, the Rock closed the restaurant down. My question is, was the Golden Banquet possibly the diner that was used for this operation?

Thanks.

Les

Alas, Anthony Haswell's article in Trains does not mention the names of the cars involved (dining car & club car).

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... 18,2774599

Steve

I wonder if some railfan might have gotten a photo of the operation? During the day, LaSalle Street Station was fairly empty of trains and, as I recall, the cars sat out there in the open, so a decent photo would have been possible. Of course, I didn't get a photo either. But I do recall having a very nice lunch there.

Les

I'd say almost certainly.

Until one turns up, there is this:
(From http://chuckmancollectionvolume15.blogspot.com/ Much interesting stuff there.)

Steve