The two cars were part of the Lincoln Depot Restaurant, a once-popular fixture of the city that closed in the late 1990s. The restaurant was located inthe former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio station at 101 North Chicago St. in Lincoln, located about midway between Bloomington and Springfield.
The two cars are being prepared for shipment to new owner Iowa Pacific Holdings. Car No. 3351 once operated on the Panama Limited, said Justin Sobeck, Iowa Pacific’s equipment project manager, who is on-site supervising the move. “It’s a Burnside shops rebuild, once called the Capital Street,” he said.
Car No. 4202 is a former cafe lounge car that once carried the name Flossmoor.
The only way to complete the project was to find a home for the two rail-cars. Johnson said, “We haven’t decided the end use of the building. The design will occur once the demolition is complete,” adding the rail cars had to be moved first.
“They are in pretty good shape, the restaurant had cut a section out of the 3351,” in order to build a dance floor between the two cars, Sobeck said. “But we found that underneath the car.” The section will be replaced during renovation.
Jim Lesiak of Over The Top Demolition, based in Seville, Ohio, a contractor hired by Iowa Pacific, used hand signals while working with two crane operators, who slowly loaded No. 3351 onto a set of wheel bogies.
“Nothing’s impossible,” said an obviously proud Lesiak.
I had the privilege of visiting these cars in Lincoln, Illinois, when the restaurant was in operation years ago. I probably saw them on the Panama in Jackson, Mississippi, back in the sixties when a railfan buddy and I would go down to the IC depot on Capital Street in the early evening to watch the northbound Panama make its nightly call at the station.
On another note, the same friend and I were privileged, in 1962, to secure a cab ride on the southbound Panama between Jackson and McComb, Mississippi, one morning on a sightseeing trip to New Orleans. What a ride! I have always been grateful to then President Wayne Johnson for granting us permission to ride in the cab.
Glad to see these 2 cars being saved, re-built & painted in IC colors. These may well wind up on the Grenada Railway. Who knows.
I was wondering a bit when I read that one car had been named "Capital Street"–and then I remembered that there is a Capitol Street in Jackson, Mississippi–which runs between the old Capitol and what was the entrance to the IC station. I would not be surprised to learn that the car was named for this street.
This comes as no surprise given ED Ellis love for the IC as the Iowa Pacific paint scheme clearly shows.
Car 4202 was probably named "Flossmoor," not Floosmor. Flossmoor is a southern suburban of Chicago along the old IC route and was once the home of a great many IC executives.
They could always sell the 4202 to the Flossmoor Station brewpub in the IC station in Flossmoor, Ill. . . .
More classic restoration from a company that already has a museum of equipment. Well done!