A bit of history is added to The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum

After 40 years as part of a restaurant in Wallingford, the 107-year-old Yankee Silversmith dining car featured prominently there has made its way to Willimantic.

And it will be celebrated for what it was originally meant to be – a piece of railroad history and a relic of a bygone era.

The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic, the rail car’s new home, will restore it for use as a coach.

The 125,000-pound car, built in 1902 by Osgood Bradley in Worcester, Mass., has been part of the former Yankee Silversmith Inn, a restaurant in Wallingford, since 1969, according to Rich Cizik, project head at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum.

“At the museum, it’ll go back to the way it was,” Cizik said. “It’ll be preserved the way she originally looked.”

In 2007, a fire in the attic of the restaurant caused a significant amount of water damage to the building, and it was forced to close, Cizik said. In late October 2008, the car was donated to the museum.

Prior to being part of the restaurant, the car traveled from Philadelphia to Reading, Mass., as car No. 910.

After that, it traveled from Belfast, Maine to Moosehead Lake in Maine as car 104, and then finally, it went to the Black River in New Jersey to Ringoes, N.J., as car 104.

How do you move a rail car?

After several attempts to get the rail car to Willimantic, the museum finally succeeded. Cizik said the museum had a hard time getting approval for the car to go over the road.

However, when it came time to move it, they rolled it off the tracks on which the dining car rested while part of the restaurant, jacked it up and put a trailer underneath.

The wheels were brought to the museum separately, before transporting the car, Cizik said.

“It’s great to finally have her up here,” he said. “It’s been interesting trying figure out how to get her up here.”

Cizik pointed out that this car is the sixth item at the museum that came from the same plant in Worcester, Mass. Five other rail cars, including New Haven Coach 4414, New Haven Baggage Car 3841, New Haven 8673, New Haven 8695 and New Haven Caboose C618, were manufactured at the same plant as the Yankee Silversmith.

In pretty good condition

Cizik said the dining car is in better condition than other rail cars the museum is planning to restore. “We’re going to rebuild the section of the wall that was removed, which, unfortunately, was the main structure of the car.”

Many of the old wooden coach cars were reinforced with a steel frame, but this one wasn’t, he said.

He’s not sure of the condition of the joints in the wall, but overall, the train is in good shape.

If the wood frame were steel, the car would have been easier to move, Cizik said. The car would have been less fragile and could have been secured more easily to the flatbed truck.

Restoration costs money

In order to be able to move forward with the restoration, the museum needs either more members or donations. The museum staff plans to start the restoration upon the completion of another rail car in a year or two, the Central Vermont Caboose 4052.

To become a member of the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum, visit www.cteastrrmuseum.org or come to the museum during regular hours – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, May through October. Membership fees range from $20 to $53 per year.