PARRISH -- For the past 35 years, the 1925 Pullman sleeper car was part of Church Street Station, a train-themed downtown Orlando dining and entertainment district.
But with the decision to add a SunRail commuter rail line between Orlando International Airport and downtown Orlando, the sleeper car had to go. And so did two other cars, a diner and a dome observation car, as well as a locomotive and a coal tender.
The destination: the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish.
Thursday, a crew from R.E. Johnson & Sons House and Building Movers of Parrish gently put the sleeper car, named “Monte Rosa,” on tracks at the Florida Railroad Museum, its new home at 12210 83rd St. E.
The crew had removed Monte Rosa’s steel wheels for traveling on rails and replaced them with rubber-tired road wheels. The Monte Rosa was hauled down some of Florida’s less-traveled roads to Parrish and nudged back onto rails.
One by one, the rubber tired wheels were replaced with train wheels Thursday as the Monte Rosa went back on the rails.
The city of Orlando paid $160,000 to underwrite removal of the vintage rolling stock, said museum board member Bill Maddock.
The dome observation car, thought to have been manufactured in the 1940s or early 1950s, and the early 1920s dining car are expected to join the Monte Rosa in Parrish within the week.
The steam locomotive, built in 1911, and a coal tender will be the last pieces coming to the Florida Railroad Museum.
Engine 3749 was used to switch cars in freight yards, including in Pensacola, and was later used at an Alabama state prison, the Herald previously reported.
The Monte Rosa would have been the last car on the train. It included a platform at the rear where passengers could sit and watch the countryside go by. During political campaigns, politicians would step out on the platform during whistle-stops, Maddock said.
It saw service in Florida, and Bradenton was very likely among the places where the Monte Rosa stopped, Maddock said.
In its day, the Monte Rosa had 12 upper and lower sleeping berths and a lounge. Many of those berths have been removed.
It probably will be a long time before it can be restored to its original appearance, but the volunteers at the museum know that at least it’s safe from a scrap yard.
Mel Schnepp was one of those helping out as the Monte Rosa was returned to the rails on Thursday.
“It was very restrictive on the route it could travel and the time frame,” Schnepp said of the delivery by road of the Monte Rosa.
Florida Railroad Museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday year-round. For more information or tickets, visit www.frrm.org.
James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.
