It’s a rail car. It’s a restaurant. It’s for sale!

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By Brandy Nance (Contact)

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Photo by Jordan Haiduk

One of Emporia’s unique structures — a rail car converted into a restaurant — is for sale on a Kansas online auction site.

The 1920s rail car that sits at 726 Commercial St. is on the auction block through an online auction site, purplewave.com. Purple Wave is headquartered in Manhattan, where it started in 2000. The company has nine locations across the country and is growing rapidly.

“We sell — as a broker through unreserved public auctions — a broad range of assets such as high-value personal property, industrial equipment, motor vehicles and real estate,” said Amy Shaneyfelt, marketing manager for Purple Wave. “We are unlike eBay or other do-it-yourself Internet marketplaces because we specialize in working with sellers who have un-shippable assets and who seek a local, turnkey service from listing to marketing to transaction settlement.”

Shaneyfelt said the train car in Emporia fits the unique criterion of items often sold on Purple Wave. The car is hard to put a value on and isn’t easily shipped. Cory Haag of Emporia owns the train car now. He said he’s owned it about six months. He and his father decided to sell it to potentially re-develop the property the car sits on. The rail car must be moved once the sale is final — the property it sits on does not come with it, according to the auction listing.

The car is about 80 feet long and 10 feet wide. It now houses Pupusa El Mexicano, which is operated by Nestor Tovar. The car comes set up for a restaurant, although the kitchen equipment isn’t included in the auction. It has central air, central heat and comes with stairs, ADA ramp and 85 feet of track and railroad ties. There also is indoor plumbing and bathrooms. The air brakes have a stamp with the date Oct. 27, 1926.

Photo by Jordan Haiduk

Haag said the car will be auctioned off and the winning bidder will have to move it. Tovar said Pupusa will moved to 315 Commercial St., the former home of El Palenque Cafe. The restaurant’s new home will have more seating capacity — 50 people, compared to 30 people in the rail car.

“I think it’s going to be exciting to have another restaurant in there,” Haag said.

Haag said the old rail car was brought to Emporia in the early 1980s. Since then it has housed a game arcade and several different restaurants. Emporian Paula Dixon opened a restaurant, the Whistle Stop Deli, on Feb. 10, 1992. Before it was the Whistle Stop, it was J’s Deli and was painted to look like a sub sandwich complete with all the trimmings.

S.C. Dixon, who owns a photo studio next door, said in its earlier days, the car was a barbecue joint, but that didn’t last long as the operators couldn’t get a beer license.

In 2000, a Gazette article stated that Whistle Stop was closing. Later that year, Pupusa Plus — a restaurant that offers authentic cuisine from El Salvador — moved into the car.

Haag said he’s had people from all over the state of Kansas inquiring about the car.

“This is just one of those unique auctions,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of interest off of Purple Wave. Hopefully somebody will buy it and preserve it.”

Rail Car Sale

What: Auction of rail car at 726 Commercial St.

Where: http://www.purplewave.com/cgi-bin/pwdetails.cgi?purple211

When: Auction closes at 10 a.m. on Aug. 12

For more information: www.purplewave.com or call Cory Haag at (620) 343-6633, (620) 341-7613 or coryhaag@yahoo.com.

Train removal: Must be between Oct. 2 and Oct. 10