Photo Courtesy Joe Fagan The Pullman Co. railroad car that was part of Rod’s Essex House for many years was removed from the site this week. It will return to its roots and be used as a train car by a railroad in Pennsylvania.
By Joe Fagan
Special to the Chronicle
West Orange was once a thriving hub of rail transportation, served by a cable railroad, two train stations, and four trolley lines that connected the community for nearly six decades.
During the construction of Interstate 280, even a temporary railroad was built to haul rock from the mountain. Yet, as the years passed, nearly every trace of this rich transportation heritage disappeared.
The last surviving railroad car in West Orange, however, remained as a silent reminder of the town’s railroading past… until this week. With its departure, it can now be said that all tangible remnants of West Orange’s railroading history are officially gone.
The Essex House restaurant on Northfield Avenue originally opened in 1937 as Rod’s, named for its owner, Rod Keller. In the mid-1960s, Keller transformed the establishment, remodeling the interior to evoke the elegance of the 1920s while giving the exterior an English Tudor appearance. The restaurant became known as Rod’s Essex House, but its most distinctive feature was a private railroad car that Keller acquired and incorporated into the dining experience.
The car had a remarkable history of its own. Built by the Pullman Company in 1909, when Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln, served as company president. The Pullman Car first operated on the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad in Nevada and its original owner was Col. Daniel Jackling, the copper-mining magnate whose fortune was built in the mines of Nevada and Utah. It later passed to Julius Fleischmann, a wealthy gin distributor.
Over the years, stories and rumors followed the car, including claims that it had been used by bootleggers during Prohibition, adding an air of mystery to its legacy.
Eventually, the car came into possession of the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad, where it sat idle for years. In 1965, Keller rescued it from obscurity and brought it to West Orange.
On September 2 , 1965 the Pullman car arrived at the Essex House and soon became part of the restaurant’s identity. For more than six decades, it stood as a rare surviving link to an era when railroads shaped the growth and character of communities across America.
On June 16, after 61 years in West Orange, the car began another journey. Carefully lifted by two cranes and placed onto a transport truck, it departed for the Colebrookdale Railroad in Boyertown, Pa. There, it will be restored, refurbished, and returned to active service as part of a scenic excursion railroad to once again carry passengers.
While the railroad car’s departure marks the end of West Orange’s last physical connection to its railroading past, its story does not end here.
As the Pullman car disappeared down Northfield Avenue for the final time history travels with it. Because it is the last tangible chapter of a transportation era that helped shape West Orange. The tracks are long gone, the stations have vanished, and the trolleys have faded into memory. Now, the final railroad car has departed as well, leaving behind only photographs, stories, and a railroading past that continues its journey in history.
The Markouris Family, who have owned the restaurant for the last 47 years, donated the railroad car to the Colebrookdale Railroad where it will be preserved for future generations.
The Pullman Co. railroad car that was part of Rod’s Essex House for many years was removed from the site this week. It will return to its roots and be used as a train car by a railroad in Pennsylvania.
About the Author
