The rail car above was originally a dining car on the New York Central Railroad. Built in 1914 and named the Lion Gardiner for a 17th century English colonist , it once served passengers on the famous New York-Chicago overnight train, the 20th Century Limited. The prestigious train ran nightly for 65 years until 1967. In the mid 1980s, Lion Gardiner found itself among other retired railcars on a spur outside Kingston, NY.  They had been donated to an historic group for restoration there.  Later, three historic railroad groups got together to save the Lion Gardiner, but gathered only a small portion of the money needed.  In the 2010s, the Lion Gardnier was  taken from Kingston and moved to Bensonville, Illinois.  The Colebrookdale Railroad - a Pennsylvania tourist attraction - operates a dining car called the Lion Gardiner, but it is not the original.  

This car and the others below, were commuter coaches that belonged to the Central Railroad of New Jersey when NJ Transit took over what remained of its passenger service in 1982. To mark the change and promote its takeover of rail service, NJT had some of its old coach interiors painted a garish yellow and red.  These cars were donated to the Kingston restoration group and ultimately removed from the spur along with the Lion Gardiner in the 2010s.