Mission Impossible train carriage to begin new life as eatery in Pitlochry
A train carriage whose roof Tom Cruise ran along in the latest Mission Impossible film has arrived in Pitlochry to be converted into a Thai restaurant in the station car park.
The Wee Choo-choo is due to open in May after the 1950s-style coach has been kitted out for diners. It was lifted into place on a specially installed stretch of track last week and coupled to a 1940s brake wagon used on the Bicester Military Railway in Oxfordshire, which will become the restaurant’s kitchen. Platforms are being built beside the train by Perth firm WA Mcgarrie and Son. The project is nearing completion after the Pitlochry family behind it won a planning battle last year to gain approval.
The carriage was spotted by chance deep in a storage depot in Staffordshire by pharmaceuticals marketing executive and train lover Fergus Mccallum.
It was painted in French railway livery for the movie stunt in last year’s Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, in which the steam train plunged off a cliff.
The blue and white colour scheme of the sleeping car operator Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-lits et de Grands Express Europeens was retained as part of the carriage’s refurbishment in the West Midlands. The body of the brake wagon was found to be beyond repair so it has been rebuilt and painted in matching livery. Mr Mccallum, the project’s finance and governance manager, said: “The carriage looks gorgeous, like something out of a fantasy. It was sheer luck I saw it and I thought it so unusual. It feels good to be saving these amazing trains from going to scrap and to have a new life breathed into them.”
Isara Mccallum, his wife and the project’s head chef, said: “The intention has always been to do something different from other restaurants in Highland Perthshire, as we do not want to compete with other fabulous establishments.
“We have a small kitchen, therefore we will concentrate on a small number of authentic Thai dishes made with fresh produce from the Highlands and dried herbs and spices from my own farm in Nakhon Si Thammarat in Thailand, which my brother and sisterin-law grow.”
“I have lots of recipes I inherited from my family, based on delicious south Thai spicy cuisine but with a twist, influenced by my grandfather Mong, who was a chef who left China during the Chinese civil war, and my Malay grandmother Sai.”
Planned dishes include Highland beef Penang curries wrapped in Thai banana leaves from Mrs Mccallum’s garden.
The Mccallums’ daughter Mia, the restaurant’s manager, said: “I am going to concentrate on the front of house to deliver a high-quality 1930s dining car experience with a Thai twist.”
The restaurant received planning permission last year after revised plans were approved by Perth and Kinross Council. The original scheme, which involved old British Rail carriages, had met with objections including over the loss of parking spaces, but a council report found there was adequate provision.