‘Expecting surprises’: Rose Valley Lake area campground adds 1950s dining car
Keegan Klotz walks by his old diner near Rose Valley Lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. Klotz has started the process of restoring the diner that will now serve as a common area for the campground near Rose Valley Lake. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Keegan Klotz owns this old diner near Rose Valley Lake that will serve as the common area for the campground near the lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Keegan Klotz sits at the counter at his old diner near Rose Valley Lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. Klotz has started the process of restoring the diner that will now serve as a common area for the campground near Rose Valley Lake. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Keegan Klotz walks by his old diner near Rose Valley Lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. Klotz has started the process of restoring the diner that will now serve as a common area for the campground near Rose Valley Lake. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Keegan Klotz owns this old diner near Rose Valley Lake that will serve as the common area for the campground near the lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Keegan Klotz sits at the counter at his old diner near Rose Valley Lake. Klotz bought the diner from Facebook Marketplace and it had most recently been called Blue Star Family Restaurant. Klotz has started the process of restoring the diner that will now serve as a common area for the campground near Rose Valley Lake. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Trending
Facebook Marketplace is the last place you'd think to buy a diner car from the early 1950s, but that's exactly where Keegan Klotz found it.
The Fodero dining car now sits tucked away in a quiet campground near Rose Valley Lake after Klotz moved it from its former home near Lancaster.
"My wife and family are used to expecting surprises from me," Klotz said with a laugh.
Klotz, the co-owner of Rose Valley Campground, purchased the dining car earlier this year. He and co-owner Bobby Maguire had been wanting to add a building to serve as a common area for the campground, which sits on 60 acres in private wooded property in Gamble Township.
"People seem to like that sense of community at a campground," said Klotz.
The dining car had been stored inside another building near Lancaster and was in rough shape.
And, Klotz wasn't the only one that had their eye on the stainless steel, art deco style diner, which had been featured in an article in the New York Post newspaper in April.
"There was someone else that wanted it, like it always happens, for some rail car museum in Tennessee," shared Klotz.
"Thankfully the former owners chose to sell to us," he added.
The former owners have ties to the Rose Valley Lake area, and hope to stop and see the car after renovation.
The car had been Risser's Family Restaurant in Womelsdorf until 2014, and had reopened as the Blue Star Family Restaurant in 2015, according to the Reading Eagle.
Bringing the diner to Rose Valley Lake was no small feat.
"It was no easy task, it was what they consider a superload. So it had to have a state trooper escort in front and behind," said Klotz.
Rose Valley Lake Road also had to be closed to get it to the campground where a crane set it into place.
The Fodero dining cars were manufactured in New Jersey from the 1930s to the 1980s.
Some of the company's dining cars are still open, one being the Empire diner in Manhattan, which Klotz has visited.
"It's just beautiful, still in operation," he shared.
"My wife and our kids were there the week before we moved this. So it was really kind of exciting for us," he added.
Entrepreneurs could purchase a turnkey restaurant from Fodero, according to Klotz.
The renovation of the former diner will go in phases, says Klotz.
"Our goal is by the start of next camping season to have work progressed enough to have this open to the campground visitors to some extent," he said.
The first phase is getting the utilities to the parcel of land where the dining car sits.
"Getting all the utilities is step one, we're well through that battle. We have water in the prep kitchen. Power is almost ready, and then after that we will be jumping into this pretty good," said Klotz.
"It'll go in phases, as we work through the renovation side of it, but then another part of it will be zoning requirements for Lycoming County, they are all great to work with. They have been out to see it and talk about it. The township supervisors gave us a nice, you know, pat on the back, just for trying to do it. So people are encouraged about it," said Klotz.
The plans include restoring it to its original look with the assistance of a team that frequently works with Klotz on renovation projects in the Williamsport area.
"I'm really, really lucky to have good people around me," said Klotz, including Donna Timblin, a family member of the Maguires.
The possibilities are wide open for the dining car, including a camp store, ice cream counter or possibly food service.
The campground itself has seen many upgrades and renovations in the last three years he and Maguire have owned it, including a commercial playground that is in the planning stages.
"A lot of utility upgrades, a lot of road reclamation, rebuilding old roads that were here," said Klotz.
Having grown up in the area, being a good steward of the land near Rose Valley Lake is important to Klotz, and his wife Ashley, daughter Josie and son Gabe.
"Having a 12-year-old and an eight-year-old, to be able to have spots like this and maintain and preserve it, add a little bit so that other families can come here and have this that don't have access to a property like this," said Klotz of the campground.