All aboard one last time

She admitted that the last time the place was so crowded was 21 years ago when Snackville Junction reopened at 9144 S. Kedzie Ave. in Evergreen Park - after 39 years in Morgan Park.

Yet longtime waitress Flo Tremmel didn't mind. After all, the unique eatery has delighted both children and the adults who bring them for 60 years.

Still, despite the one-hour wait for a seat at the counter (around which one of nearly two dozen model trains carts burgers, dogs and fries on plastic diner baskets), the hundreds of customers who had arrived for a final meal acknowledged it was also a whistle stop with the inevitable.

Snackville Junction owner Jeff Silhan put the business up for sale a year ago, but unless he finds a buyer for the popular former Morgan Park restaurant, it will be shuttered after Sunday. To view more photos, click here.

Owners Jeff and Linda Silhan, who bought the restaurant in 1986 and moved it to Evergreen Park in 1996, put it up for sale about a year ago. Jeff is a 55-year-old former paramedic who recently retired from the Chicago Fire Department and decided to give up the full-time business altogether. While they've received some interest in the business, they haven't had any takers.

Was he positive that the end of the line would be Sunday? "Sunday. That's it," he confirmed Friday evening as an overflow crowd of longtime patrons joined newcomers for one final "chow on the cho choo" - the restaurant's motto.

"We've been coming here since I was six years old," recalled Oak Lawn's Linda DuPuy, whose mother, June, began dining at Snackville Junction when the restaurant was at its former location at 11016 S. Western Ave. "We came here to usher an era out."

As four generations of her family braved a chilly Friday evening outside, three generations of Ellen Reynoso's family dined at the coveted stools that much of the crowd was happy to wait for.

"I'm prepared to wait to sit at the counter," said Ellen, who had already been standing in line for an hour. "You gotta sit at the counter." The Beverly native has been dining at Snackville Junction all her life, and she introduced it to her daughters, who (not surprisingly) came for the train but stayed for the food. Chicken parmesian and chicken tenders, actually. Even her husband, Chris, whisked the girls off to dine at the restaurant before a recent father-daughter dance.

Yet newcomers also just had to catch a glimpse of the train one time before its final run. Tracy Mathias of Hometown brought her little sister, Abby - although they didn't dine trackside: "We chickened out and took a table," Tracy admitted.

Former Beverly resident Mary Staelgraeve would never think of that. When she and her family drive in from LaGrange to visit her parents, they typically stop by for a meal - but only at the counter. "We never sit anywhere else," she admitted.

Despite the long lines, though, the restaurant oddly seemed only half full; most patrons decided to forego a quick seating in favor of being served by way of the choo choo.

Hundreds of customers - both longtime patrons and newcomers - spent nearly an hour in line Friday to catch a spot at Snackville Junction's counter. To view more photos, click here.

With the departure of two cooks and an ill waitress, the rest of the staff had signed on to long shifts to help the Silhans serve their final patrons.

"I was only supposed to work Sunday and Monday, but somehow I've been here all week," said 19-year-old Colleen Kelly of Mount Greenwood. She recalled several of her own birthday parties being held at the former location. She has been a waitress at the diner for three years and said that some of the most memorable customers have been children.

Even the menu is targeted at children with rail-related items ranging from the Brakeman to the Boxcar.

Mike Blough of Evergreen Park and his brother George placed their orders at one end of the oval track as the line - and the number of children waiting for a glimpse of the miniature Union Pacific - grew at the other end. "We have good memories of coming here when we were kids," Mike said, "but we haven't found the time to come back. Now we're here for one last hurrah."

His mother, Judy, said that just a couple hours earlier she had waited in line with another son who had to leave soon for a camping trip. He missed the family outing with his mother and two brothers, although she said she'd bring him back some time over the weekend. "It's one of a kind," she said.