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Phil's Diner dropped, destruction averted, but...

Category: Eat in Diners

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Written by Randy Garbin

North Hollywood, California — Casey Hallenbeck almost learned the hard way the challenges of moving a muli-ton antique.

Hallenbeck owns Phil's Diner, which he's kept in storage for better than a decade now. Closed up in the late 1990s during the construction of the new subway line that coursed through the neighborhood, Hallenbeck has hand plans to move the diner to a new development on the drawing board for several years since. Now that it looks like those plans will come to fruition, he started a blog to chronicle his progress.

Last week, however, Hallenbeck reported on his blog that the riggers hired to move the diner to its new location almost dropped it. Using two cranes to lift the 1920s vintage structure, something caused the diner to slip off of the steel beams supporting it.

The posted photos don't show too much detail, but had Hallenbeck consulted with someone who actually had some experience moving these things, he could have saved himself a lot of money and grief.

First of all, cranes are rarely needed to move such small diners — never mind two of them. When using cranes, the rigger must place the beams in the right place beneath the undercarriage to properly distribute the stresses from lifting. Put in the wrong place, and the diner collapses. Indeed, the photos indicate that this almost happened with Phil's. One photo clearly shows the diner buckling while lifted from its cribbing.

Fortunately, the diner sustained minimal damage during the move according to the blog. Hallenbeck still plans on an April, 2010 opening.

Follow the progress of Phil's Diner here.