After several derailments, a Perthshire family has been offered a lease to open a train restaurant in a council car park.
The new restaurant will be housed within a carriage which Tom Cruise fights on the roof of in the latest Mission: Impossible film.
Subject to paperwork The Wee Choo-Choo should open to Pitlochry customers in Autumn 2023.
Applicant Fergus McCallum first approached Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) with the idea over four years ago. He believes a change of leadership at PKC is what has allowed the project to go full steam ahead.
Train enthusiast Fergus bought two train carriages with the hope of turning them into a Thai restaurant run by his wife Isara and daughter Mia (now 21). But it has been a rocky journey to reach this point.
In April 2021 PKC's planning committee voted - against the recommendation of council officers - to grant change of use planning permission for a restaurant to be established on part of the council-owned Rie-Achan Road Car Park.
Afterwards it emerged a nearby resident - whose back gate is just 20 metres from where the restaurant will be - was prevented from presenting her objection to the committee. Perth and Kinross Council apologised and said "the request for a deputation was unfortunately misinterpreted".
In June 2021 and again in January 2022 PKC's Property Sub-Committee voted to refuse marketing the site for lease. At the January 2022 meeting councillors voted by four votes to three against deferring a decision until a parking survey was done.
PKC commissioned transport consultants SYSTRA - who then appointed a professional data company - to undertake a traffic survey looking at parking spaces in the Highland Perthshire town. Surveys were done in March 2022 and July 2022 for comparison.
Following a change in administration at PKC in the May 2022 local elections PKC's Property Sub-Committee was asked again in November 2022 to market the site for lease.
Provided with the new survey information saying the town had 603 parking spaces - and recommended by officers for approval - PKC's Property Sub-Committee voted to market the car park site for lease.
However objectors debated the survey's accuracy and the number of car park spaces available.
At the November 2022 meeting objector Mark Wood - who runs nearby Mackenzie's Coffee House on Atholl Road - claimed there were "373 spaces compared to the 603 spaces identified by the survey".
In a written statement objector Fiona Hamilton's objections included: "extreme risks to public health and safety", "lack of consultation, "lack of transparency and openness" and "inappropriate use of public amenity space".
She said "the vast majority" of neighbouring residents were "firmly opposed to any plan to allow a restaurant to operate from this car park".
She added: "No decision should be taken on this proposal without a full and open public consultation with local residents at the forefront."
Councillors voted to lease part of the site. The site within the car park was then marketed for lease allowing other businesses the chance to apply.
PKC's Property Sub-Committee scrutinised the applications on Monday, May 1. Due to the commercial nature of the decision it was made behind closed doors with the public - including the McCallums and rival applicant(s) - unable to attend.
Following the meeting a PKC spokesperson confirmed: "Following a marketing exercise, the Property Sub-Committee has agreed to lease a site at Rie-Achan Road car park in Pitlochry to Three McCallum Ltd, trading as The Wee Choo-Choo."
Fergus said: "We are very pleased. It has not soaked in. We now just have to think about logistics and getting the building warrant, etc."
The restaurant will now be in two completely different train carriages to what was initially proposed - with one featuring in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hitting cinemas in July 2023.
Fergus said: "It's a 1950s Norwegian carriage that has been altered by Hollywood to make it look 1930s. The film crew brought it to a quarry in Derbyshire and part of it - the steam locomotive - goes over the cliff but thankfully our carriage didn't."
Fergus has also invested in a brake car - half the size of a normal carriage. It means the restaurant will take up the space of a carriage and a half rather than two full-sized carriages.
The McCallums believe a change at the helm is the reason behind PKC's U-turn.
Fergus said: "I want to thank the locals who have been massively supportive and Perth and Kinross Council. Under the leadership of the new chief executive Thomas Glen and council leader Grant Laing there has been a change in culture at Perth and Kinross Council.
"They listen and are open, efficient and transparent."
