James Wedemeyer says he and his wife, Pam Wedemeyer, who co-own Lalo’s Pizza & Calzone at 909 S. Grand Blvd. on Spokane’s South Hill, hadn’t planned on opening a second outlet until they started listening to their customers.

“We’ve got a loyal following of customers from Coeur d’Alene, the Spokane Valley, and they kept asking us, ‘How come you all don’t have a store in the Valley?’’’ says Wedemeyer.

Now they’re working to open Lalo’s Pizza Depot at 11027 E. Sprague, in a once-operational diesel locomotive and adjoining box cabs. The main dining car is 80-feet long, eight-feet wide, and can accommodate seating for about 50 people. The front engine will be converted into space for meetings and private dining parties, James Wedemeyer says.

The Wedemeyers currently employ half-a-dozen workers and expect to have the same number of workers at the new restaurant, he says.

They say they were hoping to open this month, but a construction crew’s discovery prevented that from happening. “Off the back cab, we’re going to expand and build a kitchen that will be about 1,200 square feet. In the process of clearing part of a shrub behind the last box car, we discovered a fire hydrant that was completely covered by the shrub,” he says.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department told Wedemeyer that the hydrant would stay, but that he will have to pay to have the hydrant’s opening turned away from the direction of the train. Wedemeyer says construction has resumed, and he and his wife now hope to open the restaurant on Aug. 1.

Most recently, the train housed a restaurant called Pizza Choo Choo. Before that, it was a dentist’s office, Wedemeyer says.

As for the Wedemeyer’s South Hill location, Lalo’s Pizza & Calzone is now in an arrangement with Press next door and providing food service for that bar, he says.

Brett and Teresa Wyatt previously owned Lalo’s Pizza & Calzone. They ran the restaurant inside the Hico Market at 819 S. Perry. The Wyatts moved the restaurant to its current location on Grand in June 2010, and the Wedemeyers bought it from them in March 2013.