Construction is underway on Ein Prosit owner Scott Pohlman’s long-thought-out idea of a distillery centered around an antique train car.

The new spot, Pullman Distillery, is toward the rear of the same building as Ein Prosit, marrying spirits with beer. An 1881 train car sits in the center, where there will be seating and retail. On one side of the car is the distilling room and on the other is a barrel room.

The train car ran on the route from Summit County to Denver in the 1880s until about 1914. The distillery’s name refers to the Pullman Co., which made railroad sleeper cars. Pohlman said he and his team have spent the past few months restoring the train car with new wallpaper and light fixtures that give it an antique, 1800s feel.

Several types of liquor will be made in the distillery, including gin, agave spirit and whiskey. Pullman Distillery also will be bottling bourbon and rye whiskey. There will be seating for about eight to 10 people in the train car in addition to some seating outside of the car. There also will be an option for groups to host events in the barrel room with a bartender.

The idea for the distillery has been in the works for years, said Pohlman, who said he was the first brewer at the Backcountry Brewery.

“I just wanted to do this. … I was a brewer for a long time, and this is kind of the next step,” Pohlman said. “We came up with an idea of what would be good in this space and to utilize this train car and thought a distillery would go well with this Old West theme.”

In the 1990s, the train car sat where ReMax is located and then was moved to its current spot in the back of the Ein Prosit and Frisco Emporium building in about 2009. The train tracks running up to the car can be seen through a glass panel in the floor with the remainder of the tracks under floorboards. Pohlman explained that the tracks that can be seen through the glass used to run through where the building currently stands to the Galena Street Alley where the train would turn around to head to Denver.

Pohlman added that the back label on the liquor bottles features an antique photo of the train car.

Designer Nichole Steuart came up with branding and labeling concepts at Pullman Distillery, working to combine the antique, Old West feel with the modern day cocktail experience. Steuart got involved with the project while working at Ein Prosit and hearing Pohlman talk about the idea. Steuart has a branding and graphic design background, so when the concept started coming to fruition, she created a design proposal that was selected.

“Because of the train car, I had seen what his initial concepts ideas were,” Steuart said. “I went home and kept thinking about what a good label would look like … what would draw the eye, what would stay with that theme of the Old West but kind of modern. I kept coming back to the idea of a train ticket.”

Steuart envisioned a vintage paper train ticket and researched authentic train tickets from New York to California. She took the ticket images she found and created her own as the concept for the label.

In addition to train tickets, Steuart drew inspiration from other historical photographs and has spent a lot of time looking at various Frisco historic documents and photos.

“We wanted to give you a story with the design, with the concept, but also bring it to life in modern day,” Steuart said.

The train car is open for retail shopping with the distillery set to open in April or May.