Even though the Cheyenne Diner will close its doors on Sunday, its future is looking brighter.

Local preservationist Michael Perlman has launched the Committee to Save the Cheyenne Diner, hoping to preserve and move the circa-1940s structure, one of Manhattan's last railroad-car-style diners. Perlman helped save SoHo's Moonlight Diner through a similar effort that convinced a developer to donate it to the American Diner Museum, which found it a new home in LaBarge, Wyo.

Perlman said he'll submit a proposal Wednesday to Cheyenne property owner George Papas in hopes of convincing him to donate the chrome covered structure for a possible tax write off. So far, Papas said he is willing to talk.

"If he can make sure that it's movable ... sure I'm open to that," said Papas, who also owns the nearby Skylight Diner. "I would really love for somebody to take that away and put it somewhere."

Papas said a nine-story steel and glass building with two floors of commercial space and seven floors of housing, some affordable, will eventually take the diner's place.

-- Marlene Naanes