Dome car

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Cars such as Santa Fe's Pullman-built lightweight "Pleasure Dome"-Lounge car #506, ordered specifically for the Super Chief in the early 1950s, remained in service well into the Amtrak era. The car's signature Turquoise Room was promoted as "The only private dining room in the world on rails." The "handrail" radio antenna that runs along much of the car's roof is for the train's music system.

A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that can include features of a lounge car, dining car and an observation. Its primary feature is a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. Seats in the observation car dome often command a premium fare.

[edit] Configuration

A portion of the car, usually in the center of the car, is split between two levels, with stairs leading both up and down from the train's regular passenger car floor level. The lower level of the dome usually consisted of a small lounge area, while the upper portion was usually coach or lounge seating within a "bubble" of glass on the car's roof. Passengers in the upper portion of the dome were able to see in all directions from a vantage point above the train's roofline.

On some dome cars, the lower portion was outfitted with a galley, where car attendants used dumbwaiters to transfer items between the galley and a dining area in the dome portion of the car.

[edit] History

The upper level interior of a dome car that has been configured as a dining area, on display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The first dome cars were conceived by Cyrus Osborn of General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). In 1944, while traveling in an EMD-built Rio Grande locomotive through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, it was Mr. Osborn that recognized the wonderful views the passengers could enjoy from a panoramic dome. His idea was to provide a full 360-degree view from above the train in newly built "Vista-Dome" cars. The idea really wasn't too radical as railroad cabooses were often built with a cupola above the car's roofline so the train crew could get a better view of the train, and the Canadian Pacific Railway had used "tourist cars" with raised, glass-sided viewing cupolas on their trains through the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the 1920s.

Mr. Osborn took the idea to an enthused Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q). The CB&Q took a stainless steel Budd-built coach and rebuilt it at their shops in Aurora, Illinois, with the Vista Dome imagined and sketched by Cyrus Osborn. This first Vista Dome was called appropriately, Silver Dome. On July 23, 1945, the car was tested in the consist of the Twin Cities Zephyr. Vista Domes quickly found their way into many Burlington Zephyr consists, culminating in 1949 with the inauguration of the California Zephyr.

The monument from Glenwood Canyon in its current location at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

On September 21, 1950, a monument was established in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, called "Monument to an Idea". This monument celebrates the Vista Dome at the place where it was first inspired. In the late 1980s, the monument was moved to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado, to make way for expansion of Interstate 70.

A former Santa Fe "Big Dome"-lounge car originally built by the Budd Company in the mid-1950s for El Capitan; eventually, these cars found their way into consists on nearly every main line. Unit #506 was the only unit retained by the Santa Fe after 1971; all the rest were sold to Auto-Train.

Former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad sleeper-observation car #375, the "Silver Horizon" (now #9250 in Amtrak livery), brings up the rear of the California Zephyr as it passes through Chicago.

As dome cars became more common on North American passenger trains, some western railroads purchased or built "superdomes." These were dome cars where the upper level of the car extended for nearly the entire length of the car. Starting in the 1980s, the use of the dome car has become rarer as Amtrak has introduced new bi-level passenger cars that reach the maximum possible height over the length of the car. Dome cars are very popular on tourist railways and private charter rail services.

[edit] Preservation

Some railroad museums have preserved several domes cars. These cars are very popular with visitors who often remember the spectacular rides they had in these cars.

The Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California, rosters several Budd-built Vista-Dome cars from the original California Zephyr train. These are being restored as part of the museum's Zephyr Project, a program to recreate the CZ experience.

[edit] See also

• Passenger car

[edit] References

• The American Railroad Passenger Car by John H. White, Jr. Two Volumes (1978) by Johns Hopkins University Press.
• ISBN 0-8018-2743-4 (pbk.: set: alk. paper)
• ISBN 0-8018-2722-1 (pbk.: v.1: alk. paper)
• ISBN 0-8018-2747-7 (pbk.: v.2: alk. paper)

[edit] External links

• Web Lurker's DOMEmain

A plan view diagram of the Challenger dome car, built in 1958 by Pullman-Standard as Union Pacific Dome Coach #7015, the last such car built.