Dome car
Southern Pacific Railroad built its own dome cars in its Sacramento, California, shops.
Wabash's Blue Bird included a Budd dome-parlor-observation as part of its original consist, and later added a Pullman-Standard dome-parlor car.
The original California Zephyr, operated in part by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), referred to its car of this type as a Vista-Dome sleeper-lounge-observation, which had one drawing room and three double bedrooms as well as a dome and observation area.
In the case of the former, the observation dome extended the full length of the car, with a lower level which contained a lounge or bar beneath it.
These were built like dome cars, with high floors along their length and a low section between their bogie trucks.
Classic dome lounges (built during the streamliner era in the U.S. and Canada) include: "Super Dome" full-length cars were built by Pullman-Standard in 1952 for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific, also known as the Milwaukee Road, and operated in the railroad's Hiawatha passenger train fleet.
"Big Dome" full-length cars built by the Budd Company in 1954 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe for the railroad's passenger train fleet.
"Skyline" dome-coach-buffet-lounges and "Park" dome-sleeper-observations built by the Budd Company in 1955 for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
"Stairway to the Stars" cars constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad[12] for its Daylight passenger trains.
Most of these cars remained in service for their original owners up to the end of privately run passenger trains in North America in the 1970s.
The first successful dome cars were conceived by Cyrus Osborn of General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD).
In 1944, while traveling in an EMD-built Denver & Rio Grande Western locomotive through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, he recognized the wonderful views the passengers could enjoy from a panoramic dome.
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.
The dome area featured seats that were positioned lengthwise in the cabin facing double-pane windows which were designed to improve insulation.
In the United States, domes could only be readily used on railroads west of the Mississippi, due to lower clearances in tunnels in the eastern USA.
[17] Despite the costs involved, Pullman completed the first four production dome cars for GM's Train of Tomorrow in 1947.
The four cars, dubbed Astra Liners, included a coach, diner, sleeper and lounge-observation., were similar to Silver Dome and were displayed to the press on numerous private charters and to the public at the Chicago Railroad Fairs in 1948 and 1949 before they were sold to Union Pacific Railroad for use between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.
[17] The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was the first to operate dome cars east of Chicago in 1948 on their Pere Marquette District routes between Western Michigan and Chicago, and in 1949 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad became the first railroad to operate dome cars on the east coast when it introduced Pullman-built "Strata-Dome" coaches as part of the new consists for the Baltimore-Chicago Columbian.
[21] The first ten full-length domes were built by Pullman for the Milwaukee Road's Chicago-Seattle Olympian Hiawatha.
The Milwaukee Road paid $320,000 each for their "Super Domes" and used them on that route until 1961, after which four cars remained in service between Chicago and the Twin Cities; these last four were sold to Amtrak upon its formation in 1971.
Because of their enormous usage of sealed glass, the cooling of the cars required massive air-conditioning capacity.
The German Federal Railways had five low-profile dome cars built in the early-to-mid 1960s for its Rheingold and Rheinpfeil trains.
[15] Via Rail Canada operates the largest fleet (28) of true dome cars in the classic sense in that they offer a 360° view of the scenery.
The Ontario Northland Railway operates dome cars on the Polar Bear Express from Cochrane to Moosonee.
The Canadian National Railway operates a former Great Northern dome coach in its business car fleet.
It was rebuilt and repainted into Canadian Pacific's Tuscan red and gold livery, and renamed 'Selkirk' while retaining its road number.
[28] The Orford Express dinner/excursion train, which operates out of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, includes a former Northern Pacific dome sleeper.
Manufacturing companies such as Colorado Railcar have built modern dome cars with updated versions of original dome design, used by American Orient Express, Holland America, Princess Tours, Alaska Railroad, Royal Caribbean, Via Rail Canada and Rocky Mountaineer Railtours.
Amtrak has also operated the car in fall foliage service on the New York-Montreal "Adirondack" and on several of its Chicago-based regional trains.
Produced by award-winning Richard Luckin, it is narrated by actor Michael Gross and chronicles the history of the railroad sightseeing cars, from Burlington's 1945 "Silver Dome" to the full-length models operating today in Alaska and Canada.
