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Amtrak dome to operate to Galesburg, Quincy in November
Is it just me or does it seem like a no-brainer to bring out some sort of modern dome car?
Second your Motion, Al.
There are about a half dozen of this or variants out there; thirty years ago one was on its way to becoming a restaurant near Vallejo and one is on Taylor, old US Hwy 40, near the Rocklin-Loomis city line.
Four or five were shuttling cruise ship tourists in Alaska.
Didn’t the American Orient express have one?
Repatriating, restoring and modernizing then maybe reverse engineer to get additional…cheaper than designing new ones from scratch.
if Amtrak were to make a new dome car, then it couldn’t be used on Superliner trains…unless you wanted to be between the baggage car and the transition dome…
Domes could be added to several scenic routes with single level trains, including the Cardinal west of Washington, DC. If it were on the rear, it could be easily added or removed at Washington. If the cars were dining or lounge cars, they wouldn’t be superfluous. Also, single level lounges could be made like the upper level of the Superliner lounges for routes that won’t clear domes.
Why did Amtrak schedule the dome car backwards: Railfans from Chicago can’t do a day round trip, because it leaves Chicago at 5:55P.M. when its already dark and you wouldn’t be able to see anything. Then it would require an overnight stay, in order to come back to Chicago using the dome car. I think that The Goose had something to do with the bad scheduling so that he can claim Amtrak a complete failure!!!
Amtrak should order up some dome cars as these cars add to the passenger train experience. I realize these won’t have revenue producing seats and for that reason, we won’t see new domes any time soon. I’m sure the anti -Amtrak trolls will heap criticism upon such cars as superfluous.
The evening trip would be cool, with all the Christmas lights, unless those are now outlawed in Illinois. An after-darkness trip on the “Empire Builder” is great, especially through Glenview, IL (Kudos!) and out on the prairie.
I cant believe that
Anyone know where the other five ex GN-full length domes ended up. Think perhaps BNSF has one that is their theatre car.(?)
Most, if not all, of Iowa Pacific’s dome fleet are refugees from Alaska. However, only one is a GN; the rest are Santa Fe.
Yes, BNSF has a GN full dome as well.
Here’s a list of them all, including where they are now: http://trainweb.org/web_lurker/GNf/
Which sence does it make to use it on trains mostly running during a dark Illinois??
Too bad it isn’t running on the Carl Sandberg. There are WAY more folks wanting to do a day trip out of Chicago than Galesburg or Quincy. I can’t believe Amtrak didn’t think this through.
Having been to the Pacific Northwest just two years ago,I would vouch that their late fall foliage is far more spectacular to view than rolling through primarily corn fields in western Illinois.Had Amtrak chosen to use their sole dome car on the Empire Builder,the dome would be on home rails for most of the way to Seattle!