I’m building a D&H passenger consist & have purchased a dome car for it.
Would anyone here know what number or name these cars would have carried?
Thanks in advance for your help
Gordon
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t think the D&H had any dome cars. The clearance in the East did not allow domes. The B&O/C&O had some but only for a few years.
and he notes -
When ‘Bucky’ Dumaine took over the D&H in 1967, he reversed the decision to discontinue the ‘Laurentian’ service and leased two New Haven Grille cars and later replaced them with C&O diners.
Later that year, he obtained 12 stainless Pullman built cars from the Rio Grande, made surplus when they discontinued its Royal Gorge passenger service. The group consisted of two diners, one cafe-lounge, four baggage cars and five coaches. The leased diners were returned to C&O. This lot and their own refurbished coaches protected the schedules.
The only domes in regular service in the east were operated by the B&O and AutoTrain. The B&O cars ran on the ‘Capitol Limited’ between Washington, D.C. and Chicago. The domes were low enough to clear height restrictions under the catenary at Union Station in D.C. and tunnels along the route. I rode in them any times between D.C. and Cumberland, Md. and recall the tendency to duck when approaching the tunnels in West Virginia. They also restricted passengers from riding in the domes as the train approached or left D.C. I never could figure the logic in this. If a wire were to sag and touch the dome, the whole train would light up!
Auto Train avoided the D.C. clearances by building it’s terminal in Lorton, Va. They had no problems with the former Santa Fe ‘El Capitan’ cars…
Two more roads in the east also operated domes on their passenger trains: Norfolk and Western, and the Southern Ry.
work safe
I recall the Auto Train domes.I believe they came from three sources."Mini-domes"defined by Auto Train as having a row of single seats on each side of the dome.Western Pacific(Calif Zephyr). Maxi-dome-double row of seats each side of dome,Union Pacific. Maxi dome-Full length dome-Santa Fe.Some of the UP domes came equipped as dome diners.D&H ran a classy passenger service from all accounts,but I don’t believe they operated any domes,as the previous poster noted.Clearances would have been a definite issue.
D&H leased two CP Rail Domes for at least one year and possibly they operated for two. The two domes were coach dining types and operated between Montreal and Albany only on the Laurntian. The cars were painted with a Blue letterboard and received names while in D&H service. Hope this helps. Give me some time and I will find the names and exact time period operated if you are interested.
There is a photo hanging on my wall of the two Laurentians (with the PAs) passing at a station stop and there is a dome car clearly in evidence.
C. Moore
Sorry for the delay finally got around to looking up the information on the D&H Domes. Between 1972 and 1974 the D&H leased two Via Rail Domes originally CP Domes. The two leased domes were Via Rail ex CP Rail 500 and 507. While in D&H service in the Laurentian they received a yellow letterboard and a yellow stripe below the windows. Both cars received D&H numbers and were named for their D&H service between Montreal and Albany. Via Rail 500 operated as D&H 35 and was named WILLSBORO POINT and Via Rail 507 operated as D&H 36 BLUFF POINT. Both domes were short Budd types with the standard 24-Seats in the dome. At the vestibule end of the car was coach seating for 26. Below the dome was a kitchen and six seat lounge. To the rear of the dome on the main level were the stairs leading to the dome and a buffet area for 17. Hope this info helps CP5415.
Gentlemen,
Yeah, this is a new reply to an extremely old topic, but I felt compelled to add my 2 cents seeing as not one of you got the story completely right.
The D&H’ Laurentian and Montreal Limited were discontinued in April of 1971 at the advent of Amtrak. Dome cars never ran on either train, yes, due to clearances on the line.
For the August 1974 resurrection of Albany - Montreal daytime passenger service in the form of the NYSDOT/Amtrak/D&H “Adirondack”, leased CP Rail Dome Lounge cars were used (previously posted details of which were correct). Those domes stayed less than a year, but were replaced by Amtrak domes for awhile, then discontinued well before the end of D&H operations in favor of new Rohr Turboliners.
The clearance problems were mostly in the form of ancient wooden hump road bridges that were replaced/upgraded or converted to grade crossings. I’m sure there was also some work done inside the Willsboro Point and Ticonderoga Tunnels.
The route has remained popular to this day for Autumn guest appearances of various Amtrak and private or foreign domes.
Rick Shivik
HO D&H Champlain Division
Conyers, GA
Here’s some photos of the Skyline Dome being added to the Adirondack at Albany-Rensselaer just after the train was inaugurated in August 1974. The dome didn’t operate south of there due to clearances.
The Domes were leased from CP Rail as VIA did not exist then but VIA did lease equipment to Amtrak during Thanksgiving 2012 including a ‘Park Car’ for use on the Adirondack.
An aside to this discussion is that in the cd DOME CAR MAGIC the narrator, Michael Gross, states that the D & H did in fact run a dome car on the LAURENTIAN which of course is inaccurate. It is interesting to think why didn’t the D & H include one or more of the ex-Rio Grande (nee C & O) dome cars which were made surplus along with the cars they did buy with the discontinuance of the PROSPECTOR and the ROYAL GORGE.
Because they could not run through to Grand Central, and the D&H did not wish to pay the Central for the additional switching charges to drop and pick-up the car at Albany or Albany-Rensselaer.
Obviously the domes wouldn’t fit in GCT. As for switching in Albany the dome would have been in the consist waiting to pick up the thru coach(es) from NYC so no additional switching would be necessary. In the very early days of Amtrak there were plans to run a dome from Croton Harmon to Buffalo but it never transpired.
The following year the Skyline Domes were returned to Canadian Pacific and here’s ‘Adirondack Lodge’ an xD&RGW car providing meal service on the s/b Adirondack at Windsor Station, Montreal in October 1975.
When I rode the Laurention in the late 50s. there was only a locomotoive and crew swap at Albany, no switching. Later, probably after about 1962 or '63, the Laurention was combined with a NY- Buffalo train NY - Albany, and there was switching.
Ditto for the night Montreal Limited.