The search for the 1956 DZ cars Silver Veranda and Silver Chateau hasn’t yielded a floor plan yet, but Dubin’s “Some Classic Trains” states that the 10 parlor seats and drawing room were forward, with the “Colorado Room” under the dome and a lounge area in the rear. When I rode the train several times in the late 1960s the cars were operated midtrain next to the diner.
From your memory, was the configuration you described maintained?
These were blunt-end obs cars. But were they built with the rear diaprhagm?
I was a lowly coach passenger so I didn’t get the interior view. They were put into an Amtrak series for dome-observations that included other Burlington dome-parlor-observation cars, so I think the answer to the configuration question is yes. The cars as built had diaphragm with a stainless steel plate so they were always capable of mid-train operation.
A nice view of the of the car Silver Veranda in as-built condition (1963)
Mmmmmh!
A really good photo of the parlor-obs is that publicity classic that superimposed the DZ on the Chicago-Aurora three-track main in front of Colorado’s Front Range.