My favorite dome car seen from the outside is definetly Santa Fe´s Big Dome Lounge, which had been in service on the Chief, San Francisco Chief and El Capitan. Really a very beautiful and impressive car, with it´s stainless steel body and 6 wheel trucks. But when it comes to the inside, UP´s Dome Diners are my all time favorites. Can there be anything better than to eat a fine steak and drinking wine on such high level while watching the scenery flow by??? That´s why my vote goes to the UP Dome Diners.
My experience is limited, but my 1982 ride in a VIA ex-CP “park” dome- observation was memorable. The car rode very well on the CN Kingston Sub at 90 MPH. They served cold Molson Export Ale with a good Chicken Club sandwich for $3.89 (US), a bargain I doubt one will see VIA offering nowadays. The best part, aside from that, was an overtake of a freight with a pair of M636s, smoking along at 55mph with a long string of autoracks, Hi Cubes and container flats. The show was hard to beat. Best of all, when I was waiting to go back to Montreal at Brockville, that freight blew by at track speed (60) leaving Alco smoke everywhere! The CP dome coaches were OK, but tended to get hot on sunny days since CP underestimated the cooling capacity needed for cooling the dome! Curiously the dome -obs didn’t have this problem, perhaps because one could have a cold Molson Export![:p]
Deluxe Just thought you might like to know that the GN , NP and CB&Q/D&RGW/WP domes were all 46 seat leg rest coach domes from Budd and the MP also owned three of these. The CP never owned a dome coach, they only owned the Park Dome Sleeper Lounge Observations and the Skyline domes a combination coach buffet dinette loungetype car. The CP Dome Sleeper Lounge Observations were actually modeled after the CB&Q/D&RGW/WP Dome Sleeper Lounge Observations of the California Zephyr.The AT&SF Big Domes and the GN/CB&Q Great Dome Lounge cars were identical in seating on the upper level. The AT&SF had two types of these cars and both were quite dofferent on the lower level as was the GN/CB&Q Great Dome Lounge cars on the lower level.
The UP Dome diners were beautiful cars for the passengers but talk to any of the former Dining car crews who ever worked them and they did not care much for them especially the kitchen crew.
My personal preference was any of the Budd short domes as they gave an almost unobstructed view forward that none of the full length domes offered.
The AT&SF P/S built Turqouise Room domes of the Super Chief offered an interesting dome level seating arrangement not copied by anyone else. They only seated 16 with seat pairs only in the first and last rows and four single swivel parlor seats between. The first pairs faced forward and the last pairs faced aft.
The Milwaukee domes never looked as good as they did under CN ownership or Cruise ship ownership and they were the heaviest of the original domes and also rode on six wheel trucks.
Very difficult to answer your poll.
My favorite is the SP 3/4 dome lounge.I first rode this car in 1961 on the San Joaquin Daylight. I have ridden these cars since,on the Coast Daylight,and on several Amtrak trains[8D].
Oddly enough my vote for the SP cars wasn’t for the dome itself but for the sense of spaciousness one got from standing at the regular floor level by the bar and having that glass roof about 12 feet overhead
Great question. Answerable, really, only in categories. If forced to go with only one, then my vote for the ultimate configuration: the Sleeper/dome/lounge/open platform car exemplified by the Sierra Hotel, a car converted from a CB&Q dorm/cafe/lounge. The UP dome diner certainly is my favorite diner, as experienced by breakfast into Denver, and lunch over Sherman Hill on UP #9, in 1962. I agree with the short dome for the unobstructed 360’ view, though downstairs, there was nothing like the lower lounge in the SP dome lounges with the 12 or more foot ceilings, though it was really at floor level, not recessed, like downstairs in the other domes.
I plan to have an incredible, unforgettable experience in a CP (Now VIA) Park car (Dome-observation), best dome cars ever, so glad they’re still around! Here’s one of my favorite moments…the Skeena one month ago going from Jasper station, through the wye, then back again to go west to Prince Rupert. Wunderbar! http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b274/trainboysd40/Jasper%202006/WyingSkeenaJan20062.jpg
