The British Rail train that I rode from near the Scottish West Coast in 1962 ran a long the side of Loch Lommond for a while. I recall stations at Tyndrum? Ballard? It was pulled by a Brush 2-2 (0-4-4-0 Whyte classification) diesel. Can this pinpoint it?
More on the 1969 eastbound very late CZ trip. There was a rock slide somewhere east of Grand Junction and west of Bond, somewhere around Orestead wye. The train went into emergency at the red signal. The antilock feature of the Budd disk brakes did not operate properly on the Cable-car room-dome lounge car, one axle slid, and developed a flat wheel. I think the car was set off at Bond, resulting in a further delay. No replacement car was furnished, but coach passengers were then allowed into Silver Planet, which provided lounge and dome service. I was traveling roomette. We were allowed to remain on the train overnight in Chicago until 7AM after the 2AM arrival. We were told this at dinner. I had zero trouble getting to the office, simply riding a Burlington scoot back from Union Station and explaining to the conductor why I felt I did not need a ticket, just the receipt from the Oakland - Chicago trip. (I had planned, of course, to get off at Aurora and use a scoot to Downers Grove.) He said he expected some passengers with this problem and said not to worry.
On the California Service trip in 1970 the Burlington only provided a snack-lounge car for dining service, with counter seating. The food was OK. Denver - Salt Lake was just like the subsequent RGZ. with the addition of the two 6-and10’s from Chicago. I was enjoying breakfast in the diner (Silver Restaurant, I realize I should check on all this with “Never on Wednesday”??) when a well-dressed handsome middle-aged tall gentlement sat across from me and asked: W
I do not know the exact dates of the first observation cars, but I do know that many wooden built cars existed in the 1870’s and were commonly used for “special” runs such as presidential whistle-stops and the like. There are many photographs in the BNSF Railway collection of such cars. In the 1890’s, more ornate cars were being built, some even commissioned by wealthy millionaires, traveling shows, politicians, and even one well known photographer who turned his car into a rolling photography studio.
One of our predecessor railways owned the Ben Avon and it was quite fancy with its brass rails, retractable blinds, and shiny coat of paint.
After my post earlier, I realize I actually had met Tom Long much earlier, in 1962, on the narrow gauge portion of that year’s Mourie Kleibolt Chicago RR Club Colorado trip. He was the one to whom we each paid $25 for sixi of us to attach the Wiliiam Jackson Palmer Obs-business car for the Durango - Farmington Round Trip, on which Rudy Morgenfrue cooked up a terrific steak dinner with the food he and I purchased in a Farmington super market… He probably knew who I was, but I had forgotton the earlier meeting at the time. This was the trip when some of the youngsters asked to fly kites off the obs platform, and they did coming into Durango.
What you are describing are private cars, which were intended for the private use by the owners (or renters for rental cars). Private cars typically had sleeping and kitchen/dining space included. A good book on private cars is “Mansions on Rails” by Lucius Beebe, long out of print but may be available in libraries.
Observation cars were meant for public use by passengers with the appropriate ticket and were configured with lounge space. In the steam days, both observation and private cars had an open observation platform, though streamlined observation cars almost always had an enclosed end.
Just to close the “end of the original CZ” part of the discussion the last day the CB&Q/D&RGW/WP CZ orginated from each end was March 22, 1970. It was still listed in the April 1970 OG because the final date was set too late to be included.
An observation car was one which had an extended rear platform with a railing primarily designed to be used at the end of a train and primarily for first class passengers… Sometimes chairs would be placed on the platform for the passengers. Later these observation platforms were enclosed for safety and comfort with the classic bullet nose and the Bud flat backs; although there were some other flat back Pullman cars with half or full floor to ceiling glass to the back. An extraordinary observation car had to be the MLW’s Hiawatha glass domes. Most railroads had business cars which were similar, sometimes more sparse, sometimes more extravagant, depending on it use and the officer’s rank. As for private car, yes, most were observation cars if only because it was expected to be tacked to the end of the train. But especially after the age of elegance, posh and plush, certainly after the 1950’s, rail aficionados more than the rich, often retrieved Pullmans, diners, even coaches, to refurbish and redesign for private car designation whether it had an observation platform or lounge or not.
Some railroads, particularly in the North, preferred closed flat-end-with-large-windows cars even in the heavyweight era, such as the Great Northern’s “Solerium” cars on the heavyweight Empire Builder. In the heavyweight era, such cars were known as Solerium cars, usually, not observation cars. I believe as a youngster I visited one on the C&O on either the George Washington or the Sportsman. (I was traveling coach, DC - Charlottesville, but the conductor allowed me to inspect the train interior. Age 11.)
Were there any lightweight rear-open-platform cars constructed that were not rebuilds by private owners?
There were several railroad-owned lightweight business that were built with rear open platforms. SP 150 comes to mind and I believe that Union Pacific and Santa Fe also had them.
GN (A28 later A4 ) and Soo (Minneapolis) both had P-S built lightweight business cars. GN later acquired Soo’s (GN A2). Soo later had an ex-MILW homebuilt after the 1985 MILW merger.
Most of the streamlined business train cars in use now are former passenger service cars that have been converted to business car use. The GN and Soo cars were built new. The Soo’s Minneapolis was the only passenger-carrying lightweith or any kind the Soo owned.
Just to nitpick it a little, the enclosed-end heavyweight observation cars were called “solarium” cars. “Solar” is Latin for “sun”, and “solarium” was the Roman name for a sun room (like in a house).
As information the Soo’s only light weight passenger car was the business car “Minneapolis” that was sold to the Great Northern in 1965. To the best of my knowledge, this car is still on the BNSF executive car roster. The Northern Pacific purchased three Pullman built business cars about 1950 or so. They were the “Yellowstone River” (for the NP president), the “Yakima River” and the “Clark(s) Fork River”. I do not know who were assigned the those cars. I heard that the “Clark Fork” was wrecked on the MKT. I believe that the “Yellowstone” is at the Fort Worth campus off its trucks and I don’t know the disposition of the “Yakima”.
Getting back to observation cars, the NP owned 5 and the CBQ owned one, all for the North Coast Limited. They were remodeled at some point (Wayner’s book “Car Names, Number, and Consists” does not indicate a date). and were retired in 1967. I did see a picture of the CBQ’s car repainted into silver and on a CBQ train. I had a second shift job at Old Northtown and would see the NCL and GN’s Winnipeg Limited on Saturday and Sunday because the Fargo freight train called for 830PM did not run. The “Lounge-in the Sky” cars replaced the obs cars.
It got paid to watch Trains.
RC Drye—please call me 763-234-9306 after about 10AM central time.