Did the Pennsylvania Railroad and/or the NYC ever have Vista Dome cars? I have seen models but I don’t think I have ever seen a photo of one.
Thanks!
Neither had domes as clearances, especially into GCT and Penn Station, were too tight to allow their operation.
The Pennsy did have domes on the South Wind during the winter in the mid sixties. They were leased from the Northern Pacific–no clearance problems on this route. The IC also used domes on the City of Miami and the Panama Limited during the same winters. My first dome rides were on the Panama in February or March of 1964 (Brookhaven to New Orleans and Brookhaven to Canton). The IC painted the cars in IC colors for their trains and re-painted them for the NP in the spring, but the cars that were run on the PRR-L&N-ACL train were not painted for that service. As I recall, the cars used on the South Wind one winter were used by the IC the next, so they did get new paint jobs.
At the time these dome-sleepers were under lease to the Pullman Company. When the cars operated on other than their home roads, the other road (say IC) paid the lease to the Pullman Company. All repainting was done by the Pullman Company using the same scheme that was requested by the railroad. This was the beauty of the Pullman pool.
The Seaboard, later the SCL, did own some bedroom-lounge cars that had curved glass windows along the sides of each roof over the lounge area. They were used as mid-train lounges on the Silver Meteor and sometimes the Silver Star. They were single-level cars, however, but did run over the PRR NY-Washington.
Yep, those lounge cars helped me pass many hours on the Silver Meteor on my trips to/from college in Florida (getting on/off in Baltimore to transfer from/to Harrisburg). I met a lot of nice girls in the lounge and actually ended up dating one from nearby my college for much of my senior year. This was before discount airlines and the coach fare from Lewistown to south FL was approx. 40% of what it cost to fly. But it took forever while traveling in FL as the train stopped at so many stations–although Wildwood was the only long stop due to the different sections being added/taken off.
In the final years of railroad operated passenger service. The SBD did operate the former B&O (ex C&O) dome sleepers between Richmond & Florida.
Even when the B&O operated the cars, the dome area was not permitted to be occupied bewteen Washington Union Terminal and the station stop at Silver Spring, MD account of the potential (no matter how remote) of electrical flashover from the PRR’s overhead catenary wires at WUT
Speaking of PRR passenger cars, when I was young (1950s), the PRR had a coach(s) that it ran on its premier east/west trains from to , , etc. The General and Spirit of Saint Louis, which I rode on a regular basis, amongst others had them.They sat about 44 passengers if I remember correctly, and they had ceiling to floor mirror at each end of the passenger seating area. They also had a man’s and woman’s lounge at each end of the car. They had a sitting area as well as two toilets if I remember correctly.
The cars were probably ordered after WW II. Does anyone know the name or model of the car and who built it?
The first postwar coaches built for the Pennsylvania were 70 (4100-4169) that were built in the PRR shops in 1947 and 21 (4068-4088) built by ACF in 1947. These were built for Trail Blazer and Jeffersonian service. The next new coaches were 32 (1568-1599) built by Budd in 1951 for Senator and Congressional service. What you rode in were probably those built in 1947.
There were 18 (4000-4017) built by Budd in 1939; they may have been operated in east-west service.
These were among the very most comfortable coaches for overnight coach travel that ever ran on USA railroads, with plenty of leg room, generous lavatories, and excellent riding qualities. As comfortable as any Sante Fe coach of any type. (And that is saying a lot!) But they rusted out, and by 1952, one could see the rust spots expecially on the skirting near the steps. They were scrapped early on because of this problem, and their good GSI drop-equalizer trucks were then used under rebuilt P70 coaches, replacing the harder riding pedestal-type trucks some of these cars still had from their earlier standard P70 incarnation. (These particular rebuilt P70’s seated about 54, and looked every bit like new streamlined cars, with one vestibule, low arch ceiling, picture windows, reclining seats, etc., but cramped restrooms. Rode these 44-seat cars on the Trailblazer, the Cincnnati Limted, and the Detroit Arrow. I prefered NY-Detroit overnight on the Detroit Arrow verses the NYC Wolvarine precisely because these cars were even more comfortable than the just plain excellent NYC Budd-built cars. Hated to see them rust out!