Would something like a Pullman/Budd/ACF dome or a Full Dome car be able to fit under the Northeast Corridor? I’m currently looking at trading for 2 Full Dome Cars for my OCS/Excursion train.
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Full domes will not fit cleanly through the North River Tunnels, or the Baltimore tunnels. I do not know firsthand if Gateway or Frederick Douglass would accommodate one.
Domes in general were forbidden under the Gibbs & Hill catenary, not so much for corona or arc risk as for the danger if the wirework were snagged or dropped onto the tops of the cars. The closest thing I remember would be the SCL Sun Lounges, but those were more like Amtrak Sightseer Lounges than domes.
I remember thinking that the Budd Tubular Train might be kludged to have at least a Strata-Dome structure, and of course the Power-Domes on the TurboTrains were THE way to experience the Corridor from Penn or GCT east…
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I’ll have to check later tonight but I believe I recall seeing the ex-santa Fe full dome under wire on the Conrail OCS. I have a couple DVDs of the train and I seem to recall they were running under former PRR/N-H wire. It looks like the 55 is third car from the tail here:
OCS at Strafford by Doug Lilly, on Flickr
OCS at Strafford - 2 by Doug Lilly, on Flickr
I recently painted a Walthers Santa Fe Budd dome for the OCS:
Conrail 55 hose diaphragm by Edmund, on Flickr
Conrail OCS big Dome 55 by Edmund, on Flickr
Walthers could easily have done this car but there’s no way to convince them otherwise.
Cheers, Ed
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The clearance to check would be the NJT bilivels that operate through the North River Tunnels (with passengers on the upper deck). I confess, having spent quite some time adjacent to the west portal ‘platform’ in the early Seventies, I was surprised those things cleared the wire in there.
Not a bad idea dome cars should be fine on the NEC, but what will the cars be painted in?
Stainless, of course.
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