Union Pacific had solid, conservative, very light blue-green seats in their Astra domes. Yet, as a kid, I once rode a UP train’s dome car with unusual plaid designed dark seats. Might that have been Wabash’s dome car #203? That car was specially built in 1959 along with UP 7011-7015 for the joint UP/WAB Los Angeles-St. Louis passenger train “City of St. Louis.”
A photo at:
All you ever wanted to know about Dome cars … and more
Actually the UP domes when built were for specific assignments and were decorated for the different trains that would operate those domes.
Dome Coaches 7000 - 7004 built for Challengers between Chicago and Los Angeles
Dome Coaches 7005 - 7009 built for City of Portland between Chicago and Portland
Dome Coaches 7011 - 7015 and Wabash 203 built for City of St. Louis between St. Louis and Los Angeles (Note built in 1958 by Pullman Standard to the AC&F plans as specified by UP and were the last domes built prior to Amtrak)
Dome Dining Cars 8000 - 8004 built for City of Los Angeles between Chicago and Los Angeles
Dome Dining Cars 8005-8009 built for City of Portland between Chicago and Portland
Dome Lounge Observations 9000 - 9004 built for City of Los Angeles between Chicago and Los Angeles
Dome Lounge Observations 9005 - 9009 Built for City of Portland between Chicago and Portland
Dome Lounge Observations 9010 - 9014 Built for City of St. Louis between St. Louis and Los Angeles
Those domes built for and assigned to the different City Domeliners were decorated regionally and the interiors reflected the service they were built for.
There is an excellent DVD out on the UP streamliners that not only shows the interiors of the domes but clearly shows what the different color schemes were for each City Domeliner.
Hope this helps.
Al - in - Stockton
A UP ad back in the days when it was quite proper to travel by train has a picture of both a first class dome and a coach dome–and the upholstery in the two cars is different. As I recall, the coach dome had plaid upholstery, and the first class dome had solid upholstery. Also, the coach passengers were quite casual in their dress, and the first class passengers were dressed properly for train travel. So, the upholstery in your dome may have depended upon the class of your travel.
If I were at home, I would look at the ad so I could check the wording, but it was something like this: “people like you travel this way,” and, “you like the people you meet.” A reproduction of the ad is hanging on our bedroom wall because my wife and I met in a UP first class dome (she was traveling coach, but the windows of the coach dome were dirty, so she trespassed in the first-class dome).
Johnny
Johnny you are absolutely right about the plaid versus classier upholstery in UP domes not only that the coach domes mirrored the trains they operated in as did the first class domes and the dome diner decor was selected for the route they were intended to operate on. And smart ladies traveling coach always migrated to the first class dome to meet a better class of men.
Al - in - Stockton