Today, as I was headed to Carpinteria for a dentist appointment, I THOUGHT I spotted a full length dome car in UP colors sandwiched between two yellow UP locomotives. They were headed North just before the Bird Refuge in Montecito. Does anyone know about this car? Part of the business car fleet?
Frank in dark and cool SBA (And, no, there was no cheeseburger at The Spot involved this time. Too numbed up to chew or even order!)
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
UP, by way of the C&NW, has a MILW Super Dome in its Executrain fleet:
According to the Dome-Main site that Trainweb continues to host after Mr. Ainsworth's passing, The car was originally MILW 53 and did "hitches" with CN and NCDOT along the way.
Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :
Gil--
That looks like the one I saw today. I didn't want to take my eyes off the road long enough to really get a good look. And I wasn't even driving. That particular stretch of the 101 is especially nasty going down to two lanes each way from three rather quickly.
Frank in dark and cool SBA
Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :
Here is the current Union Pacific fleet, as reported by the Road.
Of note, ARDEN and SELMA are in the roundhouse at Cheyenne. While the article says "long term storage", Arden is the Harriman Family's PV, and probably comes out for the really big stuff.
Ditto SELMA. She was the antecedent to ARDEN, as the Harriman Family's PV. There's darn good reason those two are on the property.
I'll do some more checking to see if any MILW Super Domes are under Road ownership.
Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :
From Don Strack's Utahrails.net, here is the list he has of UP equipment in service. I do not see a MILW dome on the roster.
All this said does not mean there has not been a recent acquisition.
Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :
Thanks for your research and the links. They made for some interesting viewing.
Frank in overcast and cool SBA
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Related of sorts to the topic is this video, circa 1992, of the Auto Train when there was an ex-MILW Super Dome in the consist. The three cars came to Amtrak by way of Princess Tours when their Starlight "Luxoservice" flopped.
My 1992 trip (likely about "Voyage 10") included such car, and it represented a return of prepared on board full service dining for the "Bennie-Caddy-Lex" crowd. The "mini-van" crowd ate at the Cafeteria cars that Amtrak had on their Florida service during that era: