Ispolkom
Engineer
My co-worker's six-year-old son, Max, shares my two greatest interests: trains and dinosaurs. Yesterday he saw a couple of "silver dome cars," and told his mom to ask me what they were. After a couple of minutes of puzzlement, I thought of Silver Solarium, the ex-CB&Q dome-observation-sleeper. Sure enough, it, along with sleeper Silver Rapids, is leaving on the end of tonight's #7, bound for Portland and then Emeryville.
After work, Mrs. Ispolkom and I drove by the depot to see the cars, which were a fine sight in the evening sun. We could see people dining in the dome, and it occurred to me that I was seeing perhaps the first ever set-out sleeper at St. Paul Midway Station. After all, the #7 leaves MSP at 11:15 p.m., and many of the old set-out sleepers were available for use after 9 or 9:30 p.m. In fact, I'm not aware that the Twin Cities ever had such a car, though in the long history of Pullman operations I'm probably wrong.
The only disappointment is that I didn't have a proper camera with me at the station, and only took a snapshot with my cellphone.
After work, Mrs. Ispolkom and I drove by the depot to see the cars, which were a fine sight in the evening sun. We could see people dining in the dome, and it occurred to me that I was seeing perhaps the first ever set-out sleeper at St. Paul Midway Station. After all, the #7 leaves MSP at 11:15 p.m., and many of the old set-out sleepers were available for use after 9 or 9:30 p.m. In fact, I'm not aware that the Twin Cities ever had such a car, though in the long history of Pullman operations I'm probably wrong.
The only disappointment is that I didn't have a proper camera with me at the station, and only took a snapshot with my cellphone.