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M

MontanaJim

Service Attendant
Joined
Nov 14, 2011
Messages
225
Ive been posting a lot on this board about VIA's Canadian. One of the reasons it excites me is because of the dome cars on the train.

Im a low budget traveller. Can anyone tell me what other affordable passenger trains have domes? Any Amtrak trains still have domes? By affordable im not including the tourist trains like the Montana Daylight. Its prices are above my budget.

Id like to ride on trains that have a dome car, if possible.
 
Amtrak originally inherited a lot of domes from the railroads when it was formed in 1971. But there are none any more in regular use.

There is what used to be called a "great-dome" and I guess it is in the yards someplace somewhre, but it is not in use. In more recent years it was on the Piedmont. So no, quick answer, no Amtrak domes in serivce anymore.

A dome is only superior to a superliner car with its forward (and rearward) vision. All other directions,no difference.
 
The dome car that was on the Piedmont was owned by NCDOT and eventually put on the market. They could not afford to upgrade it to meet all FRA standards and regulations.

I have not gone to their webiste lately, but at one time last year they had a listing and descriptions of cars that they had for sale.
 
Also, for the record, to help address Montanajim concerns about seats, the great dome or big dome or grand dome(they had several names by various private railroads before Amtrak) usually had, I think, about 70 seats. They were not as of such uniform design as the standard 24 seaters, more variance with the large domes.

Not that that helps us any more with today's travel.
 
Bill Haithcoat said:
Amtrak originally inherited a lot of domes from the railroads when it was formed in 1971. But there are none any more in regular use.
There is what used to be called a "great-dome" and I guess it is in the yards someplace somewhre, but it is not in use. In more recent years it was on the Piedmont. So no, quick answer, no Amtrak domes in serivce anymore.
Click to expand...
The one remaining Dome that Amtrak owns (10031) is still active, and does make an appearance every now and then on Special trains (most notably on Pacific Surfliner holiday Extras, but that's not a guarantee that it will happen this year). The 10031 was a Dome that was inherited from Auto Train Corp when it folded back in the 80's. It's still preserved, up to all FRA standards, and still rolling, and probably will as long as Gunn's in office.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. Youve pretty much sold me on taking the canadian sometime, but probably not this year. This year ill probably just do the empire builder and california zephyr on my christmas trip home to Montana.

I would think one more advantage of a dorm is you can sit straight and look out on both sides at almost the same time. In the sightseer lounge, unless you stand, you have to sit on one side and cant see as well out the windows on the other side of the car.

Scenery wise, is the canadian better than the zephyr?

I also read on wikipedia that todays canadian runs a different route than the original, and that the originals route was better (search the canadian on wikipedia to read it).
 
Yes, the original Canadian ran on the Canadian Pacific RR (which included Lake Lousie and Banf) and the other route was the Canadian National, main train the Super Ccontinental.

When I made my first trip, about 30 plus years ago I went out on CN back on CP. My second trip was last year.

But today's Canadian runs the route of the former Super Continental on Canadian National , which, I understand, is less slightly scenic. I cannot remember the details from 33 years ago.
 
But today's Canadian runs the route of the former Super Continental on Canadian National , which, I understand, is less slightly scenic. I cannot remember the details from 33 years ago.
Click to expand...
We were told that the scenic route via Calgary, Banff, and Lake Louise was "sold" to Rocky Mountaineer. At least that's what RM told us in May when were on it.
 
The dome on the Piedmont was a former Milwaukee Road "Super Dome," and was sold last year to the "Friends of the 261," a group in Minnesota. I've got a photo or two on my Webshots page of its positioning move on the Empire Builder after it was sold.

The former GN Great Dome, as has been noted, is still rolling around occasionally.
 
battalion51 said:
Bill Haithcoat said:
Amtrak originally inherited a lot of domes from the railroads when it was formed in 1971.  But there are none any more in regular use.
There is what used to be called a "great-dome" and I guess it is in the yards someplace somewhre, but it is not in use.  In more recent years it was on the Piedmont.  So no, quick answer, no Amtrak domes in serivce anymore.
Click to expand...
The one remaining Dome that Amtrak owns (10031) is still active, and does make an appearance every now and then on Special trains (most notably on Pacific Surfliner holiday Extras, but that's not a guarantee that it will happen this year). The 10031 was a Dome that was inherited from Auto Train Corp when it folded back in the 80's. It's still preserved, up to all FRA standards, and still rolling, and probably will as long as Gunn's in office.
Click to expand...
Had the dome on the #14 stub train out of LAUPT on August 6 this year. Windows were un-believably dirty, and the AC was going on and off. Other then that, she was in fairly good shape.
 

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