The Great Domes were a fleet of six

streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady flow, steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the f ...

dome lounge A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car, sleeping car or o ...

cars built by the

Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense produ ...

for the Great Northern Railway and

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwest, Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, CB&Q, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of ...

in 1955. The cars were used exclusively on the ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great North ...

'' from their introduction in 1955 until the end of private passenger service in 1971.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

retained all six cars and they continued to run on the ''Empire Builder'' before new Superliners displaced them at the end of the decade, after which they saw service elsewhere in the system before the last one being retired in 2019. The Great Domes were similar in design to the Big Domes Budd built for the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

Design

The Great Domes were "virtually identical" to the Big Dome lounges Budd constructed for the Santa Fe in 1954, save for the fact that their smooth sides lacked the fluting of the Big Domes. The top level featured coach-style seating for 57, plus a lounge area which could seat an additional 18 on sofas and in booths. The lower level featured a cocktail lounge decorated with the art of the

Haida people The Haida (, , , , ) are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. They constitute one of 203 First Nations in British Columbia and 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, tribes in Alaska. T ...

, who hailed from the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

Service history

The Great Northern was slow to adopt

dome car A dome car is a type of railway Passenger car (rail), passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a Coach (rail), coach, lounge c ...

s for its passenger trains. Management thought that the cost of heating and cooling the dome interiors would be prohibitively expensive given the hot summers and cold winters along the Hi-Line. Further, they thought the ''

'', which had already been re-equipped twice in 1947 and 1951, could attract passengers without adding domes. News that the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

and

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced financi ...

(the "Milwaukee Road") were adding domes to their transcontinental trains changed the Great Northern's mind. In 1953 the Great Northern ordered six Great Domes and sixteen "short" domes, enough to add one Great Dome and three "short" domes to the regular consist of the ''Empire Builder''. One of the six cars was owned by the

(CB&Q). Amtrak acquired all six Great Domes from the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

, successor to the Great Northern and CB&Q, on its startup in 1971. The Great Domes remained on the ''Empire Builder'' until October 28, 1979, when they and other single-level cars were displaced by Superliners and

Hi-Level The Hi-Level was a type of Bilevel rail car, bilevel intercity railroad passenger railroad car, passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars; a sleeping car variant was considered but never pr ...

cars. Amtrak rebuilt three of the cars for

head end power In rail transport, head-end power (HEP), also known as electric train supply (ETS), is the electrical power distribution system on a passenger train. The power source, usually a locomotive (or a generator car) at the front or 'head' of a train, ...

(HEP) and they remained on the roster into the 1990s on the ''

Auto Train ''Auto Train'' is an scheduled daily train service for passengers and their automobiles operated by Amtrak between Lorton, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.), and Sanford, Florida (near Orlando, Florida, Orlando). ''Auto Train'' is the only mot ...

''. Amtrak retained one, ''Ocean View'', as part of its business car fleet and for special use on regular routes, such as the Downeaster service during

leaf peeping Leaf peeping, fall color tourism, or simply fall tourism is the activity in which people travel to observe and photograph the fall foliage in autumn. The term comes from the United States, having been first mentioned in 1966. Although the acti ...

season. ''Ocean View'' was retired in 2019 by Amtrak, due to the age and expense of maintaining the Great Dome Car. It was sold to Paxrail in 2020, before being entering a lease to purchase with RAILEXCO in early 2021, before selling to RAILEXCO upon completion of the agreement. As of late September 2022, Ocean View was in service on the

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (WMSR) is a heritage railway, heritage railroad based in Cumberland, Maryland, that operates passenger excursion trains and occasional freight trains using both Steam locomotive, steam and diesel locomotive, ...

under lease from RAILEXCO until late 2022 where it was sold to Canadian National Railway.

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

Memories from the Great Dome 'Ocean View'
Website dedicated to the history of Amtrak's Great Dome Cars by the Midwest Rail Rangers * {{Amtrak rolling stock Train-related introductions in 1955 Great Northern Railway (U.S.) Budd Company Rail passenger cars of the United States