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On April 1, 2018, the only Amtrak Ocean View Dome Car passed through Bernalillo, NM on it's way to Beech Grove, IN.
The Great Domes are a fleet of six streamlined dome lounge cars built by the Budd Company for the Great Northern Railway and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1955. The cars were used exclusively on the Empire Builder from their introduction in 1955 until the end of private passenger service in 1971. Amtrak 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. The Great Domes were similar in design to the Big Domes Budd built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
On April 10, 2018, the car was deadheading back to LAX on Amtrak 3, this time behind AMTK 822, painted in Phase III Heritage livery for Amtrak's 40th Anniversary. We were fortunate enough to be on the way to Colorado that day and stopped at the Las Vegas, NM Amtrak station to catch it. Tip of the hat to the station agent who made a cameo appearance!
Quick turnaround on the Super Dome. It must have been to Beech Grove just for routine maintenance and not much else.
Does anyone know what Amtrak does with their sole remaining Super Dome? I noticed that it still has the old wide striping (Phase III) which matches the new baggage cars.
Nice video. I had the opportunity to ride in an ex Santa Fe Budd Big Dome, on the Conrail Office Car train, running under NEC Catenary wire, no less, some 20 years ago. It was a fun ride, and actually better than my ride in a B&O Stratadome Coach in the 60s.
Nice video. I had the opportunity to ride in an ex Santa Fe Budd Big Dome, on the Conrail Office Car train, running under NEC Catenary wire, no less, some 20 years ago. It was a fun ride, and actually better than my ride in a B&O Stratadome Coach in the 60s.
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