The Great Dome Cars
Written by the Midwest Rail Rangers
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Great Dome car "Glacier View" was built for the Great Northern Railroad in 1955, and was originally GN Car #1390. For the 15 years it was part of the Great Northern, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in the Great Northern's new blue paint scheme. When the Great Northern was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9360. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. It was retired from Amtrak's fleet in May 1981. In 1983, "Glacier View" was traded back to the Burlington Northern by Amtrak, where it would be used as an inspection car for railroad executives. It was re-numbered BN Car #BNA-24. Shortly after its purchase of the car, the Burlington Northern cut off one end and installed a floor-to-ceiling glass window. It had at least two different paint schemes under the Burlington Northern (as seen in the above photos). Following the merger of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe in 1996, the car was re-numbered as BNSF Car #30. It was also sheathed with stainless steel in the late 1990's. "Glacier View" continues to be a BNSF inspection car with theater-style seating today; it is used on many of the various BNSF lines in the Western United States.
Great Dome car "Ocean View" was built for the Great Northern Railroad in 1955, and was originally given GN Car #1391. For the 15 years it was part of the Great Northern, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in an experimental Great Northern/Burlington Northern green and white paint scheme. When the Great Northern was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9361. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. After going through head-end power upgrades in March 1985, it was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9300. Great Dome "Ocean View" was assigned to the route of Amtrak's Auto Train between 1985 and 1995. It went through additional upgrades in 1996 and 1999, and was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #10031 when it was added to Amtrak's special services unit. In 2001, "Ocean View" got the distinction of being Amtrak's last remaining dome car. For the past 17 years, it has been as an inspection car used by railroad executives and other VIP's. It has also been used for various charter trips, special trains, etc. "Ocean View" has made regular appearances during the fall months on Amtrak's Cardinal, Adirondack, Downeaster, Hiawatha, and the various Midwestern state-operated trains. In August 2018, media reports emerged that "Ocean View" may be side-lined by Spring 2019 when its next major cycle of maintenance is due. Its last public excursion took place on November 2, 2018 on the Adirondack between Montreal and Albany, New York. After spending the winter in Amtrak's Albany, NY Maintenance Facility, the car moved to Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited on Sunday, April 14, 2019... it then proceeded down to Beech Grove. The car was purchased by Mr. Jim Evanson of Paxrail in early 2020. It was then sold to Railexco and operated at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad during the 2022 season. It was then sold to the Candian National Railway, where it was seen in North Bay, Ontario in 2023 awaiting further restoration.
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Western Maryland Scenic Railroad - 2022
Kevin Burkholder Photo - North Bay, Ontario (Canada) - 2023
Great Dome car "Mountain View" was built for the Great Northern Railroad in 1955, and was originally given GN Car #1392. For the 15 years it was part of the Great Northern, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in the Great Northern's new blue paint scheme. When the Great Northern was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9362. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. After going through head-end power upgrades in March 1985, it was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9301. Great Dome "Mountain View" was assigned to the route of Amtrak's Auto Train between 1985 and 1995. It went through additional upgrades in 1996 and 1999, and was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #10030 when it was added to Amtrak's special services unit. The Grand Luxe then acquired the car from Amtrak in September 2001 and renamed it "New Orleans" for service on the American Orient Express. In 2009, it was purchased by Xanterra's Grand Canyon Railway, refurbished, and entered service as "Fred Harvey" in September 2012. You can still ride it in Arizona to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Great Dome car "Lake View" was built for the Great Northern Railroad in 1955, and was originally given GN Car #1393. For the 15 years it was part of the Great Northern, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in the Great Northern's new blue paint scheme. When the Great Northern was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9363. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. Amtrak retired "Lake View" in February 1982. The following year it was sold to the Southern Pacific Railway, who scrapped it at their Oakland, California yards. Luckily, of the six original Great Dome cars, this is the only one not to be in existence.
Great Dome car "Prairie View" was built for the Great Northern Railroad in 1955, and was originally given GN Car #1394. For the 15 years it was part of the Great Northern, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in the Great Northern's new blue paint scheme. When the Great Northern was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9364. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. "Prairie View" was temporarily retired and placed in storage at Amtrak's Los Angeles yards. Over the next four year, it received serious damage from vandals, rendering the car too expensive to fix. In 1984, Amtrak decided not to put "Prairie View" through a renovation that would have made it operate on head-end power. Instead, Amtrak retained ownership of "Prairie View" for use as a parts car. Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, Amtrak's mechanical department slowly picked off pieces of this car for use on "Mountain View", "Ocean View", and "River View" which were running on the Auto Train. By 1993, all that was left of "Prairie View" was its shell. At that point, Amtrak put the remains up for a bid in a major surplus auction being held. The winner was Burlington Northern, who planned to refurbish the car and use it as a second business dome car to supplement "Glacier View". The planned refurbishment work never took place. When the Burlington Northern merged with the Santa Fe in 1996, the newly formed BNSF didn't need "Prairie View" anymore because it now had an ex-Santa Fe Big Dome as its secondary business car. BNSF sold off "Prairie View" to Holland America in June 1996. Holland America spent more than $1,000,000 to refurbish the car before it was shipping up to Alaska in May 1997. It was re-named "Deshka" and was used by cruise ship passengers who wanted to travel on the Alaska Railroad between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Ownership was transferred in late 2004 to the now defunct Alaska Rail Tours to be used in a non-cruise ship travel operation in Alaska. It was sold to Iowa Pacific Holdings in October 2009 and re-named back to "Prairie View" with its original Great Northern number. Since then, it has been used by Iowa Pacific for private rail excursions across the country. It spent much of 2019 as a dinner train car on the Iowa Pacific-owned Cape Cod Central Railroad. It was also used in October 2019 for the Autumn Colors Express (formerly called the New River Train) in West Virginia. There are reports the car is currently up for sale due to Iowa Pacific Holdings being put in receivership; asking price is $850,000. If you have any new information about "Prairie View", drop us an e-mail at board@railrangers.org.
Great Dome car "River View" was built for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1955, and was originally given CB&Q Car #1395. This was the only Great Dome that was owned by the CB&Q through an agreement with the Great Northern. For the 15 years it was part of the CB&Q, this car was mainly used on the Empire Builder line between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1960's, it was re-painted in the Great Northern's new blue paint scheme. When the CB&Q was merged with other railroads in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern, the ownership of this car was transferred. The Burlington Northern continued to run this Great Dome on its Empire Builder train. Just about a year later, ownership was transferred to Amtrak, when it took over most of the Burlington's passenger train service in May 1971. This car was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9365. It remained in service on the Empire Builder under Amtrak, too, until being replaced by bi-level Superliner equipment in October 1979. After going through head-end power upgrades in March 1985, it was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #9302. Great Dome "River View" was assigned to the route of Amtrak's Auto Train between 1985 and 1995. It went through additional upgrades in 1996 and 1999, and was re-numbered as Amtrak Car #10032 when it was added to Amtrak's special services unit. The Grand Luxe then acquired the car from Amtrak in September 2001 and renamed it "Copper Canyon" for service on the American Orient Express. In 2009, it was purchased by Xanterra's Grand Canyon Railway. GCR re-named this car "Mary Colter" in honor of the Harvey Company's chief architect, responsible for the design of many historic buildings at Grand Canyon National Park.
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