Before it purchased dome cars for the California Zephyr and other streamlined trains, the Rio Grande made a narrow-gauge dome car, of sorts, for its scenic line between Durango and Silverton. The car had a glass roof with open sides that had shades that could be lowered to protect against the sun or rain.
Click image to download a 586-KB PDF of this brochure.
This photo suggests that tourists loved the car, but the horses right behind the car suggest that this is a publicity photo and not one of the car in actual service.
This brochure, whose scans were contributed by a Streamliner Memories reader, was published in 1947, the same year the car was built, and the pictures of the car are an artist’s conception of what it would look like rather than an actual photo. To emphasize the connection with vista domes, the car was called “Silver Vista.”Unfortunately, the car was destroyed in a fire in 1953. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has recreated the car so people wishing to experience Animas Canyon from a dome car can once again do so.