A number of other trains acquired dome cars after 1956, mainly by acquiring them when other railroads stopped running passenger trains or by shuffling around the equipment of existing trains. In the early 1960s, for example, the Norfolk & Western … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Postcard
The Great Northern relied on Hedrich-Blessing, a Chicago company specializing in architectural photography, to provide many photographs of its trains. Click any image to download a PDF of the postcard. The eastbound Empire Builder is currently heading north along Washington’s … Continue reading
The sight of a stainless steel train enhanced the already incredible scenery of the Canadian Rockies. These postcards were not issued by the Canadian Pacific, but many passengers no doubt purchased them in stations and nearby souvenir shops. (Click any … Continue reading
Since Union Pacific domeliners only had two or three domes per train, most of the passengers would be elsewhere. Here are some postcards the UP used to advertise the coaches and sleeping cars on its domeliners. Click any image to … Continue reading
It is hard to imagine any nicer place to eat than in a dome-diner. As shown below, the dome portions of the COP and COLA diners were nearly identical. The back of this postcard says it is from the City … Continue reading
In the early 1950s, the City of Los Angeles was Union Pacific’s all-Pullman equivalent of the Santa Fe Super Chief. Since it didn’t have coaches, it gained only two domes in 1955: a dome-diner and a dome-observation. This meant passengers … Continue reading
The City of Portland was initially the only Union Pacific domeliner to have all three kinds of UP domes, including a dome-coach, dome-diner, and dome-observation cars. This gave passengers 66 dome seats for viewing scenery, although at least during dinner … Continue reading
The Union Pacific competed with the Santa Fe between Chicago and Los Angeles and with the Northern Pacific between Chicago and Portland, so when those two railroads added domes to their streamliners, the UP reluctantly followed. Domes were expensive–the UP … Continue reading
Here are some postcards the Northern Pacific offered passengers who wanted to tell friends about their trip aboard the North Coast Limited. Click any image to download a PDF of the postcard. As portrayed in this Leslie Ragan painting and … Continue reading
One of my earlier posts criticized the 1948 North Coast Limited for having a drab and inadequate lounge car. That finally changed in June, 1955 when the NP converted its coach-buffet-lounge cars into the Traveller’s Rest cars, an homage to … Continue reading