Nostalgia & History > ex-Santa Fe lounge at Houston -- April 75

At the downtown SP yard near the Amtrak station an ex-Santa Fe dorm-lounge was bad ordered (for flat wheels-probably off of the Lone Star).
Built by P-S in 1950.

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This was one of those semi odd-ball lounge dorms built for the Super Chief.  Odd-ball in that they had a dorm, a lounge, and a barber shop, but no bar.  The Super already had a bar in the Pleasure Dome, so there wasn't a need for another bar in another car.  So when Amtrak refurbished these cars, they added a bar in either the barber shop or the section of the dorm closest to the lounge (accounts vary on this), thus making them more practical for Amtrak's use on trains such as the Sunset Ltd.  You can see by the blanked windows in the dormitory that this is one of the cars that had the bar added in part of the dorm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/16 05:10 by Topfuel.

doesn't one of these cars reside today in the collection of the Gulf Coast Museum?

Interesting!  Thank you for that added detail on the history of these attractive ex-Santa Fe cars.

Topfuel Wrote:
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> This was one of those semi odd-ball lounge dorms
> built for the Super Chief.  Odd-ball in that they
> had a dorm, a lounge, and a barber shop, but no
> bar.  The Super already had a bar in the Pleasure
> Dome, so there wasn't a need for another bar in
> another car.  So when Amtrak refurbished these
> cars, they added a bar in either the barber shop
> or the section of the dorm closest to the lounge
> (accounts vary on this), thus making them more
> practical for Amtrak's use on trains such as the
> Sunset Ltd.  You can see by the blanked windows
> in the dormitory that this is one of the cars
> that had the bar added in part of the dorm.

The_Chief_Way Wrote:
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> doesn't one of these cars reside today in the
> collection of the Gulf Coast Museum?

Yes, they do have one of these cars - Amtrak 3395.
The car pictured is 3392.
Gary

Thanks to Topfuel for the added info.
​Gary

Amtrak used these on #15-16    Lone Star