Passenger Trains > NP Budd Dome in So. San Francisco

UP's Broadway Local last night pulled a Budd-built dome-sleeper out of the Port of Redwood City, CA where it has resided for many years and it is presently in the yard at South San Francisco. Some online research identifies it as the former Northern Pacific 378 having been built for North Coast Limited service by Budd in 1954. Became AMTK 9223 in 1971--the car is now stenciled as the PPCX 800601.

All photos taken this afternoon in SSF. A possible "mixed train" photo opportunity exists for tomorrow night's Mission Bay Local out of SSF to San Jose which could also include a long cut of America's Cup baretables which are also presently in the yard. Any information on present ownership of this car and where it is headed?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/12 17:31 by shed47.

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Great heads up and report, Bob. It would have been fun to watch the street running of the Budd Dome and the SP caboose on Chestnut last night.

Built as NP 312, rebuilt with lounge in the sky and renumbered NP 378, to Amtrak 9223, MREX 9223, PPCX 800601, SLRG 312
The car will be painted into IC colors, as it wore two other times in it's life.
Wade

Wade--Is it still for sale?

Betcha it will be painted IC to match some other cars being painted that way

vcrail Wrote:
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> Built as NP 312, rebuilt with lounge in the sky
> and renumbered NP 378, to Amtrak 9223, MREX 9223,
> PPCX 800601, SLRG 312
> The car will be painted into IC colors, as it wore
> two other times in it's life.
> Wade

Thats a great point Wade. The Illinois Central leased it in the 60s in the off season for use on the City of Miami between Chicago and Miami.

This is one of those rarest-of-the-rare dome sleepers. I'm not sure how many were built for the North Coast Limited. I would guess six. The only other dome sleepers built were three for the "Chessie", that spent their working lives on B&O's Capitol and Shenandoah until they were leased, and then sold, to SCL in 1967. I rode all three of them on SCL at one time or another.

But as a kid, I used to watch the "City of Miami" come through Delray Beach, FL and was always jealous of the dome. I didn't get to ride in a dome until March of 1968, on the California Zephyr. Then the next winter I was on the SCL dome sleepers twice.

shoretower Wrote:
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> I'm not sure how many were built for
> the North Coast Limited. I would guess six.

There were 10 built in 1954 for the North Coast Limited, each train set carried two dome sleepers as well as two dome coaches - "four domes west". One additional dome sleeper, the 314, was built in 1957 to provide a spare for maintenance rotations, so there were a total of 11 such cars for use on the NCL.

Iowa Pacific owns this one and two others, and is interested in more. This one is on its way to Horicon to the WSOR paint shop, then to Whiteland, IN for upgrades. Of the other two, one is complete, and one is a basket case.....

They ran on the Panama Limited as well as the City of Miami. IC painted them on the way in and on the way out....

http://trainweb.org/DOMEmain/picCBQ304c.jpg

czephyr17 Wrote:
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> shoretower Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm not sure how many were built for
> > the North Coast Limited. I would guess six.
>
> There were 10 built in 1954 for the North Coast
> Limited, each train set carried two dome sleepers
> as well as two dome coaches - "four domes west".
> One additional dome sleeper, the 314, was built in
> 1957 to provide a spare for maintenance rotations,
> so there were a total of 11 such cars for use on
> the NCL.

Here is what it will look like http://trainweb.org/DOMEmain/picNP313a.jpg

Rode one of these dome sleepers (with lounge area in the dome, I believe) in Septmber 1969 on the North Coast Limited from Chicago to Seattle. Was originally scheduled for a roomette in another sleeping car the day before, but a freight derailment on the B&O in Indiana the day before delayed my arrival on the Capitol Limited past the NCL departure time. The Northern Pacific ticket agent was only able to get me a single bedroom (directly beneath the dome) for travel the next day. Since the window in the single bedroom is quite small, I spent much of the ride west in one of the dome cars on the train.

Still sitting South City yesterday on my way to&from Dodgers' sweep into tie standing with Giants. Musta gone out on last night's freight?o

Steve Donaldson
Pacific Grove, CA

That vent fan in the blanked-out dome window is classy... of course we know that IC was famous for systematically plating over the end windows on their domes, so it's not entirely inaccurate...

davew833 Wrote:
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> That vent fan in the blanked-out dome window is
> classy... of course we know that IC was famous for
> systematically plating over the end windows on
> their domes, so it's not entirely inaccurate...


IC never owned a dome of their own, and it would be certain that any arrangement with NP to lease that car to IC did not include "lessor modifications" such as this odd arrangement. I'm quite certain the NP, BN, or later Amtrak would not have done anything like this either. Now, MP did own domes and most certainly plated over the end windows.

The fan was put in to ventilate the dome, as the car does not have functioning A/C yet. It has new compressors and condensers installed but still needs to be piped. We installed it to help remove heat from the car so we could work inside. When the A/C is in operation the fan will be removed, and glass installed like the Budd Co intended.