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Super Domes

INFO

This section covers the 10 cars built by PS and delivered in 1952. The first one built (50) was involved in a serious accident and burned. The car shell was returned to Pullman and rebuilt and delivered a second time as #50.

These were the first "full domes" built, seated 68 above and 28 in a cafe downstairs, and were the first PS domes with curved glass. 16 tons of air was needed to cool the cars and a 70hp diesel generator was included.

Six of the cars were assigned to the Olympian Hiawatha, and two each to the morning and afternoon Hiawathas (Chicago-Twin Cities). After the Olympian "HI" was dropped in 1961, they ran in "City" trains in conjuction with UP and saw some use in Chicago-Madison short-hauls.

In 1964, the six surplus cars went to Canadian National for use in "Super Continental" and "Panorama" trains. CN re-christened them "Sceneramics". In 1971, CN rebuilt the upper deck into a 3 section lounge, cutting seating from 68 to 56. In 1973 the upper deck was converted into an open lounge seating 54, and the lower level cafe was converted to a diner with seating reduced from 28 to 20.
Princess Tours tried a brief run on Amtrak's Coast Starlight as the "California Sun Express" in 1990 with 3 of the cars owned by Tour Alaska that had been idled when Princess introduced "Ultra Domes" in Alaska service in 1988 (both Princess & Tour Alaska were owned by P&O Orient lines). Those cars were converted to 66 seats upstairs and 22 downstairs.

68 Dome Seats, Tap Room With 28 Seats On Lower Level

Car #	Year Built	Cars Outcome
50	1952	CN 2400 Jasper
51	1952	CN 2404 Qu'Appelle
52	1952	CN 2405 Columbia
53	1952	CN 2401 Athabaska
54	1952	CN 2402 Yellowhead
55	1952	Amtrak 9380
56	1952	CN 2403 Fraser
57	1952	Amtrak 9381
58	1952	Amtrak 9382
59	1952	Amtrak 9383