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In July 1954, CP received the first of 36 "Scenic Domes" from Budd, 18 sleeper - observation - Lounges, and 18 coach - buffet - lounges to equip the "Dominion" and the new "Canadian". 33 cars were on the property in 1954, with the final 3 coaches (515-517) delivered the following year.
The Canadian required 7 trainsets to serve Montreal - Vancouver, and the Dominion, due to a slower schedule, required 8 sets. Also, each train operated a Toronto-Sudbury section that was also dome equipped, thus the 18 car orders.
The "Park" series observation cars (each named after a Canadian park) were built with 3 double bedrooms, a drawing room, an under-dome cocktail bar and a lounge.
The 18 mid-train dome coaches are known as "Skyline" cars and normally provide dome space for coach passengers (in busy season they are also used to augment sleeper dome space). These dome-coffee shop cars were named as such in paying a tribute to the famous (at least in Canada) "Skyline Trail Hikers of the Canadian Rockies". This group was founded during 1933 and was comprised of a number of avid ("foamers"?) mountain climbers/hikers. Currently operating on VIA Rail, these very popular cars have the word "Skyline" on the side along with their 85XX series number.
As orginally configured they featured 26 coach seats (removable), a lounge for 17 and 24 dome seats. Under the dome section was a 6-seat buffet and a kitchen. When acquired by VIA Rail, they were reconfigured in the 1980's by removing the coach seats and replacing them with fixed cafe dining tables, seating 24. The 6-seat buffet was replaced with a snack take-out counter. Therefore, they were no longer "dome coach - buffet - lounges" but now "dome cafe - lounges".
Reports during the 2001 season said that the dining tables had become lounge areas, and that they Skylines were being "paired" with diners and not being utilized as diners per se.
All cars except the scrapped 15405 became VIA property in August 1978 (5 months after VIA began).
In November 2009 VIA shipped the first 2 (of 4) "Parks" to Avalon Rail in the USA to begin conversion to "Luxury" cars with larger bedrooms and other amenities. The first 2 were KOOTENAY and LAURENTIDE.
photo below: operating as CP {Randy Masales/Brian Switzer*}
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