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 Post subject: Silver Solarium, Lariat, Rapids & Peak FOR SALE
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:38 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:42 am
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Location: Seattle, WA - Land of Coffee
Mods, feel free to move this over to Classifieds, but I thought I'd stick this in Interchange (for now anyway), as this is interesting news.

3 of the cars from the California Zephyr, the Silver Solarium, the Silver Lariat, the Silver Rapids, as well as a car from the 1940 edition of the Texas Zephyr, the Silver Peak, were listed for sale yesterday on Ozark Mountain Railcar as a package. The asking price? $1.79 million. Yes, you read it right. $1.79 million. Which makes sense, given that these cars are Amtrak certified and are frequently used in charter service. Here's a link to the sale page on Ozark's website: http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/detail.asp?id=2576&n=California-Zephyr-Trainset

Now for some history on these cars:

24 seat dome-1 drawing room-3 double bedroom (1DR-3DB) sleeper-12 seat buffet-12 seat lounge observation (with writing desk) Silver Solarium was built by Budd in December 1948 in Lot #9659-019 to Pullman Plan #9511 as CB&Q #377, 1 of 6 such cars built for the CZ, of course all with Silver-series names. The Burlington owned 3 (#375-#377), the WP owned 2 (#881-#882, built in Lot #9659-021), and the Rio Grande owned 1 (the #1145 Silver Sky, built in Lot #9659-020). In March 1951, the Burlington ordered a 7th "protection car", the #378 Silver Lookout, which was built in Lot #9659-112 to Pullman Plan #9533, and was delivered in January 1953. Amtrak acquired the 4 CB&Q cars via BN in 1971 as #9250-#9253. Amtrak retired the #9252 Silver Solarium in April 1978 and it was stored until being sold in November 1985 to Nav Fosse/Cedar Rail Enterprises, and the car entered charter service as #800333. In August 2002, it was resold to Roy Wullich/Rail Journeys West, and was thereafter leased for charter service to Bert Hermey & Al Bishop's California Zephyr Railcar Charters.

24 seat dome-"women & children" 46 seat leg rest chair Silver Lariat was built by Budd in either March or April 1948 in Lot #9656-019 as CB&Q #4718, 1 of 6 such cars built for the CZ, again, all with Silver-series names. The Burlington owned 3 cars (#4716-#4718), the WP owned 2 cars (#811-#812, built in Lot #9656-021), and the Rio Grande owned 1 car (the #1105 Silver Bronco, built in Lot #9656-020). In addition to these 6 cars, there were also 6 24 seat dome-conductor's desk (office)-46 seat leg rest chairs (CB&Q #4719-#4720, WP #813-#814, and D&RGW #1106-#1107) and 6 24 seat dome-46 seat leg rest chairs (CB&Q #4721-#4722, WP #815-#817, and D&RGW #1108 Silver Pony), for a total of 18 dome chairs. Amtrak acquired the 7 CB&Q cars via BN in 1971 as #9450-#9456; the 3 "women & children" cars were #9450-#9452. Amtrak retired the #9452 Silver Lariat in July 1984 and it was sold in April 1985 to Ralph Orlandella in Sacramento. It was later (when??) resold to Bert Hermey & Al Bishop's California Zephyr Railcar Charters, and the car entered charter service as #800190.

10 roomette-6 double bedroom (10RM-6DB) sleeper Silver Rapids was built by Budd in November 1948 in Lot #9662-031 to Pullman Plan #9520 as PRR #8449. The Silver Rapids was the Pennsy's only contribution to the CZ pool, and therefore had a Silver-series name, but cleverly also had a typical PRR 10-6 sleeper Rapids-series name. It was assigned to the CZ's Chicago-New York City through sleeper service, which operated every other day on the PRR, and every other day on the NYC (which assigned Valley-series 10-6 sleepers to the service). Due to the PC merger, it became PC #4378, and was acquired by Amtrak in 1974 as #2649. It was planned to be converted to head end power (HEP) as #2482 in 1983, but this was cancelled and the car was retired/stored in October 1983 until being sold in 1985 to David Goodheart. It was later (when??) resold to Bert Hermey & Al Bishop's California Zephyr Railcar Charters. 2 of the roomettes have been removed from the car.

Baggage car Silver Peak was built by Budd in 1940 in Lot #96114 as FW&D baggage-dormitory-16 seat chair #450, 1 of 2 such cars built for the Texas Zephyr, the other was C&S #350 Silver Mesa. In 1958, these 2 cars were rebuilt to baggage-messenger cars, and in 1969 became CB&Q #909 (#450) and #910 (#350). Amtrak acquired these 2 cars via BN in 1971 as #1008 and #1009. The #1009 Silver Mesa was retired in May 1976 and sold for scrap to Tuman Demolition in Indianapolis, while the #1008 Silver Peak was modified at an unknown date to display car #10091. It was later retired at an unknown date and was then sold to an unknown party as #800798, and located at the Western Maryland Scenic RR. It was resold sometime in the 2010's to Bert Hermey & Al Bishop's California Zephyr Railcar Charters.

Sources:

1. "Streamliner Cars Volume Two: The Budd Company" by W. David Randall (RPC Publications, 1981)

2. Tom Madden's Pullman Project CCR database: http://pullmanproject.com/Database.htm

3. Burlington Route Historical Society's lightweight car roster page, sorted by car number: http://www.burlingtonroute.org/Qrailroad/roster/stainlessnumbers.php

4. Phil Dohmen's dome car database: http://www.trainweb.org/web_lurker/WebLurkersDOMEmain/

5. Mike Palmieri's Amtrak rosters

6. "Amtrak by the Numbers" by David C. Warner and Elbert Simon (White River Productions, 2011)

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Additions and corrections are welcome. Thanks in advance.

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Ted Brumberg


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 Post subject: Re: Silver Solarium, Lariat, Rapids & Peak FOR SALE
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:27 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:49 pm
Posts: 520
The cars owners have been talking about this for a year or so. No big compelling reason for the sale other than they've been at it for 30+ years, have had a good run, and want to do other things in their retirement. They may continue to run the cars until they sell, or maybe not. But they have a busy slate of east coast steam trips this summer, so the cars will still be quite visible for the foreseeable future.


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 Post subject: Re: Silver Solarium, Lariat, Rapids & Peak FOR SALE
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:24 am 
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Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2013 2:42 am
Posts: 2041
Location: Seattle, WA - Land of Coffee
Thanks, Topfuel, for the info!

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Ted Brumberg


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 Post subject: Re: Silver Solarium, Lariat, Rapids & Peak FOR SALE
PostPosted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:23 am 
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:46 pm
Posts: 2667
Location: Pac NW, via North Florida
Great cars. I've ridden in two of them over Stampede and Stevens passes, both in 2011 (over Stampede behind 4449). They were in incredible shape.

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Lee Bishop


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 Post subject: Re: Silver Solarium, Lariat, Rapids & Peak FOR SALE
PostPosted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:50 pm 

Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:12 pm
Posts: 195
I am so sorry to hear that. I consider Burt & Al friends, and have ridden many times with them on various routes.
I have attached a story of our last trip with them.
Attachment:
KATHY's birthday 2013.pdf [291.03 KiB]
Downloaded 425 times


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