The 1954 Northern Pacific dome coach 550, now named Homestake Pass, leased from a private owner:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4 ... ar-service


Photo by Samantha Erkkila, Duluth News Tribune

Proving to be a very popular upsell, the car has been sold out or nearly so every run thus far.

PAXX is the reporting mark for the Passenger Railcar Services Corporation.

The #550 was 1 of 10 (#550-#559) 24 seat dome-46 seat leg rest chairs built by Budd in 1954 in Lot #9646-141 for the North Coast Limited. #550-#556 were owned by the NP, #557 and #558 by the CB&Q, and #559 by SP&S. At the same time, Budd also built 10 dome sleepers (#304-#313) for the NCL in Lot #9669-141 to Plan #9535; those cars had 4 double bedrooms, 4 roomettes, and 4 single bedrooms, with ownership being CB&Q 2 (#304 and #305), SP&S 1 (#306), and NP 7 (#307-#313). In 1957, NP ordered an additional 2 "protection" domes; a dome chair (#549) and a dome sleeper (#314), which were built in Lots #9646-210 and #9669-210 respectively.

All 22 NCL domes went to Amtrak; the #550 (which had been intended to be renumbered as BN #4617, which was not applied) became #9477, and was converted to HEP in 1983 as #9407 and was thereafter assigned to the Auto Train. It was sold in 1995 to Montana Rockies Daylight as BKSX #9407; MRD was later bought out by Henry Hillman's Oregon Rail Corporation (which also operated American Orient Express) and became Montana Rockies Rail Tours. MRRT was later spun off to Rail Quest America (RQAX), and in 2004 Philip Sheridan's IFE Leasing bought almost all of the RQAX/MRRT cars, including the #9407. It and the other ex-MRRT cars then received MRLX reporting marks, and the #9407 was thereafter leased to the Alaska RR and then to the Indiana RR, with the name Chenquatana later being applied. In my notes, I have that PAXX bought the #9407 from IFE in 2015. Does anyone know if the #550 has been assigned an #800xxx-series number?

Besides the #550, PAXX also owns:

NCL dome chair CB&Q #558/BN #4625 (not applied)/Amtrak #9485/HEP #9406 (converted 1983)/Tom McOwen-Cincinnati RY Co.-Rail Adventures dome diner lounge sleeper #558 (#800290), leased 1998-2000 to the Grand Canyon RY as the #2097 Kokopelli, later renamed The Observatory. In my notes, I also have that PAXX bought this car in 2015. It has since been renamed Stampede Pass.

C&O dome sleeper (5RM-1DB-3DR) #1852 Hampton Roads Dome (name planned but not applied), built by Budd in 1948 in Lot #9669-017 to Plan #9524. Sold in 1950 to B&O as #7602 Sunlight Dome, later leased to ACL, then leased to CN as #649, then leased to SCL as #6802, then acquired by Hamburg Industries for continued lease to SCL, resold to Amtrak as #9202, retired in 1977 and resold to Building Leasing Corp., resold again to the Union Center Venture (St. Louis Union Station), resold again to Bill Ross (Park City, UT), resold again to a private owner (Pocatello, ID), resold again to Bret Hall-Falcon Car Shops (Cadillac & Lake City RY, Falcon, CO), resold again to John Kirkwood-Rail Ventures (San Francisco), resold again to ITAX, and then resold again to Katherine Schultz-PAXX.

PRR Class PP85 29 seat parlor-1DR #7139 Henry Hudson, built by Budd in 1951 in Lot #9628-110 to Plan #9526 and assigned to the Congressional and Senator. Buffet area added in the 1960's, to PC #7139, sold to Amtrak in 1971, intended as #3639, which was not applied, reconfigured in 1973 to 46 seat buffet lounge #3320, converted to HEP in 1983 and reconfigured to 32 seat cafeteria #8703 for assignment to the Auto Train, stored in 1994 and sold in 1995 to ITAX, operated on the Branson Scenic as #800644 City of Branson, to MRLX #800644 Keystone Grill, resold to PAXX in 2015 and renamed Warriors Rest, leased to Iowa Pacific and used on the Grenada RY in IC Chocolate & Orange (I'm guessing that like other Budd cars owned by or leased to Iowa Pacific, that this is a vinyl application).

PAXX also formerly owned AT&SF 10RM-6DB sleeper #1642 Pine Ring (Budd, Lot #9660-038, Plan #9521, 1950). To Amtrak #2731, converted in 1977 to HEP as #2997 (initially for assignment to NEC trains), retired in 1995 and sold to PAXX, resold in 2005 to the Age of Steam RR Museum (now the Museum of the American RR).

Sources:

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

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

3. Mike Palmieri's Amtrak rosters

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

5. "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.

Enjoy the rest of Independence Day!

https://www.trains.com/trn/passenger-eq ... to-mexico/
"Also acquired by the Isthmus railway from Railexco was dome-coach Stampede Pass, which previously had been at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. That car was built by Budd in 1954 for for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy for service on the North Coast Limited."