Many people consider the Rio Grande Zephyr to be the last privately operated long distance passenger train. By that logic then diner 1115 the "Silver Banquet" would be the last privately operated dining car. I was wondering if it still exists today and if so where?

I read somewhere that "Silver Banquet" was acquired by Amtrak after the demise of the RGZ, and later scrapped because of un-repairable frame cracks or something. I don't believe it was ever actually used by Amtrak. Seems unusual given that the last refurbished 'heritage' cars still in use by Amtrak are a series of similar Budd diners redone in the late '90s.

A few years before it quite the passenger business the Rio Grande puchased a second dining car. The reason was that it needed a spare to allow for full service if "Silver Banquet" was in the shop. The Rio Grande had one of the dome-dorm-coffee shop cars; but it could not provide full dining car service.

The Rio Grande picked up an ex-UP 4800-series dining car from a private party and after shopping it was repainted in the silver-orange-black stripe paint scheme used on the non-stainless steel cars. I cannot lay my hands on further information about the car at this time. Joe Strapac's volumne 3 on the D&RGW diesels has passenger car information in it and has the information. As I recall, it is listed with the Ski train equipment; not with the Zephyr equipment.

I don't know how often the car saw service on the Rio Grande Zephyr.

I wondered the same thing about the ex-UP diner. I can only recall seeing two pictures of it in Rio Grande service, one in Patrick/Loveman's book 'Never on Wednesday', which shows it being used on a company inspection train, and one other pic online somwhere. I've seen quite a few pictures of the Rio Grande Zephyr running without 'Silver Banquet', but never with the ex-UP diner- always with 'Silver Shop' or 'Silver Sky' providing food service. I've never seen it used on the Ski Train either. Additionally, the photos I've seen of it were poor quality. Being the oddity that it was, I would have thought someone would have taken a 'roster shot' of it somewhere in its history.

I'm told that Jack Thode, a D&RGW finance department employee and railfan, was asked to take photos for the company of the car when it came out of the shop. I bet he took photos for the company and for himself.

The last time I rode the RGZ, October 5, 1981, the car was in service on the train. The classic consist was anything but "classic" on that trip. We had GP40 3116 ahead of F9A 5771 with the PB between the F9A and a single F9B. By this time the diner had been repositioned to just behind the combine and office car "Wilson McCarthy" carried the markers on #17 that day. I did take a roster shot of 1116 (the UP diner) but it is a slide and I have no way to scan and post it.

Don C.

The two trains that the Rock Island operated when it too chose not to join Amtrak, may have had some kind of food service. Not sure if they had full Dining Cars though. Anyone know for sure?

Les

Les,
Diners initially but eventually snack bar coaches. Butterworth Tours had a former E-L diner that was used for awhile in conjunction with their parlor cars. I made the trip to Rock Island a couple of times just to eat in the diner and ride the parlor car.

Don C.

I saw the Silver Banquet at Beech Grove back in, I believe, late 1984. The underside had been stripped by Amtrak as a first step towards rebuilding as an Amtrak Heritage fleet diner. Unfortunately, this revealed several severe cracks in the center sill. Consequently, the car was not rebuilt and was scrapped within a year or two at Beech Grove. While center sill cracks are not unheard of in a Budd built car, it is quite unusual to have cracks of that magnitude in a car that was not known to have been in a major wreck.

The ex-UP diner is still at Burnam shops to this day and is owned by Ansco. To my knowledge, it has not been used in over 20 years, since the demise of the RGZ. I rode the RGZ once on a Salt Lake-Denver R/T when this car was used instead of the Banquet. The outstanding book "Zephyrs Through the Rockies" has a few photos of the train with the ex-UP diner.

I have had this question for a while, and found a definitive answer from our friends at the Railroad Retirement Board via google

http://www.rrb.gov/pdf/bcd/bcd93-62.pdf

Tom Cornillie

Les,

I rode the "Quad City Rocket" from Chicago to LaSalle during Christmas week of 1975. I can attest that it did have a full dining car originally built for the "Golden State Limited." I had a New York strip steak which I still remember. Both of the two remaining dining cars suffered serious mechinical difficulties in January, 1976 and were not repaired. I had the menu from that trip, but unfortunately it was lost in a house fire nine years ago.

Nice to hear some definitive answers about 'Silver Banquet' and the ex-UP diner apparently still owned by Ansco. I believe all of the remaining RGZ equipment still exists. It's too bad Silver Banquet was scrapped and not offered to a museum. I still remember a great meal I had while riding the RGZ in April 1983. It was good 'til the end.

Interestingly, another long-time resident of the Burnham shops is ex-D&RGW dome coach 'Silver Bronco', also apparently unused for over 20 years since the end of the RGZ, and also owned by Anschutz.