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)

_________________
Additions and corrections are welcome. Thanks in advance.

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.

Thanks, Topfuel, for the info!

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.

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.