Drove by the museum today and noted a UPRR GP-60 and a GP40-2 both shut down inside the fence. I assume they brought the new car and the crew ran out of time?

Nope.

It's been a custom for the last few years for Union Pacific to "put in an appearance" at the AZRM's Open House by deliberately parking the local's locos on Friday for the weekend at the Museum, and sending a UP representative (this year a signal maintainer) to set up a display with some UP swag (like current and past UP calendars, etc.) and allowing access to the cabs.

You should have come out for the occasion.

My in-laws live on the west side of Phoenix. Next time we're down there, I'll have to swing out there to look the museum over. I didn't realize they had all that stuff there.

You can visually inspect much of the Museum's collections from the road, by walking along the adjacent RR line, or walking along the fences. As it turns out, it IS rather a significant and diverse collection of both privately owned passenger cars and equipment with some ties/significance to Arizona railroads.

The caveat is that they close up tight in the scorching heat of midsummer.

“The car was specifically targeted for preservation by Hoffman because of its now-unique unaltered, unrebuilt interior, at least from "early Amtrak"--walking through the car induced an earworm of the theme music from "That '70s Show," even if the current interior is more early 1980s. The other converted Pacific Parlor Cars retain perhaps some sound value for resale as luxury travel (perhaps someplace like the Grand Canyon Railway or Verde Canyon, both on ex-ATSF track?).

ATSF 576/ATK 9971/39971 will still require a degree of backdating to restore to ATSF look”


I fear one day soon we are going to realize that there are no “unaltered unrebuilt ineterior” cars left in preservation to represent the historically significant early Amtrak era, because preservationists have felt the need to back date them all to an earlier time.

Paul

I was joking with the gentlemen on Saturday about where we find vintage linoleum today.

My first car met its demise (overheating and blown head gasket) being part of a convoy of volunteers and vehicles running original interior fittings and parts from first-generation Metroliners at the Wilmington Shops to the RR Museum of Pa. to make the interior restoration of Metroliner cafe car 860 possible. We probably grabbed enough seat cushions with original upholstery for a second Metroliner. I remember unbolting numerous kitchen appliances like the coffeemakers and microwaves to load into the U-Haul, along with headlights, pantograph parts/shoes, and the original air horns (860's had been upgraded).

That was in summer of 1996. 860 remains way back in the restoration-shop queue.

You want to "save" a vintage Amtrak interior? Go volunteer your energy and dollars there, or strive to grab a vintage Amfleet 1 car and see if the extra seat cushions fit.

I checked what ATSF called them and the El Capitan Hi-Level Lounge cars were called...Lounge Cars. At least in an April 1958 Official Guide when they were fairly new (last to show B&O Royal Blue Line passenger service East of Baltimore)

Phil Mulligan

The same in the 1968 issue of The Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment -- simply "Lounge."

It is interesting that the Santa Fe floor plan for these cars that was reproduced in the book Dining and Beverage Service Cars of the Santa Fe (published 2006 by the Santa Fe Railway historical & Modeling Society) refers to these cars as "Sky Lounge Car" and the caption says that "Santa Fe called this area [the upper lounge] the 'Sky Top Lounge'."

Gentlemen:

Congrats for perpetuating the stereotype of railfans suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessing over the terminology, instead of the news.

The fact is that due to length restriction, I couldn't have even fit the word "lounge" into the thread title. The Museum in question already has an ATSF "Hi-Level" coach and a transition car; I wanted to distinguish the new arrival as different from those two (which was the point of the news item). I call dome cars "observations" as well, and the Hi-Level and Superliner "lounges" are functionally nice tall "domes" without a forward view; I've never kowtowed to the idea that "observation cars" are ONLY cars with rounded corners that have to be the tail car of a train.

Further, if you spent the day wandering through the multitude of PVs that are parked at the Museum between increasingly rare charters (as I did), you'd be convinced "lounge" stands for "area where we ripped out several bedrooms for a sitting area."