I tihink the differences bvetween a dome and superliner, and the more minute differences between the hi-level equipment inherited from the Santa fe and Superliner equipment has been well thrashed out in these pages. There is nothing new or distinctive that I could add....those topics come up from time to time.
But not quite as much, I think, gets said about an Observation car....I noticed a recent forum in which the writer referred to a superliner sightseer lounge area as "the observation car." First, it is ok to do so....that usage will probably grow in years to come...and words tend to get defined, eventually by how they are actually used.
But historically, an observation car is a quite different thing--it refers to a car at the rear of a train with special windows, etc, for sightseeting.
THe were of two basic designs., the original old heavyweight, probably dating from the earliest trains in the late 1800's. It was an open platform car. We have all seen shots of this, presidents and other dignaries making speeches etc from the rear of a train. This is called "whistle stop campaigning" and the term is still in use. These cars were normally combination sleeper-lounge-observation cars.
Amazingly these cars can still sometimes be seen today in two ways, 1. private cars(owned by wealthy individuals) and, 2. business cars, to carry railroad officials around.
In the streamlined era,observation cars usually had beautifully tapered rears, like some of you saw recently in Hoboken at the exhibit which included an observation car from the 20th Century Limited. A few observation cars were blunt ended, because in some cases cars had to be connected behind them making the whole "observation" concept kind of useless.
The "dome concept" was originated about 1946 because somebody got the idea while riding through in the cab of a locomotive on the Exposition FLyer, predecessor to the California Zephyr. A monument still stands to that, somewhere in the canyons of the CZ route.
Santa fe's high level cars were built in two time ranges, about 1954 and again about 1957, as I recall.
It is quite obvious that any dome or superliner or hi-level has much more sightseeing potential than out the back of an old observation car. But observation cars are named that simply, because THEY WERE INVENTED FIRST. They got "rights" on that name , so to speak.
But not quite as much, I think, gets said about an Observation car....I noticed a recent forum in which the writer referred to a superliner sightseer lounge area as "the observation car." First, it is ok to do so....that usage will probably grow in years to come...and words tend to get defined, eventually by how they are actually used.
But historically, an observation car is a quite different thing--it refers to a car at the rear of a train with special windows, etc, for sightseeting.
THe were of two basic designs., the original old heavyweight, probably dating from the earliest trains in the late 1800's. It was an open platform car. We have all seen shots of this, presidents and other dignaries making speeches etc from the rear of a train. This is called "whistle stop campaigning" and the term is still in use. These cars were normally combination sleeper-lounge-observation cars.
Amazingly these cars can still sometimes be seen today in two ways, 1. private cars(owned by wealthy individuals) and, 2. business cars, to carry railroad officials around.
In the streamlined era,observation cars usually had beautifully tapered rears, like some of you saw recently in Hoboken at the exhibit which included an observation car from the 20th Century Limited. A few observation cars were blunt ended, because in some cases cars had to be connected behind them making the whole "observation" concept kind of useless.
The "dome concept" was originated about 1946 because somebody got the idea while riding through in the cab of a locomotive on the Exposition FLyer, predecessor to the California Zephyr. A monument still stands to that, somewhere in the canyons of the CZ route.
Santa fe's high level cars were built in two time ranges, about 1954 and again about 1957, as I recall.
It is quite obvious that any dome or superliner or hi-level has much more sightseeing potential than out the back of an old observation car. But observation cars are named that simply, because THEY WERE INVENTED FIRST. They got "rights" on that name , so to speak.