Twilight Rail?

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I wonder if there's a dome currently on the Canadian restart out west, considering there's no Prestige Park, no lounge access and no movement from one's space except to the diner for breakfast and dinner. Coach passengers are getting at-seat service and sleeper passengers must eat lunch in their rooms. Would it make sense to tow cars that serve no revenue purpose?

The first Canadian.....eastbound #2 from Vancouver to Winnipeg on Dec 11 did have a Park as well as a Skyline. Here's the consist reported on the CanPassRail Forum

6428 F40
6454 F40
8600 Baggage
8102 Coach
8109 Coach
8517 Skyline
Acadian Diner
Drummond Manor
Fraser Manor
Chateau Levis
Laurentide Park
 
The first Canadian.....eastbound #2 from Vancouver to Winnipeg on Dec 11 did have a Park as well as a Skyline. Here's the consist reported on the CanPassRail Forum

6428 F40
6454 F40
8600 Baggage
8102 Coach
8109 Coach
8517 Skyline
Acadian Diner
Drummond Manor
Fraser Manor
Chateau Levis
Laurentide Park
That's seems odd. Since VIA's own website states no access to either why bother? It's like the recent Hudson Bay review though - the train had a sleeper for staff only.
VIA Rail Canada: Toronto & Vancouver train trip
 
That's seems odd. Since VIA's own website states no access to either why bother? It's like the recent Hudson Bay review though - the train had a sleeper for staff only.
VIA Rail Canada: Toronto & Vancouver train trip
What a rip, theres a Skyline Dome and a Park Car and Passengers cant use them??!!( Guess the Crew is using the Park Car rooms?)
 
"What? Woah! There are empty seats in the dome car this morning... and I can grab a hot coffee and go up there... I'm in!"

We just don't appreciate what we had... until it's gone.


gn-ad1.jpg
 
If you're wearing a Mask I don't see any difference between a Dome or the Park Car Lounge than any other Car in the consist, especially the Diner and Coaches.

The problem I've experienced is that I would never be in a car where everyone is properly wearing a mask. It didn't bother me as much in the summer when cases weren't as rampant, but it caused me to postpone my last 6 train trips.
 
In this particular case, not so much, other than as a sales aid.
That said,, back when short domes were in use, as long as the crew dimmed the lights at night, you had a surprisingly good view out, especially if you enjoyed watching the headlight play along the scenery, and watching the signals ahead...
On a bright moonlit night, you could see the scenery pretty well. The B&O used them on its Washington/Chicago overnight trains, and even equipped them with floodlights angled to light up the trackside scenery of the Allegheny's.:cool:
Oh yeas, I enjoyed riding in the dome car of the Denver Zephyr at night. Any my wife and I once spent the whole night in the dome of the Capitol Limited, mostly because the people sitting next to us in coach were behaving obnoxiously (and we had bulkhead seats with poor window views.)

But the Capitol Limited is a 17 hour ride, and especially eastbound, there are a lot of scenic mountain views to be seen in daylight. On the other hand, the Oakland/Emeryville to LA ride takes about 12 hours (or at least that's the current schedule of the Coast Starlight), so an overnight run is not going to have a lot of scenery in daylight.

A Bay area to LA train would thus be a little lie the old Night Owl, or today's NER 65/66/67, it's a way to avoid paying for a night in a hotel, that's about it, with maybe some commuter traffic in and out of the end points. There's really no need for fancy cruise-train type service. All they really need is overnight coaches, sleepers, and a cafe/bar car. This service would be competing with SleepBus, not the Wagon Lits Orient Express of yore.
 
Do they turn off all of the lights?

The lounge cars I rode in didn't always have the clearest windows. I guess the plexiglass fogs.
 
What a rip, theres a Skyline Dome and a Park Car and Passengers cant use them??!!( Guess the Crew is using the Park Car rooms?)
The guy who made the video about the Via Churchill train also noted that the sleepers were closed off. In terms of Covid safety, I'm not sure that's necessary. In fact, news articles here in the states are quoting medical experts who say that booking a sleeper might be safer than riding in coach. I suspect that Via may not be selling sleeper space (especially on that train) because the anticipate that the revenue will be less than the costs of the attendant and whatever else is needed to operate the sleeper. But a 48-hour ride, sitting in coach! Even if you have most of the seats to yourself, that's an endurance ride!

I suspect that a lot of the "Covid" cutbacks we're seeing in all kinds of services are being done for financial reasons, not strictly medical reasons.
 
When it's raining... like it is here... the dome car is the only place to be... snuggled up with coat and scarf as the heavens pour down... and paint a wet messy kaleidoscope of the cold out there...

Now you're making me recall meals in the dome diners of the UP, always in the rain PDX <> SEA or PDX>THD. When we were kids we loved to watch the raindrops streaking along the windows. Our parents found this to be a reasonably priced way to teach us fine dining manners with enough distractions to keep small boys interested.

"No, you don't drink out of the finger bowl..." and "that's a butter knife and it belongs above the dinner plate."

And on my one dome diner lunch to THD for the dedication of the Dalles Dam my dad got to explain CTC as we passed a freight without a pause, both moving fast. Imagine trying to explain any off this to contemporary delayed diners.
 
Do they turn off all of the lights?

The lounge cars I rode in didn't always have the clearest windows. I guess the plexiglass fogs.
They turned off the ceiling lights, once the train departed its terminal. Until about 10 PM, when they were turned off, the ceiling lights from the main level came into the dome somewhat, and some reflections. When they were turned down, it vastly improved the night visibility. Finally, there were alsle night lights on some of the seat supports. There were also night lights on some lucite stairway railings. Some of us would take our seat checks, or other cardboard material and attempt to cover those up, to further improve the view...

I believe they used glass, somewhat tinted, in the domes. Could possibly be thermopane type, and when the seals got old, moisture would get trapped between the layers. The front and rear center windows had a second window, that was part of the air conditioning duct to the ceiling. This could be opened to clean the glass inside.
 
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