ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY Sleeping Car "Diablo Canyon" |
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Some sleeping cars were modified from other types of cars. This one was originally a 52-seat coach built for the Santa Fe in 1937.
After serving on the "Scout" running from Chicago to Los Angeles across northern Arizona, it was sold to New Jersey Department of Transportation in 1969 and was reconfigured to seat 84 commuters. In the 1980s it was donated to the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey.
John McMath bought the car in 1991, stripped out the coach interior and turned it into a personal car with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining area, and lounge. He donated it to the Arizona Railway Museum in 2005.
This car was delivered by the Budd Company as AT&SF coach No. 3079, one of 30 in the series 3072 - 3101 ordered by the Santa Fe in February 1937. Built in lot 977, the cars were delivered from July through October of the same year. All were placed in service on the "Scout." This car's length is 77 feet 3 inches over end sills.
Coach 3079 was one of 29 cars sold to NJDOT in 1969, where it retained the same number. The United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey, based in Boonton northwest of Newark, accepted it as a donation from NJ Transit in the 1980s.
After John McMath bought the car in 1991, he configured it for personal use and renamed it the North Birmingham Railroad "Coco Grove." The coach interior was removed and rebuilt with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, a small dining area, and a solarium lounge at the vestibule end. In 1996 it was certified for Amtrak service.
Mr. McMath transferred ownership of the car to the Arizona Railway Museum on April 28, 2005, on track 18 at Washington D.C.'s Union Station. Bart and Jane Barton accepted the keys and accompanied the car as far as Tucson. The car was delivered to the museum by the Union Pacific on May 9, 2005.
After it was donated to the museum, it was redecorated in Southwest colors and named Santa Fe "Diablo Canyon." The museum received a grant from the John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust to restore its Amtrak certification, and it became the oldest Amtrak-certified and operable Budd-built car in the U.S.
The
car was moved to San Antonio in 2006 under lease to Cruising by Rail, who used
the car on multiple private excursions. When that company moved to Tucson in
2011, the car returned to the museum and remains available for charter.