ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY Dome Car "Plaza Taos" |
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Dome cars have a glass-enclosed seating area on top where passengers can enjoy viewing the scenery in all directions. These cars started becoming popular in the 1940s.
This one was built in 1950 for the "Super Chief," Santa Fe's premier train running between Chicago and Los Angeles. It was often called the "train of the stars" because so many Hollywood personalities rode it. Underneath the upper dome area is a drink lounge, and one end features the exclusive dining area known as the Turquoise Room.
This car served on Amtrak trains from 1971 to 1981, then on tourist trains in Texas and Tennessee including Nashville's "Broadway Dinner Train." Dr. Arthur Cushman donated it to the Arizona Railway Museum in 2008, and it was named "Plaza Taos."
This car was built as Santa Fe No. 504, one of six ordered from Pullman-Standard in June 1947 and delivered in December 1950. This is a "short-dome" car, as opposed to one with a full-length dome. It measures 84 feet 3 inches over end sills.
The railway advertised these as "Pleasure Dome" cars. The dome featured 8 swivel-seat chairs and 8 paired seats. Below were 29 seats in the lounge and bar area, and an additional 13 seats in the Turquoise Room. That room featured a decorative reproduction of a silver-accented Indian turquoise medallion, displayed in a shadow box on the end wall. The dome is offset toward one end, with the Turquoise Room in that short end. The car was always coupled next to the regular dining car so waiters could easily serve patrons in the Turquoise Room.
Pullman's car names committee suggested Plaza-series names for these cars, but the names were not applied by Santa Fe. Post-Amtrak owners applied the names to some of the cars.
In
1971 this car became Amtrak No. 9354. Retired in 1981, it was sold to A. G.
Cole, then to Jim Stephenson. It operated as part of the "Texas Southern"
dinner train which ran from San Antonio to Hondo and back. It was later sold to
Dr. Arthur Cushman of Nashville for his "Broadway Dinner Train" which ran
from 1994 to 1999. When that operation ended, the car was stored at the
Tennessee Central Railway Museum. Dr. Cushman donated it to the Arizona Railway
Museum in 2008, where the originally proposed name "Plaza Taos" was
finally applied.