Testing of C&O 1309 Expected Soon

The former dome car Ocean View is how operating on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

Testing of Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309 is expected to begin soon at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad

The last Baldwin steam engine built for domestic use needed new firebrick for its firebox before testing can begin. Delivery of the firebrick has been delayed due to supply and labor shortages.

In the meantime, the WMSR has begun using in revenue service a full-length dome car built in 1955 for the Great Northern.

The Ocean View was Amtrak’s last dome car. The passenger carrier retired the car in 2019. It began operating on WMSR trains Cumberland and Frostburg earlier this month.

The car has been repainted into the red and while “circus” colors of the Western Maryland.

Also operating on the WMSR are an open-air car and privately owned cars Pacific Trail and Overland Trail.

Ocean View was purchased and renovated by a partnership between Rail Excursion Management and PAXRAIL.

It is believed to be the first dome car to use WM rails other than one or two documented detours of Baltimore & Ohio passenger trains..

WMSR Using Dome Car on Excursions

A former Amtrak done car has begun revenue service on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

The car is former former Great Northern Railway full-length dome Ocean View.

It has been repainted and lettered  for the WMSR and will make regular runs between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland.

The car was built in 1955, one of six full length-domes built for GN and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.

Amtrak acquired all six of the domes and assigned them to its Empire Builder between Chicago and Seattle until the domes were replaced with new Superliner Equipment in 1979.

In recent years, Amtrak’s last dome car on its active roster was used for special occasions on select trains, including the Adirondack and Downeaster.

Retired in 2018, Ocean View was offered for sale in 2019, eventually being purchased by Paxrail.

CSX Buys Dome Car

CSX has purchased two cars from the Cincinnati Railway, which operates the Ohio Rail Experience, the Cincinnati Scenic Railway and the Cincinnati Dinner train.

Sold were dome car Moonlight Dome and sleeper Birch Grove, which CSX plans to use as part of its executive fleet.

The cars had been used for private varnish charters and American Association of Private Rail Car Owners convention trains.

In a letter posted on a railfan chat list and sent to its customers, Cincinnati Railway majority owners Brian and Vicky Collins and Harry and Patti Davis said that operating private rail cars has become difficult due “to the continued onerous directives and rates applied by Amtrak and the ever increasing general upkeep and operating cost.”

The letter said CSX approached the owners to see if Moonlight Dome might be for sale.

CSX had been seeking a Budd-built dome to modify for use as a Presidents car for inspections and entertainment.

Cincinnati Railway agreed to sell the car but only if CSX also purchased Birch Grove at the same time.

After agreeing on terms, Cincinnati Railway sent both cars to CSX.

The letter said the it will continue to offer opportunities to ride in private rail cars through its Ohio Rail Experience excursions.

Birch Grove was built for the Southern Pacific in 1950 for its Sunset Limited. It later was operated by Amtrak. It has six up and down double bedroom suites and nine single bed roomettes.

Moonlight Dome was built in 1947 for the Chesapeake & Ohio as a low-profile dome suitable for use in the East. It has bedrooms and a lounge area in addition to its 24-seat dome section.

Silver Solarium in Akron

The Silver Solarium is, arguably, the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s premier feature car.

Built by Budd in 1948 for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the dome-observation car operated on the original California Zephyr and joined the CVSR fleet in late summer 2018.

It features lounge seating in its observation section, three private compartments with sleeping accommodations and table seating in the dome.

CVSR charges premium prices for the experience of riding in the car. It has appeared on the steam trains pulled by Nickel Plate Road No. 765 and the Fall Flyer among others.

You can enjoy dinner in the dome section of the Silver Solarium on one of the CVSR’s weekly dinner trains.

The Silver Solarium is shown here beneath the Y bridge in Akron in the consist of the National Park Scenic during the train’s station stop.

The equipment assigned to the Scenic is doubling in November as the section of the Polar Express that departs from Rockside Road station in Independence.

It is notable that for Polar Express service the Silver Solarium is operating with its observation end pointed southward. Normally it is pointed northward.

In case you were wondering, each section of the Polar Express this season has 11 cars. Both similar consists including a concession car.

The Rockside Road section of the Polar Express is operating with dome car Silver Bronco, six coaches, dining car A.A. Augustus, lounge car Cuyahoga Inn, and the Silver Solarium.

The Akron section of the Polar Express is operating with dome car Silver Lariat, five coaches, parlor car Paul Revere, ADA-compliant car Fort Mitchell, Table car 161 and the Saint Lucie Sound.

The photographer reports that he recently realized that he has been photographing the CVSR and its predecessor the Cuyahoga Valley Line for 44 years.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

7 Domes to Be in Autumn Colors Express Consist

Dome cars will be plentiful in the consist of the Autumn Colors Express when it travels in October in West Virginia.

The train will have three Amtrak locomotives and 29 private cars, many of which once operated on the New River Train.

Book ending the consist will be Milwaukee Road Cedar Rapid, the eastbound tail car, and Pennsylvania Railroad Frank Thompson as the westbound tail car.

Among the seven dome cars will be Northern Pacific No. 549, a Budd short dome, and Silver Palace, a former California Zephyr car.

Other noteworthy cars in the consist will be six Budd-built cars that originally had cars and traction motors for service in the Northeast Corridor.

Similar in design to Amtrak’s Amfleet cars, the former self-propelled vehicles will used as coaches.

No Amtrak cars will be included in the consist.

The Autumn Colors Express excursions will depart from Huntington on Oct. 25-27. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.autumncolorexpresswv.com

Exploring CVSR’s Silver Fleet: Part 3

A view from the dome section of Silver Solarium as the Fall Flyer of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad cruises northward along Riverview Road south of Peninsula.

The Fall Flyer of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad had many hallmarks of the late, great California Zephyr.

It carried three cars lettered “California Zephyr” along with a dome coach that once operated on the CZ. The latter, the Silver Bronco, today wears CVSR markings and colors.

Like the CZ, the Fall Flyer had sleeping car accommodations and a dining car serving breakfast.

But the similarities ended there. The three-course breakfast was prepared off the train by a caterer.

There was no overnight travel and no porters to make up the beds in the sleeping accommodations.

It was merely a two-hour trip from Rockside Road station to Howe Meadow and return.

Those not purchasing a meal car ticket could buy popcorn, candy bars, beverages and, what a CVSR crewman described as “the best hot dogs in the world” in the concession car.

Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Edward Ribinskas had purchased four tickets for the dome section of Silver Solarium and our travel party also included his brother Steven and Ed’s former J.C. Penney co-worker and railfan Shawn Novak.

The CVSR did its best Amtrak imitation by leaving Rockside Road station nearly 15 minutes late. We still got our two hours of travel time.

For the most part, the trip was like riding the CVSR’s National Park Scenic.

A CVSR trainman provided occasional commentary as the train rolled through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

He also made a pitch to join the CVSR as a volunteer, noting the railroad is currently short 22 trainmen.

It had rained earlier in the day and water droplets clung to the windows of the dome section for most of our trip thereby making photography a challenge.

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 was sitting outside the shop at Fitzwater Yard along with two Charter Steel cars that it brought to Cleveland last month and will reportedly move when the Berkshire-type locomotive returns to Fort Wayne.

As I expected, there was scant fall foliage to view. The warm summer and relatively warm autumn have delayed the process of leaves transforming into their autumn colors.

The CVSR trainman said the Silver Lariat has a full kitchen and plans are in the works to hire some top chefs from Cleveland to prepare meals for a dinner train operation.

Those dinners will be pricey. The CVSR website indicates that an adult breakfast ticket is $37 per person whereas adult lunch tickets are $40 per person. A child breakfast or lunch ticket is less.

Tickets for the beer and wine trains range from $85 for a seat in the dome section to $65 for a table car.

This is not to be critical of the fares. It is to say the dinner trains won’t be like dining at Bob Evans or Eat ‘n Park.

The CVSR has always described its mission in part as preserving rolling stock from the streamliner era even if it doesn’t use that term very often.

It pays lip service to the heritage and history of this equipment, but most who ride the trains are not interested in railroad history in any depth.

They probably know little to nothing about the original California Zephyr and have no more than  a passing interest in it.

They see the CVSR as providing transportation within the CVNP or presenting a pleasant sightseeing experience.

I don’t know how much repeat business the CVSR gets from the sightseers, but it strikes me as the sort of thing you do once or, maybe, occasionally.

Hence the railroad must continually offer new programming and gimmicks to continue to draw passengers.

It remains to be seen how much longer the new silver cars will retain their current California Zephyr look.

Chances are the interiors will remain the same even if the exteriors might receive CVSR colors.

Then again when the Saint Lucie Sound was overhauled a couple years ago it was stripped of its CVSR colors and those have yet to be reinstated.

It also remains to be seen if the Silver Solarium will operate in the manner that it was designed to operate as the last car on the train and with an unobstructed view of the scenery as the train rolls down the rails.

CVSR operating practice is to have diesel locomotives at each end of a train. That is done for practical and safety reasons.

I can’t imagine the Silver Solarium operating routinely uncovered by a locomotive.

Perhaps it will operate in that manner on special occasions. CVSR was willing to detach the FPA-4 behind the Silver Solarium during the photo runbys of the last NKP 765 excursions on Sept. 30.

Perhaps that was a trial run to determine how easily and efficiently a locomotive can be detached and attached to a train on the road.

What I would not expect is for a train to back up from Akron to Rockside using only the tiny whistle on the rear of the Silver Solarium to warn vehicular traffic at grade crossings.

All of these are matters to play out in the future. For now the Silver Solarium, Silver Lariat and Silver Rapids have that new out of the box feel even if they have been around for several decades and are entering yet another phase of their service lives.

But at least they are still in revenue service rather than sitting static in a museum or, worse, being cut up in a scrap yard.

Looking toward the rest of the train from the dome section of the Silver Solarium. The dome car ahead is the Silver Lariat.

Edward Ribinskas (left) and his brother Steven repose in the lounge section of the Silver Solarium.

An overhead view of the dome section of Silver Solarium as seen from the East Pleasant Valley Road bridge.

For the time being the CVSR’s dome car trio have been operating in tandem.

Exploring CVSR’s Silver Fleet: Part 1

The Fall Flyer with the Silver Solarium on the north end arrives in the station at Rockside Road.

Three-fifths of the CVSR’s Silver fleet is visible in this image made at Jaite. Shown (right to left) are Silver Bronco, Silver Lariat and Silver Solarium.

Sleeper Silver Rapids made its CVSR debut this month on the Fall Flyer. Passengers could book rooms, but only traveled for two hours and not overnight.

An air of mystery surrounds the world of private railroad cars. The phrase “private varnish” conjures images of opulent surroundings; gourmet dining on fine china; and all of the trappings of wealth, power and authority.

Traveling in a private car is far from the experience of a journey in an Amtrak Amfleet coach.

I was expecting to get a glimpse into that world as I boarded dome-observation car Silver Solarium on Saturday at the Rockside Road station of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Edward Ribinskas had purchased four tickets for the dome section of the Silver Solarium, which this month is operating on CVSR Fall Flyer.

I wasn’t expecting so much to travel like a king as I was seeking to see how kings traveled at one time.

Of course Silver Solarium wasn’t built to transport royalty. It began life in 1948 on the assembly line at Budd, which built it as Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 377.

The Q assigned the car to the fabled California Zephyr, where it was one of six dome-observation-sleepers used on the CZ.

The three railroads that hosted the CZ, the CB&Q, Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Western Pacific, described it as “the most talked about train in America.”

It traversed the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains and California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, offering some of the best scenery in the West.

In short, it personified the best that the streamliner era had to offer along with such other headliners as Santa Fe’s Super Chief, Union Pacific’s City of Los Angeles, Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited, and Great Northern’s Empire Builder.

Today the mere mention of those trains prompts a longing for a paradise lost.

The CZ also was known for its Zephyrettes, the young women who provided a variety of tasks ranging from welcoming passengers to providing first aid to serving as a liaison between passengers and crew members.

The CZ began its final trips on March 20, 1970, but the story of the Silver Solarium didn’t end there.

Until the coming of Amtrak in 1971, the successor of the Q, the Burlington Northern, operated a tri-weekly “California Service” that involved making a transfer at Ogden, Utah, to the City of San Francisco, which Southern Pacific operated between Ogden and Oakland, California.

The Silver Solarium joined the Amtrak fleet as No. 9252 where it operated until April 1978. Amtrak retired the car in October 1981 and sold it more than four years later.

After its retirement by Amtrak, the Silver Solarium transitioned to the private varnish world, most recently in the fleet of Rail Journeys West where it joined fellow CZ alumni Silver Lariat (a dome coach) and sleeper Silver Rapids in charter service on the back of scheduled Amtrak trains.

That often found the trio on the Amtrak version of the California Zephyr, which uses the route of the original CZ between Chicago and Salt Lake City.

For four months in 2002 the Silver Solarium brought up the rear of an American Orient Express train.

Rail Journeys West decided recently to sell its CZ class and the CVSR was a willing buyer.

The three cars along with baggage car Silver Peak made their final trips on Amtrak to Chicago where Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 picked them up to transport them to Cleveland and the CVSR.

Silver Solarium and Silver Lariat debuted on the CVSR last month in the consist of excursion trains pulled by NKP 765.

Silver Rapids made its CVSR debut on Oct. 6 in the consist of the Fall Flyer. Silver Peak has yet to operate in CVSR revenue service.

There was a lot of history to ponder as I boarded the Fall Flyer at Rockside Road station for trip that would be part nostalgia, part exploration of another world, and part consideration of the state of contemporary train travel.

Next: Inside the Silver Solarium

That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be

For the Boston Mill photo runbys of the last excursion of Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 during its two-week visit to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the photographers were given a treat.

FPA-4 No. 6777, which was coupled on the north end of the train to the Silver Solarium dome-observation car, was dropped off and the train ran past the crowd with the observation car uncovered.

It was the first time to my knowledge that the CVSR did that during the 765’s visit since the first excursion a week earlier for CVSR volunteers and members.

CVSR trains operate in pull-pull fashion with motive power on both ends of the train. Thus sightings of the Silver Solarium operating uncovered are bound to be rare.

Riding in the Silver Lariat

I had the chance to ride the Silver Lariat on the afternoon trip in the Valley on Saturday with Ursula and our former brother in law but still good friend Karl and his wife Laura.

Even though we were herded like cattle for the photo runby, I still got some decent shots. It helped that we had three runbys and Nickel Plate Road No. 765 always looks and sounds great. It was a sold out train.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

One of three photo runbys executed at Boston Mill.

An on the ground view of Silver Lariat during the photo runby at Boston Mill.

The view of Boston Mill from the dome section of Silver Lariat.

Images From Friday’s NKP 765 Excursion

Nickel Plate Road No. 765 passes spectators on the platform of the Canal Exploration Center in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 is visiting the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad this month to pull a series of excursions.

The first of those ran last Friday and was limited to CVSR volunteers and members. Public excursions ran over the weekend and three more public excursions are set for the weekend of Sept. 28, 29 and 30.

I almost didn’t get down to the Valley for last Friday’s trip. Rain moved in about the time I was about to leave home and a glance at the radar showed that a relatively small, but intense, area of rain was moving into the region where I wanted to photograph.

I made the trip anyway and was glad that I did for an unexpected reason.

As I stood on the platform at the CVSR’s Canal Exploration Center station I saw Dave Beach and he told me that dome-observation car Silver Solarium had been uncovered on  the rear of the train as it backed up to Rockside Road station from the Fitzwater maintenance facility.

That raised the prospect that when the excursion train left Rockside, the Silver Solarium would be operating the way it was designed to run.

Sure enough that was the case, which made getting photographs of the NKP Berkshire feel of secondary importance.

I had not intended to chase the train after it passed CEC station, but I couldn’t resist getting more images of an uncovered Silver Solarium.

I figured — correctly as it turned out — that a diesel would be on the north end of the excursion train during the Saturday and Sunday trips.

This was a rare opportunity to make photographs of the fabled California Zephyr tail car.

CVSR had placed all three of its dome cars in consecutive order on the rear of the train. That might not necessarily be a common sight after next weekend’s steam excursions.

I caught up with the excursion train again along Riverview Road south of Peninsula near the Valley Picnic area.

It didn’t rain during my time photographing and chasing the train but it was cloudy. So photography conditions were less than ideal.

But so often with photography you need to work with what you have and do what you can with it.

Operating conditions on the CVSR being what they are, views such as of the Silver Solarium are likely to be rare.

The 765 puts on a show as it cruises along Riverview Road south of Peninsula.

All three CVSR dome cars were assigned to the steam excursion train. They are (left to right) Silver Solarium, Silver Lariat and Silver Bronco.