Description
Passenger Car Features: Designed from original blueprints and field measurements of existing cars Two fully-detailed interior configurations Multi-colour interior decoration Two underbody arrangements Accurate interior and exterior paint and decoration Full flicker-free track-powered interior lighting Lighting (prototypically) in the dome roof Accurate free-rolling trucks Metal magnetic knuckle couplers Prototype & Model Overview: SP built one prototype and six production Dome Lounge cars between 1954 and 1955. All were built new in the railroad ’s Sacramento General Shops, using select frame pieces from various retired Pullman-Standard pre-war “Daylight ” cars. The Budd Company supplied the dome structure as a kit. Essentially, these cars were new construction using salvaged frame pieces for accounting purposes. Another reason for using retired cars was that SP ’s foundry couldn ’t roll a long enough center sill and no one could supply one quickly enough. These cars were introduced into service on the San Joaquin and Shasta Daylights and the Overland, but they later saw wider service. Originally built with fluted side panels, the cars were modified by the SP with slab sides in the 1960s. At least four of these cars lasted into the Amtrak era. The interiors of the cars featured a bar/lounge on the lower level and one of two different configurations of seating on the upper level. In part because of the varied origins of the donor cars, underbody configurations also changed. Rapido ’s development crew includes a team of firsthand SP Dome Lounge experts, authors, and an actual car owner, providing hands-on research and deep personal experience with the cars since new. The model has been fully designed and includes two different interiors, two underbody arrangements, and either fluted or stepped flat sides!
