Great Dome

what is it?

The Great Domes were a fleet of six streamlined dome lounge cars built by the Budd Company for the Great Northern Railway and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1955. The cars were used exclusively on the Empire Builder from their introduction in 1955 until the end of private passenger service in 1971. Amtrak retained all six cars and they continued to run on the Empire Builder before new Superliners displaced them at the end of the decade, after which they saw service elsewhere in the system before the last one being retired in 2019.

who runs it

GNGreat Northern RailwayCBChicago, Burlington and Quincy RailroadBurlington Northern RailroadAmtrak

base stats

• seats 57passengers
• built 6made in total

Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.

fun facts

• 🎂First built 71 years ago, in 1955.

carriage / wagon: Unpowered passenger coaches or freight wagons, pulled by a locomotive.

spec sheet

built

1955

in service from

1955

number built

6

kind

carriage / wagon

origin

🇺🇸 United States

builders

Budd Company

operators

Great Northern Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Burlington Northern Railroad, Amtrak

top speed

—

power

—

capacity

57 passengers

From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.