Service cars - Skyline dome car
Model:
Skyline dome car
Built by:
Budd Car Company and AMF
Built in:
November 1954-April 1955
Acquired by VIA Rail in:
August 1978
Number of units in fleet:
16
Unit number(s):
8500 to 8517
Configuration:
24 seats in the dining room, 24 seats in the second-floor dome, galley, snack bar, lounge
Did you know?
- Two of these cars (8500 and 8507) were rented out to Delaware & Hudson, an American company, in the 1970s.
- The word "skyline" comes from "Skyline Trail Hikers of the Canadian Rockies", a group of amateur mountaineers that travelled to the peaks of the Rockies in 1933.
- When VIA acquired the cars, the dining room was a coach section with 26 seats and the snack bar was a tiny eating area with only 6 seats.
- As is the railway tradition, all domed cars riding the rails in North America used to have both a name and a number.
- The windows in the dome are made with multi-layered laminated glass composed of synthetic materials that can resist an impact twenty times greater than that of a car windshield.
- The Skyline dome cars originally ran opposite to their current direction. When the car was turned around and seats were changed to face forward, there wasn’t enough leg room for the front most pair of seats, so VIA left that row facing backwards and put tables in between the four seats.
- It's considered a cardinal sin to fall asleep in the dome seats — even though it's very easy to do so in the warm sunshine!
