Talk:Dome car

photos and history

I've got a few interior photos of a dome car at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, WI to add to the article. Also, the story about Mr. Mitchell's idea may be romantic, but is it the whole story? It seems like there should be information out there on domes that were operating before 1949. slambo 14:32, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

Dome Car Magic

I expect to do an article on Dome Car Magic shortly after my own DVD copy arrives.

trezjr 23:16, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

History

I recently read in Bruce A. MacGregor's book "Portrait of a silver lady: the train they called the California Zephyr" that Cyrus Osborn of General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) was riding in the cupula of a caboose through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, not the EMD built cab, when he thought of the idea for a Dome car in 1944. The high vantage point provided by the cupula is, according to MacGregor's book, what inspired Osborn to place the dome above the height of the rest of the cars. This is the only reference I have seen to date that states Osborn was riding in the cupula of a caboose. However, I have not been able to trace the sources for the statements that indicate Osborn was riding in the EMD cab. HDonHH1 (talk) 08:30, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

It certainly seems plausible that it would have been a caboose rather than the locomotive, but I'm inclined to believe it was the locomotive since he worked for EMD and the author of the referenced book, John H White, Jr., is one of the curators at the Smithsonian. I have a copy of the White book in my collection, I've seen it at model railroad shows I attend and my local public library has a copy, so you should be able to find a copy (if nothing else, you should be able to get it by interlibrary loan). However, I don't see a reason not to include your reference as well with something like "... some references say Osborn was riding in the cupola of a caboose at the time.^[X]" Slambo (Speak) 12:12, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

I certainly don't see any problem with making reference to both either. Both scenarios certainly sound logical enough to be a possible inspiration for the idea.

--DP67 (^talk/_contribs) 12:37, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

After a little investigation, I have found three published sources that indicate Cyrus Osborn was riding in the EMD locomotive cab and only one source, MacGregor’s book previously noted, that indicates he was riding in the caboose cupula. The three sources indicating Osborn rode in the EMD cab are 1) John H. White’s book as already noted, 2) The American Railroad: Working for the Nation By Joe Welsh and Jim Boyd, published by MBI Publishing Company 2006, of which the relvant page, 83, has been scanned by Google Books and can be seen at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=TPqntdv9w7kC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=cyrus+osborn&source=web&ots=Vst_yVaNHu&sig=7aXE5UjJXVmNey8k9VL6jecOFMg#PPA83,M1

and 3) the interpretive sign next to the Vista Dome Mounment now located at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, CO, which can be seen in a composite image created by John Feagans at:

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/DOME.GIF

There are two bronze plaques actually on the Vista Dome Mounment, but I have not been able to find a photo of these to learn what they state.

The one contridicting source, Portrait of a Silver Lady: the train they call the California Zephyr by Bruce A. MacGregor and Ted Benson, published by Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder CO 1977 presents the following statement on p. 93

“Cyrus Osborn, a General Motors executive sent out as an advance agent on diesel sales just before the war ended, was ridng a Rio Grande caboose through Glenwood Canyon when it dawned on him that the caboose cupula could be one of the most sensational viewing platfroms a sightseer could ask for. In Salt Lake City, he sketched the outlines of the first vista dome prototype - a glass-enclosed bubble that would seat some thirty people above the roof line of a passenger car - and before the end of the war, both his own company and the E. G. Budd Company would have dome demonstrators out on the road.”

HDonHH1 (talk) 07:46, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I took a look at the folder on my computer containing the images from my 2006 vacation where I took the image of the monument. I thought I took photos of the plaques as well, but it does not appear so. I had only a 2MP camera at the time, so the original of the whole monument is not of sufficient resolution to make out anything more than word-shaped blobs on them. Good job in finding additional source material! Slambo (Speak) 11:59, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Burlington Vista dome

Can there be a devoted page on just the vista dome and talking about any debatable info Jwm18925 (talk) 17:25, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

• What did you have in mind? Mackensen (talk) 18:23, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
• I'd considered in the past writing up an article on the otherwise unnamed Budd domes (see User:Mackensen/Vista-Dome). I didn't get very far with it, and I've been working on other stuff. It's a manageable concept. Mackensen (talk) 18:30, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Try publishing it so It can be contributed to Jwm18925 (talk) 16:56, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

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