The Ultra Dome cars

[longhorn1969]

http://www.alaskarails.org/fp/Princess.html

As an example see the link. Is the maker of these cars still in business? Are they built from scratch? I thought I read they are old Metra cars rebuilt.

Has anyone here rode them? Standing 18 ft tall, there must be some swaying issues in comparison to Superliners.

 

 

[WM7471]

I beleive the dome cars you are talking about were built by Colorado Railcars.  The company has been out of business for some time.

Recently,  Canada's Rocky Mountaineer had been looking for similar cars for their train.  They have now contracted with Stadler Rail of Switzerland to build the cars and ship them to Canada.

[trunorthak]

I used to be a Conductor for the Alaska Railroad and have ridden in these cars many times and yes they are well built and very stable. The Sleeper version that Colorado Railcar built were extremely nice and far superior to AMTRAK's Superliners. I thought that the Rocky Mountaineer Operation had some of the sleepers as well. Unfortunately Colorado Railcar has been out of business for quite a few years as the other gentleman said.

[blue streak 1]

Often thought Colorado rail cars would be great for western trains.  Imagine my disappointment when discovered they would not fit at CHI US.  Observed Superliners at CHI US only cleared about 10" at CHI.