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daveklepper-- RE TX Zephyr- 1956 to 1963/64 +/- was ex-DZ articulated consist. No place to insert much of anything and I don't recall ever seeing any domes. In fact, the SHZ FTW thru car got cut in ahead of the bag/power car at DAL for the 45 min run to FTW. After the dog's breakfast consist came on, there was no incentive to provide the luxury of a dome on what was by then a third rate (almost accommodation) run. May have had some charters where they ran in a dome, but the only people who ran domes in TX until 1967 was T&P/MP, and those came off by about 1966. Another issue as well--domes never worked well in TX and the SW because the HVAC/steam heat just couldn't handle the load of that big glassed-in dome space. The dome would greenhouse in the summer and freeze on cold cloudy winter days. This was a constant problem on the 2 TX Eagles and later on ATSF 15-16 when the big domes came on. It was even a problem in spots on ATSF 1-2, which ran through the Panhandle only but gave them far more dome HVAC problems than the northern line trains ever did. Remember, the ATSF generally missed most of the hot areas of the SW on the Super and, to a lesser extent, the Chief, if just for the reason of higher latitude on the northern line and, of course, in northern NM and AZ, although they ran through some of it at night. The TX Chief (15-16) ran with an ex-Super flattop lounge and got a big dome from the Chief after it was discontinued in 1967 until ATK, when ATSF sold most of the cars. Despite what the model companies sell, no other trains in TX carried domes on any regular basis. ATSF 11, 12, 15, & 16 had drop sleepers all over the place, as did the train with the most numbers in the world (Calif Special and branches), and of course 15-16 had a drop TRAIN (115/116) to DAL, usually 4 cars because with a fifth they had to add another brakeman. That train came on and off at Gainesville and carried 1 bag and 2 chairs (or a combine and 2 chairs) plus a 10-6, all CHI-DAL. In heavy holiday periods, they'd run it with a complete consist through to CHI, but no domes. GAL came off in the mid-60's, with passengers sent to the same intercity bus down the Gulf Freeway that the other RRs still advertised. Did the TZ get any of the ex-CNW chair cars?? No, we should have fared so well. We never saw anything that nice once the DZ consist left. The straight-side chair cars I'm referring to that ran on the TZ were heavyweights dating back to the teens and 20's that C&S/FWD painted silver (no shadow stripes by then). These were cars that they painted up for the SHZ and 7/8 when they started going downhill. But, they were generally clean, refurbished with plain but serviceable interiors, air conditioned (when it worked), and generally many orders of magnitude better than the falling-apart SS junk, which they never had maintained in about 25 years and weren't about to start now, that they started assigning to the train. The train crews and others in the know told me back then on several occasions that the pax tolerated the old battleships a whole lot better than the fleabag modern chair cars that were filthy, didn't work, rode rough, etc. Ironic, huh? Ever read "To Hell in a Day Coach"? It ought to be required reading for anyone who has an interest in why pax service did what it did or what can be done about it now. That was every train that crossed the border into TX except ATSF's, after about 1958-62, including the TZ, and in most other states as well. People tend to remember good things like the Super, DZ, COLA/SF/PL, CZ in its better days, etc, and forget about the atrocities committed against a still-loyal clientele who in some cases (TX Special was one, for example) figuratively had to be beaten off the trains with sticks. The vast majority of pax trains in this country during the decade before ATK could probably be described truthfully as "rolling cesspools". Don't forget that SP's shenanigans with the Sunset (and Lark in CA) were some of the most publically-repeated reasons used to force a restructuring of pax service and the formation of ATK. And look at the Sunset now. Some things never change.....
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