| Fun Fact — Where Are They Now? | | Although UP began retiring cars in the late 1960s, some are still running today, often in special excursion or inspection trains. Kansas City Southern has a dome coach and a dome diner. The Alaska Railroad owns some domes and baggage cars. Canadian National uses a former UP dome lounge, converted back to an observation car, on its Agawa Canyon trains. And of course UP has several cars, including coaches, diners, and domes; a complete roster can be found at: http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/histequip/index.shtml. | | Fun Fact - Mix & Match with Milwaukee | | From 1946 onward, UP invested heavily to upgrade and expand City streamliner service, but east of Omaha, trouble was brewing with long-time partner Chicago & North Western. |  | | UP quietly began searching for a new partner, and began moving its trains on the Milwaukee Road in October 1955. UP required cars in the City pools wear Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray. Milwaukee agreed to redo 40 cars, although the paint was not an exact match with UP standards. Plagued by ongoing problems with its own orange and black, the Milwaukee soon found the UP scheme cheaper to apply and more durable. Within a few years, all non-commuter passenger cars and locos received the new colors and a wider range of cars, including Milwaukee's Super Domes, began showing up in UP trains. | | Modeling this colorful era in Streamliner history is easy with 13 accurate Walthers cars available in Milwaukee Road's own yellow and gray. In addition to modernized ends and more, select cars in the series feature Nystrom trucks with clasp or disc brake details and straight or notched side sills as appropriate. Check out the complete selection of Milwaukee yellow and gray equipment in the 2010 HO Reference Book or online at: http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/milw_road. | | | FAQ — New Observation-Dome-Lounge Cars 
When the California Zephyr rolled out in March 1949 with five vista domes, it sent shock waves through other western railroads, and sent them scrambling for domes of their own. UP purchased a used dome coach, diner, sleeper and observation from General Motors in April 1950 and had them in service by June.
In 1955, UP took delivery of new dome observations for the City of Portland, Challenger and City of Los Angeles. Built for use strictly at the rear of the train, turning them after every trip added extra time and costs. Within a year, to eliminate these problems, UP began rebuilding them as standard dome lounge cars starting the fall of 1956. Rebuilt cars served into the late 1960s, and all were sold to Auto Train by 1972 (#9004 was kept by UP).
These cars were an important chapter in the story of the UP City streamliners, and are a must-have for your HO consists too. Walthers new model (#932-9600) is based on the long-lived rebuilt dome lounges with plated-over rear windows and diaphragm for mid-train service. | | ©2009 Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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