AZL - 73410-2 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Pullman Superdome - Baltimore & Ohio - Sky Dome

Prototype History: The Super Dome was a Dome car built by Pullman-Standard for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road") in 1952. The ten Super Domes were the first full-length dome cars in revenue service, first operating on the Olympian Hiawatha and Twin Cities Hiawatha in late 1952. Although a mixed blessing in passenger use, the cars garnered much publicity for the Milwaukee Road and several remain in operation.

The Milwaukee Road began taking delivery of the Super Domes in late 1952. They were numbered #50-#59. The name was chosen via an employee naming contest; rejected suggestions included Master Dome, Ultra Dome, and Panorama Dome. The domes were used on the daytime Twin Cities Hiawatha and the transcontinental Olympian Hiawatha. The Super Domes were the first and only cars on a daytime Hiawatha train built by a third party; all other Hiawatha equipment (such as the distinctive Beaver Tail and Skytop lounges) were built by the Milwaukee Road in its own shops.

The Super Domes were not a complete success in Milwaukee Road service. The heavy cars gave a rough ride, and the seats in the dome area gave an inferior view because they lay too low compared to the dome's supporting bulkheads. Still, the fame of having the first full-length dome car was good publicity for the railroad. After the discontinuance of the Olympian Hiawatha in 1961 Super Domes were seen on some of the services the Milwaukee Road operated with the Union Pacific, including the City of Denver. In 1964 the Milwaukee Road sold six of the domes to the Canadian National Railway, along with the sleeper-lounge Skytop Lounges. The remaining four domes continued on the Twin Cities Hiawatha.

These cars were run with Milwaukee Road, MILW/UP, Amtrak Phase I, CN, VIA, and NCDOT paint schemes.

Road Name History: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting marks B&O, BO) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal (which served New York City) and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which would have connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. At first this railroad was located entirely in the state of Maryland with an original line from the port of Baltimore west to Sandy Hook. At this point to continue westward, it had to cross into Virginia (now West Virginia) over the Potomac River, adjacent to the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. From there it passed through Virginia from Harpers Ferry to a point just west of the junction of Patterson Creek and the North Branch Potomac River where it crossed back into Maryland to reach Cumberland. From there it was extended to the Ohio River at Wheeling and a few years later also to Parkersburg, West Virginia.

It is now part of the CSX Transportation (CSX) network, and includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the USA. The B&O also included the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent horse-drawn railroad in the U.S. In later years, B&O advertising carried the motto: "Linking 13 Great States with the Nation." Part of the B&O Railroad's immortality has come from being one of the four featured railroads on the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, but it is the only railroad on the board which did not serve Atlantic City, New Jersey, directly.

When CSX established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, some of the former B&O Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, were donated to the museum while the rest of the property was sold. The B&O Warehouse at the Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

At the end of 1970 B&O operated 5552 miles of road and 10449 miles of track, not including the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) or the Reading and its subsidiaries.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: AZL is the leader in North American Z scale locomotives and rolling stock. Since 2000, AZL has released a vast variety of freight, passenger and locomotives. AZL continues to push the boundaries of Z scale with amazing details and incredible performance. No matter if you are looking to run steam, or the most modern diesels, AZL has something for you.