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Superliner (railcar)
The Superliner is a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier in the United States. Amtrak ordered the cars to replace older single-level cars on its long-distance trains in the Western United States. The design was based on the Budd Hi-Level vehicles, employed by the Santa Fe Railway on its ''El Capitan'' trains. Pullman-Standard built 284 cars, known as Superliner I, from 1975 to 1981; Bombardier Transportation built 195, known as Superliner II, from 1991 to 1996. The Superliner I cars were the last passenger cars built by Pullman. Car types include coaches, dining cars, lounges, and sleeping cars. Most passenger spaces are on the upper level, which features a row of windows on both sides. The Sightseer Lounge observation cars have distinctive floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper level. Boarding is on the lower level; passengers climb up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. The first Superliner I car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Zephyr
The ''San Francisco Zephyr'' was an Amtrak passenger train that ran between Chicago and Oakland from June 1972 to July 1983. History From the start of Amtrak in spring 1971 until summer 1972, Amtrak service between Chicago and Oakland was provided by two trains: the ''Denver Zephyr'', which operated daily between Chicago and Denver, and the '' City of San Francisco'', which operated thrice-weekly between Denver and Oakland. After several false starts, Amtrak consolidated the two trains into one, the ''San Francisco Zephyr'', paying homage to the ''California Zephyr'' and ''The City of San Francisco''. Because of the refusal of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to join Amtrak in 1971 and its decision to maintain its ''Rio Grande Zephyr'' between Denver and Ogden, Utah, the ''San Francisco Zephyr'' used the Union Pacific's Overland Route between Denver and Ogden. The ''San Francisco Zephyr'' and the ''Rio Grande Zephyr'' were scheduled as to facilitate a connection betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waggon Union
''Waggon Union'' was a German manufacturer of rail vehicles and bus bodies, that was also known as ''Deutsche Waggon und Maschinenfabrik'' (German Wagon and Machines Factory) or DWM. The company was based in Berlin and was originally a branch of the ''Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken'', a munitions manufacturer best known as the designer and maker of the Luger pistol. After World War II the Berlin establishment switched to the renovation and building of railway and other public transport equipment, and in 1952 it changed its name to ''Deutsche Waggon und Maschinenfabrik''. ''Waggon Union'' was bought by ABB Henschel in 1990. In 1996 ABB Henschel became part of ABB Daimler Benz Transportation (Adtranz), which was subsequently acquired by Bombardier of Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lounge Car
A lounge car (sometimes referred to as a buffet lounge, buffet car, club car or grill car) is a type of passenger car on a train, in which riders can purchase food and drinks. The car may feature large windows and comfortable seating to create a relaxing diversion from standard coach or dining options. In earlier times (and especially on the "name" trains), a lounge car was more likely to have a small kitchen, or grill and a limited menu. Food was prepared to order and often cooked, though items such as club sandwiches would have usually been part of the offerings. The cars were often operated by the Pullman Company, and in other cases by the railroad directly as part of the dining car department (on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the Fred Harvey Company operated the food concession). Lounge cars operated by Pullman were exclusively for the use of sleeping car passengers, while those operated by the railroad were available to coach as well as first-class travelers. Buff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dining Car
A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, such as buffet cars, cars in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Grill cars, in which customers sit on stools at a counter and purchase and consume food cooked on a grill behind the counter are generally considered to be an "intermediate" type of dining car. History United States Before dining cars in passenger trains were common in the United States, a rail passenger's option for meal service in transit was to patronize one of the roadhouses often located near the railroad's "water stops". Fare typically consisted of rancid meat, cold beans, and old coffee. Such poor conditions discouraged many from makin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pullman-Standard
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century development of mass production and takeover of rivals, the company developed a virtual monopoly on production and ownership of sleeper cars. During a severe economic downturn, the 1894 Pullman Strike by company workers proved a transforming moment in American labor history. At the company's peak in the early 20th century, its cars accommodated 26 million people a year, and it in effect operated "the largest hotel in the world". Its production workers initially lived in a planned worker community (or " company town") named Pullman, Chicago. Pullman developed the sleeping car, which carried his name into the 1980s. Pullman did not just manufacture the cars, it also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States, paying r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El Capitan (train)
The ''El Capitan'' was a streamliner, streamlined passenger train operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ("Santa Fe") between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. It operated from 1938 to 1971; Amtrak retained the name until 1973. The ''El Capitan'' was the only all-coach or "chair car" (non-Pullman (car or coach), Pullman sleeper) to operate on the Santa Fe main line between Chicago and Los Angeles on the same fast schedule as the railroad's premier all-Pullman ''Super Chief''. It was also the first train to receive the pioneering Hi-Level equipment with which it would become synonymous. History The ''El Capitan'' debuted on February 22, 1938, on a twice-weekly schedule, using two five-car sets of streamliner, streamlined equipment built by the Budd Company. Like the Pennsylvania Railroad's ''Trail Blazer (passenger train), Trail Blazer'', it offered "low-cost passage with high-speed convenience". The fare from Chicago to Los Angeles was $5.00 abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The railroad reached the Kansas–Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farmland from the land grants that it was awarded by United States Congress, Congress. Despite being chartered to serve the city, the railroad chose to bypass Santa Fe, due to the engineering challenges of the mountainous terrain. Eventually Santa Fe Southern Railway, a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico, brought the Santa Fe railroad to its namesake city. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at various times, it operated an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway, and the fleet of Santa Fe Railroad Tugboa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hi-Level
The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars; a sleeping car variant was considered but never produced. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. Boarding was on the lower level; passengers climbed up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. Vestibules on the upper level permitted passengers to walk between cars; some coaches had an additional stairwell at one end to allow access to single-level equipment. The Budd Company designed the car in the 1950s for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ("Santa Fe") for use on the ''El Capitan'', a coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago. The design was inspired by two recent developments in railroading: the dome car, employed in intercity routes in the western United States, and bilevel commuter cars operating in the Chicago area. Budd built ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Budd Company
The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products. Budd was founded in 1912 in Philadelphia by Edward G. Budd, whose fame came from his development of the first all-steel automobile bodies in 1913, and his company's invention of the " shotweld" technique for joining pieces of stainless steel without damaging its anti-corrosion properties in the 1930s. Budd Company became part of Budd Thyssen in 1978, and in 1999 a part of ThyssenKrupp Budd. Body and chassis operations were sold to Martinrea International in 2006. No longer an operating company, Budd filed for bankruptcy in 2014. It currently exists to provide benefits to its retirees. Automobiles Edward G Budd developed the first all-steel automobile bodies. His first major supporters were the Dodge brothers. Following discussions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the West'' changed. Before about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. The frontier moved westward and eventually the lands west of the Mississippi River were considered the West. The U.S. Census Bureau's definition of the 13 westernmost states includes the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin to the Pacific Coast, and the mid-Pacific islands state, Hawaii. To the east of the Western United States is the Midwestern United States and the Southern United States, with Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south. The West contains several major biomes, including arid and semi-arid plateaus and plains, particularly in the American Southwest; forested mountains, including three major ranges, the Sierra Neva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United States, contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ''Amtrak'' is a portmanteau of the words ''America'' and ''trak'', the latter itself a sensational spelling of ''track''. Founded in 1971 as a quasi-public corporation to operate many U.S. passenger rail routes, Amtrak receives a combination of state and federal subsidies but is managed as a for-profit corporation, for-profit organization. The United States federal government, through the United States Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Transportation, owns all the company's Issued shares, issued and Shares outstanding, outstanding preferred stock. Amtrak's headquarters is located one block west of Washington Union Station, Union Station in Washington, D.C. Amtrak serves more th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passenger Car (rail)
A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passengers. The term ''passenger car'' can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, railway post office and prisoner transport cars. The first passenger cars were built in the early 1800s with the advent of the first railroads, and were small and little more than converted freight cars. Early passenger cars were constructed from wood; in the 1900s construction shifted to steel and later aluminum for improved strength. Passenger cars have increased greatly in size from their earliest versions, with modern bi-level passenger cars capable of carrying over 100 passengers. Amenities for passengers have also improved over time, with developments such as lighting, heating, and air conditioning added for improved passenger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
