The Pacific series is a fleet of fifty lightweight
streamlined sleeping car
The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car.
...
s built by the
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 ...
for the
Union Pacific Railroad in 1949–1950. Each car contained ten roomettes and six double bedrooms. Union Pacific sold several to the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road") in the late 1960s; Amtrak purchased most of the fleet in the early 1970s. Several remain in use as business cars.
Design
After
World War II the 10-roomette 6-double bedroom (colloquially the "10-6 sleeper") design proved popular in the United States, with 682 such cars manufactured.
All fifty Pacific series cars were built on Budd lot number 9660.039, and allocated
Pullman Plan 9522. In this design the ten roomettes were numbered 1-10 and split down the middle by a hallway, while all six double bedrooms (designated A-F) were off to one side. A bathroom and porter's room were located across from each other at the
vestibule
Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court".
Anatomy
In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...
end of the car.
The car sides were corrugated instead of smooth, which was uncommon for Union Pacific equipment.
Service history
Budd delivered the fifty cars between December 1949 and June 1950;
the "largest class of sleepers on the Union Pacific rails." The Union Pacific used the Pacific series on various overnight streamliners in the 1950s and 1960s.
One car, ''Pacific Empire'', was written off after a rear-end collision at Wyuta, Wyoming in November 1951. The Milwaukee Road purchased five from the Union Pacific in June 1969 in order to equalise the per diem payments on their jointly-operated
Overland Route passenger services.
The final iteration of the Union Pacific's "City of Everywhere" (the joint operation of the ''
Challenger
Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to:
Entertainment
Comics and manga
* Challenger (character), comic book character
* ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga
Film and TV
* ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...
'', ''
City of Denver
Denver () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States#State capital, capital, and List of municipalities in Colorado#, most populous city of th ...
'', ''
City of Los Angeles'', ''
City of Portland'', and ''
City of San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
'') included four ''Pacific''-series sleeping cars, three from the Union Pacific and one from the Milwaukee Road.
Between 1971–1974
Amtrak purchased 43 of the remaining 44 ''Pacific''-series cars from the Union Pacific fleet. Most were retired from service in the mid-1990s; several Amtrak rebuilt as crew dormitory cars and those remained in service into the 2000s.
One, ''Pacific Cape'', remains in use as a business car.
The Union Pacific retained ''Pacific Domain'', renamed ''Cabarton'', as a staff car.
The Milwaukee Road's five cars were all sold to Mexico in 1971 and 1972.
References
External links
List of cars produced
{{UP Passenger
Train-related introductions in 1949
Budd Company
Rail passenger cars of the United States
Union Pacific Railroad