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photo above {Steve Brown}
VIA took over Canadian Passenger service and assumed the ownership of the ex Milwaukee Pullman Standard "Superdome" cars from Canadian National in March 1978, and the Budd domes originally purchased by Canadian Pacific in August 1978.
Of the 18 "Park" series observation domes (each named for a Canadian park), one had been wrecked prior to VIA, and 3 more ran as VIA but were not converted to HEP and were stored, leaving 14 active.
Additionally, one additional observation dome was purchased from D&RGW - it also was stored unrebuilt.
Of the 18 "Skyline" midtrain domes of CP, 2 were wrecked and one was burned, leaving 15 active. One additional car was wrecked 4/2001 and is being rebuilt using parts from the burned car (expected to return to service in 2002).
The "Skyline" dome-coffee shop cars were named as such in paying a tribute to the famous (at least in Canada) "Skyline Trail Hikers of the Canadian Rockies". This group was founded during 1933 and was comprised of a number of avid ("foamers"?) mountain climbers/hikers.
VIA also purchased 7 more mid-train domes built for US roads, all stored unrebuilt.
VIA runs domes on the 'Canadian', 'Skeena' and the 'Ocean', and as of 1/1/2000, domes were in operation on Montreal-Senneterre and the 'Enterprise' Montreal-Toronto service ('Enterprise' dome service discontinued in 2002). At 2001, the Senneterre service no longer had domes, and the seasonal 'Bras d'Or' used 'Ocean' domes on "off" days. In 2003 new equipment replaced domes on the "Ocean" and "Enterprise", although domes were occasionally seen running on the 'Enterprise' as late as 4/03.
In 2003 VIA also purchased the low-level "glasstops" from discontinued BCR 'Northwind' service to supplement the "Skeena". The cars have retained the BCR numbers (1720-21-22) but have a new paint job. The interior remains the same.
In 11/09 VIA shipped the frist 2 of 4 "Park" cars (LAURENTIDE and KOOTENAY) to Avalon Rail in USA for conversion to "luxury" service including larger bedrooms.
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