I ran across two Con Cor ACL dome cars. One is called the planet and the second the nebula. My question is did the ACL ever have dome cars? I can not find a record in my books of one. I also cannot find the passenger cars planet and nebula anywhere. Did Con Cor make these names up or are they real. Any information is appriciated. Also what is the closest model purple paint on the market for ACL passenger cars? Is it the one made by Badger that the Society sells. Thanks again.

-- Jim Simoncelli (bluecomet832@aol.com), August 27, 2001

Answers

I guess the answer you are really looking for is , no, these cars are not ACL nor are they correct for anything ACL. In fact, the HO con cor cars are mostly Santa Fe prototypes if I remember correctly.

Just because manufacturers paint these up for ACL & Southern and so on is more closely related to sales and marketing that realism.

I looked at ConCor's offerings on their website and, frankly, the ACL never owned any of the 4 types of cars listed save the 10roomette- 6dbl bedroom sleepers and they were Pullman Standard, not Budd.

Anybody have any other ideas?

-- Buck Dean (bdean@jngray.com), August 27, 2001.

The ACL leased three dome sleepers from the B&O and ran them Richmond- Miami on the Florida Special in 1966. These cars were built for the C&O "Chessie" by Budd in 1947 and sold to the B&O in 1950. After they ran on the ACL, they ran on the CN in 1967 and then were leased and laterr purchased by SCL. Their names were Sunlight Dome, Moonlight Dome and Starlight Dome. These cars had a lower than normal dome, due to restricted clearances. I rode in one of these cars in 1969 when it was assigned as the Richmond-Miami sleeper on the Silver Star.

Other domes which ran on the ACL were NP sleeper domes which were leased by both the IC and PRR during the winter season and used on the City of Miami and South Wind. PRR did not repaint the cars, but IC repainted them into its orange and chocolate each season-then repainted them back to NP two tone green each spring. IC then purchased six dome coaches from Missouri Pacific and repainted them into chocolate and orange and ran them on the City of Miami. These cars could be distinguished by the fact that IC replaced the front dome glass with sheet metal.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), August 27, 2001.