| Amtrak Dome Coach 9456, named SILVER STIRRUP, in Chicago, Illinois on an unknown day in September 1979, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. The SILVER STIRRUP was built by Budd on Job 9646-019, ordered in October 1945, delivered as CB&Q 4722 between January and February 1948 and assigned to the California Zephyr. It was assigned BN 4686 in 1970, number not applied, instead became AMTK 9456 and was sold by Amtrak in October 1984. It appears to have become DRCX 7034 (Denver Railway Car Company) and was leased to the Alaska Railroad, assigned ARR 7003, number not applied. ALASKA was applied to the letterboard, and at some point the name panel below the windows was removed. It was never used by the ARR and sat idle at the Anchorage shops until sometime in 1986 when the ARR purged steam heated rolling stock from its roster. Returned to DRCX, it was leased to Texas Limited Houston-Galveston (1989-1994), then leased to Mexican American Railways based in Nogales MX, tour service (2000), then leased to the short-lived ACADIAN Montreal - Maine - Halifax service (dates unknown by me). The assets of DRCX were sold at auction on May 13, 2004, the SILVER STIRRUP moved to Arizona, was refurbished at the Grand Canyon Railway's locomotive shops and became GCRY 7034, renamed GRAND VIEW. |