This streamliner dome sleeper-observation car built in 1954 now owned by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society will be renovated for future excursions. Contributed image
FORT WAYNE — The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, which took thousands of passengers on steam locomotive trips from Angola over the summer, has acquired a new vintage car for future rail experiences.
The group has purchased the Riding Mountain Park, a streamlined dome-sleeper-observation car built in 1954 for transcontinental passenger train service on the Canadian Pacific. The acquisition was made possible by a private donor.
Plans call for the car to undergo a significant multi-year mechanical overhaul that will update its electrical and HVAC systems and interior furnishings at a cost of approximately $250,000. Donations can be made online at fortwaynerailroad.org or by mail.
“Most first-class trains of the 1940s and 1950s featured a dome car, lounge car, or an observation car,” Wayne York, senior excursion manager, said in the announcement. “With Riding Mountain Park, our future guests will be able to enjoy all three and we are overjoyed at the opportunity to preserve this experience. Its acquisition is a special way to end our 50th anniversary and mark the beginning of a new chapter.”
Named for the Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada, the car’s design was partially inspired by the California Zephyr’s stainless-steel passenger cars in the United States. The Riding Mountain Park was once part of “The Canadian,” a first-class passenger train that operated among Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and was one of 18 such Park-series cars.
Retired and sold into private ownership in 2005, the Riding Mountain Park has been in storage for more than 10 years at the Adrian & Blissfield Rail Road Company in Blissfield, Michigan. It largely retains its original interior and artwork created by members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. All Park-series cars were described in 1954 as being the “feature car of each train.”
Pending restoration, the car will enter service as part of the Indiana Rail Experience, a new rail tourism program operating on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad in Western Ohio, Northeast Indiana, and Southeast Michigan over former Wabash Railroad and New York Central trackage.
In 2022, the Indiana Rail Experience welcomed more than 6,000 guests from 35 states and three countries in just 10 days of operation. These included the family-friendly Indiana Ice Cream Train and the adult-oriented Wine, Whiskey, & Spirits Train.
Events and excursions in 2023 will feature historic Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive No. 765, and other vintage locomotives and historic passenger cars. With the addition of the new car, Fort Wayne Railroad now owns two steam locomotives, three diesel locomotives, four passenger cars and three cabooses.
Earlier this year, the Fort Wayne Railroad purchased the Collinsville Inn and Franklin Inn, two 1950s-era Pennsylvania Railroad passenger coaches, from the DC Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and completed the renovation of former California Zephyr and Amtrak dining car Silver Diner, as well as completed the conversion of a former Santa Fe baggage car now named the John H. Emery.
While dome cars were not especially common in the Midwest, the Riding Mountain Park bears similarity to the Wabash Railroad’s stainless-steel “Domeliner” and its lounge class and observation end were popular on the New York Central’s first-class passenger trains, which operated through nearby Waterloo and Hillsdale, Michigan.
For 50 years, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society has offered experiences through the preservation, restoration and operation of historic railroad equipment and artifacts significant to Northeast Indiana. An all-volunteer, award-winning nonprofit organization, it has operated Nickel Plate Road No. 765 for over 100,000 miles in public exhibition and passenger train excursion service and routinely welcomes visitors from all 50 states and half a dozen countries.
Originally the group planned Headwaters Junction, a downtown Fort Wayne tourist attraction with a working railroad roundhouse and park with train rides, it since has sold land to the city for riverfront development.
It has scaled back the plans to a restored vintage passenger car, now named the Spirit of Fort Wayne, with a renovated depot. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Now the railroad society’s rail experiences park dream has been refocused on Steuben County.
As a part of its role in the rail tourism industry, Fort Wayne continues to restore and exhibit other historic steam and diesel locomotives, freight cars, and passenger cars from the Golden Age of Railroading, all of which are used to celebrate and preserve the area’s cultural and industrial heritage. Fort Wayne’s operations are funded by ticket sales, memberships, donations, grants, and sponsorships.
© 2025 KPC Media Group, Inc.