Special St. Louis domeliner – June 1948

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  • February 12, 2016 at 4:36 am #5704
    benjamintickell53
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    [attachment=0:31du1th0]dome_0011-s.jpg[/attachment:31du1th0]

    In June 1948, Missouri Pacific operated a special “Crippled Children’s Planetarium Special” around much of the St. Louis terminal trackage. The passengers were kids from the St. Louis Shrine Hospital and from the polio center at St. Anthony’s Hospital. The two-hour trip covered trackage south from Union Station to Broadway station, then north along the Mississippi riverfront through Lesperance Street yards to the McArthur Bridge, across the river and to the north end of the Dupo yards in Illinois before returning to Union Station. The train included three planetarium domes just delivered by Budd, along with a newly delivered diner and a new dormitory coach. Motive power was what the MP Magazine described as “…a new road-switcher diesel locomotive – a type of motive power just being put to use by the Missouri Pacific.” Photos in the magazine confirm that the locomotive was a BL-2.

    Inasmuch as these were the first domes to regularly operate into St. Louis on any railroad, there was undoubtedly a lot of local publicity. Has anyone ever seen photographs of this MP “domeliner” pulled by a BL-2? A photo of this unlikely consist would indeed be a prize, and would make a great addition to the dome car article now in preparation for the Eagle.

    Bill Pollard

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