Following the delivery of dome cars constructed for the Union Pacific and Wabash for the City of St. Louis in 1958, U.S. intercity passenger rail service entered into what turned out to be a terminal illness; thereafter, no more new dome cars were ordered.
However, a different factor in the U.S. railroad industry — mergers — would prove to have an impact on the use of the dome cars. In 1957, Louisville & Nashville merged with its long-time partner Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, followed by the amalgamation of parallel coal-haulers Norfolk & Western and Virginian in 1959; neither combination had any immediate impact on dome car usage, however.
But with its appetite for mergers and acquisitions whetted, N&W took a bolder step in 1964 by adding both the Nickel Plate and Wabash Railroads, as well as some other trackage, allowing the Norfolk & Western to expand substantially into the Midwest, and as far west as Kansas City. In 1966, this consolidation resulted in the assignment of former Wabash Blue Bird dome coaches to the N&W’s historic territory, running on the daylight Cincinnati-Norfolk Powhatan Arrow. Although patrons and railfans in central Illinois might not have enjoyed this, it would be hard to argue against the fact that their new Appalachian route was far more worthy of a dome car in terms of scenery than previously…