Bidding Farewell to 1954 Built Budd's, From a 1956-built Budd. It was a humbling moment as I snapped this picture - standing in the dome of the 1956-built, ex-CBQ dome car "Silver Splendor" looking over at four of Amtrak's Pacific Parlour Cars that had recently been retired. I didn't know it at the time, but this would end up being my final take on the Pacific Parlour Cars prior to their trips back east to Amtrak's Beach Grove Shops in the coming weeks. Just a few weeks prior to this, each of the four cars pictured sitting quietly in the yard on this beautiful morning had rolled out their final revenue miles for Amtrak between Los Angeles and Seattle on the popular Coast Starlight. On February 5, the final page on the Parlour Car's story was written as two of the four traveled south on train No. 11 for the last time. Some 12 days later, pictured here off to the left sitting in Amtrak's 8th Street Yard, I knew I had an opportunity to shoot them as I traveled south about the Splendor prior to working a trip to San Diego...but what I didn't realize until later, was that I had shot them from a fellow Budd car just two years older than them.
