Sleek piece of railroad history arrives at Oregon Depot for next restoration phase

OREGON — After hopscotching around the Midwest for 20 years and keeping railroad enthusiasts waiting for the past five weeks, the vintage Silver View dome rail car now can call Oregon “home.”

“It looks like it has a home now,” said Mike Abernethy, a St. Charles resident who owns the iconic dome car that once ran with the famed Twin Sister Cities Zephyr. “It’s pretty much a dream come true for me to know now that it has a good home.”

That home is the Oregon Depot Museum, on the south edge of Oregon, a town of 3,800 about 40 miles west of DeKalb. The Silver View sped into town Sunday afternoon, surprising Abernethy and members of Oregon Depot Museum Board who expected its arrival on Monday. Its arrival was delayed numerous times after the car left its former home in Charles City, Iowa in late July.

“It’s finally here,” Roger Cain said, smiling broadly as the sleek stainless-steel touring car was backed into its new location west of the Depot by railroad workers. “We’ve been working on this for three years, and now here it is.”

Cain is one of a handful of museum board members who worked to get the dome car moved to the Oregon Depot.

“We met with Mike in Sycamore three years ago and started talking about this,” Cain said.

The idea to move the signature Vista Dome of Burlington’s famed Twin Cities Zephyr was spawned when former Oregon resident Peter Medins, now of Woodstock, met Abernethy on a rail tour run by Abernethy. When they started talking about Abernethy’s ongoing restoration work on the sleek rail car, Medins suggested the move to Oregon.

Medins remembered taking a trip from Oregon to Minneapolis on the Twin Cities Zephyr as a child and suggested Abernethy move the Silver View closer to St. Charles so restoration work could be monitored and performed more easily.

Abernethy has owned the Silver View for 20 years after purchasing it at an auction from a railway company in New York. He remembered watching the Zephyr — with the Silver View in tow — in the early 1950s when visiting his aunt and uncle near Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.

“When we would go down to visit them, they would say ‘Oh, let’s take Mike over to see the Zephyr’. And whenever I saw the Silver View on the back end, that was a big deal for me,” Abernethy said.

The car was housed in Iowa and St. Louis before being stored outside in Charles City, Iowa. He decided to explore moving it to Oregon after the Silver View was damaged by vandals.

“They threw some rocks and broke some of the windows,” he said.

The Oregon Depot Museum Board was offered a $5,000 matching donation from Medins for costs associated moving with the Silver View. The board matched his donation with funds given by local donors.

Earlier this year, officials from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway agreed to replace and upgrade the “house” track — the track that once served the freighthouse — just west of the Oregon Depot for the Silver View to sit on.

That track, north of the active BNSF freight line, will be the Silver View’s new home during its next two restoration phases.

Phase 1 will include getting the Silver View back to its original condition, with a few added extras. Phase 2 will include getting the Silver View ready for rail travel.

Cain said having the car in Oregon should help speed up restoration.

“We will roll out the whole plan on Oct. 8,” he said. “We will have focused priorities. Fundraising is going to be critical. The work will be done by tradespeople.”

For instance, seats from the car are being re-upholstered by an Oregon resident.

“The whole purpose is to give a person the experience of what it was like to ride in a dome car on the Zephyr,” Abernethy said noting that the car, once restored, could be a stationary venue for fundraising events. “It can seat 24. I see it as a collaborative effort and it also gets Oregon and the Depot more in the public eye.”

Work on the exterior of the Silver View will begin soon, he said.

Abernethy will be speaking about the Silver View at 10 a.m. this Saturday, Aug. 27 at the Oregon Depot.

Abernethy is president and tour operator of Zephyr Route, a small privately owned business he launched to fund the restoration of the Silver View. His website is www.zephyrroute.com.

Oregon Depot

The Oregon Depot Museum has been restored by local volunteers and houses a museum that reflects the history of train travel to and from the town of 3,800, located 40 miles west of DeKalb. For more information about the Oregon Depot, go to http://oregonil.com/oregon-depot-museum/.

Silver View facts

The following information was provided by the Oregon Depot.

Silver View was built by Budd Co. and delivered to Burlington Northern-Santa Fe on Nov. 29, 1947. It immediately became one of the signature Vista Dome cars for the Burlington’s famed Twin Cities Zephyrs. The Twin Cities Zephyrs operated between Chicago and its names’ sake cities. It was marketed as “where natures smiles for 300 miles.”

Silver View and its sister car, Silver Vista, both operated as daytime parlor cars with one drawing room.

Their domes were configured with the customary 24 seats. The “main floor” of the cars had 26 parlor seats in the tail/observation end.