Article #95: Amtrak Dining Car #8504 Southeastern narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum (June 14, 2025)

 

In this new article we will be taking a look at Amtrak dining car #8504 which is now preserved at the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum in Newton, NC.

It was built in 1948 by the Budd Company for service on the famous California Zephyr passenger train where it was on the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad. On the CB&Q, it was #195. It was dubbed the Silver Restaurant.

The California Zephyr was operated by the Chicago Burlington & Quincy, Western Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. The train operated between Chicago, Illinois and Denver, Colorado on the CB&Q.

This car operated on the CB&Q for twenty three years (1948-1971). On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over passenger service across the country. It was in that same year where this car began its career on Amtrak. 

The first number it had on Amtrak was #8052 while keeping the Silver Resturant name. It had some rebuilds and modifications done to it. In addition, it was renumbered #8504 and was in its series of heritage diners.

This diner ran on Amtrak for forty seven years (1971-2018). It ran on trains like the Silver Meteor and Silver Star throughout the time it had on Amtrak.

In April of 2020, #8504 had been retired for some time and made its way to the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum in Newton, NC as its new home. To get to the museum, it first came out of storage in Beech Grove, IN. It was in the consists of trains on both CSX and Norfolk Southern. On CSX, it made a stop in Florence, South Carolina. Eventually, it made its way to Charlotte where it got off of CSX and went onto a Norfolk Southern train to Spencer, NC. The daily run through manifest train #135 from Salisbury, NC to Asheville, NC and beyond to Knoxville, TN dropped the car off at Hickory, NC. The car got to the museum thereafter being in the consist of one of the local trains.

This car is for sure one to check out while at the museum.