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Home > Archives > Heritage Sleeping car Joseph V. MacDonald, 1984.

Heritage Sleeping car Joseph V. MacDonald, 1984.

Black and white photograph from November, 1984, showing Heritage Sleeping car No. 2990, the Joseph V. MacDonald.

Heritage Sleeping car <i>Joseph V. MacDonald</i>, 1984.

Many of Amtrak's early Sleeping cars had 10 Roomettes (for one person) and 6 Double Bedrooms (for two persons), and are commonly known as "10-6 Sleepers." Each Roomette or Double Bedroom included its own toilet and washing facilities. Heritage Sleeping car No. 2990 was originally ordered by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1948 from the Budd Company. Known as the Pine Grove, it was used on various premier trains and eventually came to Amtrak in 1971. In this image, the car wears the Phase II paint scheme introduced in 1975.

In October, 1978, at a ceremony held at the St. Albans, Vt. station, Amtrak renamed the car the Joseph V. MacDonald in honor of a former board member who had died earlier that year. MacDonald, once a locomotive engineer, served on the board from 1974 to 1978. He had been influential in the campaign to establish the Montrealer (Montreal-Washington) in the early 1970s. Car No. 2991 was named in honor of his wife, Beatrice. The last Heritage Sleeping cars were retired after Amtrak received the Viewliner cars in the mid-1990s.

Photographer: William Kratville (American, 1929-2011) for Amtrak.

From the Blair Slaughter Collection.