dining facilities, including the unique "Turquoise Room", a small dining area identified by the turquoise Native American medallion displayed on one of the room's walls. "Vista Dome" short dome cars built by the Budd Company for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy for its Zephyr passenger trains. Examples included two dome-parlor-observations built in 1947 for the Twin Zephyrs; six dome-buffet-lounges and six dome-sleeper-observations built in 1949 for the California Zephyr; two dome-coach-buffet-lounges and two dome-parlor-observations built in 1953 for the Kansas City Zephyr; and two dome-buffet-lounges and two dome-parlor-observations built in 1956 for the Denver Zephyr. The California Zephyr cars included those built for the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Western Pacific, which were partners with the CB&Q on the train's route between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. "Vista Dome" short dome cars built for the Wabash Railroad. The Budd Company built a dome-parlor-observation in 1950 for the railroad's Blue Bird; Pullman-Standard built a dome-parlor for the same train in 1952. "Astra Dome" short dome cars built by American Car & Foundry in 1955 for the Union Pacific Railroad and operated on the City of Los Angeles, City of Portland and other UP passenger trains. The railroad purchased 15 dome-lounge-observations. "Skyline" dome-coach-buffet-lounges and "Park" dome-sleeper-observations built by the Budd Company in 1955 for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CPR purchased 18 of each car type for its Canadian and Dominion passenger trains. "Stairway to the Stars" cars constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad for its Daylight passenger trains. The railroad built seven cars in its own shops, using components from retired cars and dome components supplied by the Budd Company. These cars were more accurately three-quarter-length domes, since the dome level was more than half the length of the car but did not extend the full length. Waning years of original passenger train use Most of these cars remained in service for their original owners up to the end of privately run passenger trains in North America in the 1970s. In the U.S., most cars moved on to Amtrak or to operators such as Auto Train. A few remained in business car service for their original railroads. In Canada, the entire Canadian Pacific fleet went to Via Rail. History Although the design of a dome car can be likened to a cupola caboose, the dome car's development is not directly related. The earliest documented predecessor of the