Gallery Car

The Gallery Car is a bilevel rail car, originally created by the Pullman Company as the Pullman Gallery Car. It has had five total different manufacturers since its creation, including Budd, St. Louis Car Company, Amerail, Nippon Sharyo and Canadian Vickers. These double-decker passenger car were built by Pullman-Standard during the 1950s to 1970s for various passenger rail operators in the United States.

Gallery Car
Metra Gallery Cars, Captured from Canal St. in Chicago
Manufacturer	Pullman Company, Budd Company, Amerail, Canadian Vickers and Nippon Sharyo
Constructed	1950s-present
Entered service	1950-present
Capacity	153-161
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT steel body on a steel frame
Car length	85 feet (26 m)
Entry	Step
Doors	1 per side
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The car's upper level was accessed by four sets of stairs in the middle vestibule. A narrow walkway with handrail and middle sections open looking below. Passengers disembarked from stairs from the vestibule on both sides. The original bench seating on the lower level was often upgraded to individual seats during rebuilds by operators. The 8700 series cars feature a control cab; this is not found in the 7600 series cars.

Design

Railcar

The Gallery Car is made of the usual stainless steel and is a bilevel, however there is a drop down in the middle to the first floor. This choice was made in particular to allow conductors to make a single pass through the car to collect passenger fares instead of having to go to each floor.

A Caltrain Bike Car, also showing the dropdown in the middle of the second floor

The car height is near the same as a Superliner (16' 2"), being only approximately four inches shorter, at 15' ~10". The height isn't the same across the brands, such as when comparing a Budd to an Amerail.

BNSF have their own versions of Budd's design, with differently designed trucks and differences on the outer body, along with text over the doors such as "BURLINGTON" or "BNSF RAILWAY".

The windows are not the same across the brands either (with designs building on each other):

• The Pullman have short-heighted chamfered windows.
• The Budds/Canadian Vickers shorten them horizontally and round them off.
• The BNSF Budds are a mix of the previous two, not shortened but rounded off.
• The Amerails increase them in size vertically.
• The Nippon Sharyos again increase them in size, making them the largest ones.

Highliner II

An electric multiple unit (EMU) variant of the railcar has been produced by Nippon Sharyo, of which only Metra and the NICTD South Shore Line own and operate. They operate on overhead wires, and only have cab car variants, with each set containing two.

History

The Gallery Car was constructed originally by Pullman and Budd in between the 1950s-70's, as 4 different models: The 7006A, 7600, 8700, and the Town Cars. The 8700 Series introduced the cab cars, with CN&W being the first customers for it.

As Pullman went bankrupt, other companies began to manufacture the railcar, those mainly being Amerail and Nippon Sharyo. Nippon Sharyo is currently the only manufacturer left as all of its other manufacturers no longer exist.

Models

There were four types:

Model	Operators	Builder	Years	Notes
7006A series			built 1950s
7600 series	C&NW	St. Louis Car Company, Pullman Company	1956–1961, 1963, 1965–68, 1970	Built 262
8700 series	C&NW	Pullman Company	1960–1961, 1965–1968	Built 64
Town Train series	Canadian Pacific Railways	Canadian Vickers	1969	Manufactured 9 gallery cars used by Canadian Pacific Railway Montreal passenger service and later used by STCUM and AMT and retired 2010.

Operators

• AMT - Canadian Vickers-built gallery cars (all retired)
• Amtrak: Acquired twelve cars from the Chicago and North Western Railway in the 1970s; ten coaches and food-service cars. Amtrak converted four of coaches into control cars in 1981–1982. All twelve were off the roster by 1994.
• Burlington Northern and Santa Fe - acquired the six Transcisco Tours gallery cars and converted them to be used as business cars (BNSF #40–45); two were later converted to track geometry cars.
• Canadian Pacific Railway - Montreal passenger routes and cars transferred to STCUM, and then to AMT (all retired)
• Chicago and North Western - sold cars to Metra and Amtrak
• Foxville and Northern - shortline operator in North Carolina. Owns 7 former VRE cars. Leased to other operations for various events.
• Metra
• WeGo Star - acquired seven Metra gallery cars.
• Southern Pacific - Peninsula Commute, then Caltrain. Operated 46 gallery cars (SP 3700–3745) until 1985. Sold to Tour Alaska in 1986. Colorado Railcar converted four (SP 3734, 3740, 3744, 3745) into "Ultra Dome" cars at Tillamook, Oregon. Six sold to Transcisco Tours (SP 3700–3703; 3707, 3708), subsequently acquired by BNSF.
• Transcisco Tours - acquired six from SP and converted them for tour use (#800532–800537).
• Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner - for parts
• Virginia Railway Express - Operated 50 ex-Metra gallery cars from 2001 until replacement by new Nippon Sharyo gallery cars from 2006 to 2017.
• GO Transit - borrowed both CP Rail and Chicago and North Western cars for trial runs in 1976.
• MARC Train - Acquired 12 Ex-Metra gallery bilevel coaches, often used on the Brunswick Line; replaced by Bombardier MARC IV in early 2015 and returned to Metra.

Current owners

Owner	Numbers	Type	Heritage	Year Built	Builder	Disposition
Metra	700–787 790–795	Coach Coach/Cab	Burlington Route	1950–65 1965	Budd	Operating, rebuilt in 1973 700–740, 752, 781, 790–795 sold to MItrain in Michigan
	796–815 816–820 7100–7121	Coach/Cab Coach Coach	Burlington Northern	1973 1973 1977–78		Operating
	6001–6194	Coach	Metra	2002–05	Nippon Sharyo
	7200–7382		Milwaukee Road	1961–80	Budd
	7400–7497		Metra	1996–98	Amerail	Operating, rebuilt in 2012
	8200–8238	Coach/Cab	Milwaukee Road	1961–74	Budd	Operating
	8239–8275		RTA	1978–80		Operating–Some have been converted to coaches.
	8400–8478		Metra	1994–98	Morrison-Knudsen/Amerail	Operating–Mainly assigned to the UP lines.
	8501–8608			2002–05	Nippon Sharyo	Operating
	7700–7866	Coach	Chicago and North Western	1960–70	Pullman	Operating–Five have been purchased back due to money problems.
	7600–7613			1955	St. Louis	Retired–Two preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum
	7650–7681			1956	Pullman	Retired–One preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum
	7867–7871		Rock Island	1970	Pullman	7869 now a bike car. Rest retired
	7881–7885	Coach	Rock Island	1970	Pullman	Retired
	7900–7901	Club Car	Chicago and North Western	1955	St. Louis
	8700–8763	Coach/Cab		1960–68	Pullman	Retired–One preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum 8749 is a bicycle car.
VRE	710–730	Unspecified	VRE	2006–08	Sumitomo / Nippon Sharyo	Operating
	800–819, 850–869, 870–879	Unspecified		2007-09
	820–848†	Unspecified		2014
WeGo Star	400-402	Cab	Metra, CB&Q, RTA, MITrain	Unspecified	Budd, Previous Cars by Pullman	Operating, Previous Pullmans Retired
	500-503	Coach
BNSF	40-45	Track Inspection	Transcisco Tours	Unspecified	Pullman	Operating
Caltrain	3800-3825	Trailer-Luggage	Caltrain	1985	Nippon Sharyo	Retired
	3826-3835	Trailer-Bike
	3836-3841	Trailer
	3842-3851			1986
	3852-3865			2000
	4000-4020	Cab-Bike		1985
	4021-4026			2000

† Eight cars ordered in February 2012 with options for 42 more. As of 2018, 21 further cars had been procured from these options.

EMU current owners

Metra Highliner IIs, with the retired original Highliners in the background

Owner	Numbers	Type	Heritage	Year Built	Builder	Status
Metra	1201–1226	MU Coach	Metra	2005	Nippon Sharyo	Operating
	1227–1238			2012	Sumitomo Group
	1239–1279			2013
	1280-1386			2014-2016
	1501–1630		Illinois Central	1971–1972	St. Louis	Retired
	1631–1666			1978–1979	Bombardier
South Shore Line	301-314	MU Coach	South Shore Line	2009	Nippon Sharyo	Operating

Preserved cars

• Three cars, two coaches and a cab car, are preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. Others serve on heritage railroads like the North Shore Scenic Railroad, which has 3, all of which are in the original C&NW paint scheme. Numerous others survive, but are still in operation on railroads like Metra.
• Ex-Agence metropolitaine de transport gallery cab coach number 901 is on display at the Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec.

Future

Eventually this railcar will be phased out. Two large passenger railroads are getting new equipment to phase out the cars, with Metra and Virginia Railway Express purchasing custom Coradia Bi-Levels from Alstom, and Caltrain getting Stadler KISS EMUs from Stadler Rail, to become fully electrified.

Gallery

• 
  A Metra Train, with the closest two cars being Budd, the second from the rear being Nippon Sharyo, and the rearmost car being Amerail.
• 
  A Caltrain Train, All of them being Nippon Sharyo.
• 
  The Upper Level of a Gallery Car. Usually, there is a Rack in the Dropdown for Baggage.
• 
  Metra Cab Car No. 8473 having its plow cut off after the Clarendon Hills crash.
• 
  Virginia Railway Express #V425. Originally in service with the C&NW

See also

• Bombardier Bi-Level Coach
• Hi-Level

External links

• [1] Archived 2021-01-17 at the Wayback Machine