KASHWITNA CAR # : 553
| 1953 | Ordered by the AT&SF from the Budd Company. |
| 1954 | Delivered in May to the AT&SF. |
| Original car had 57 forward facing seats and 18 lounge seats in the dome and a 8 seat lounge, bar and rail crew dormitory on the lower level. Car was built for and used on the "San Francisco Chief". | |
| 1968 | Car was reassigned to the "Texas Chief". |
| 1971 | AT&SF to cease passenger service with the start of Amtrak. AT&SF and Amtrak have difficulty reaching agreement on value of the Santa Fe fleet of cars. Privately operated Auto-Train acquires car to operate Lorton, VA. to Sanford, FL. Converted to a 51 seat coach on the dome level retaining its 8 seat lounge, bar and Crew dormitory on the lower level. |
| 1981 | Acquired by Delaware Otsego System (NYS&W) at the Auto-Train bankruptcy auction. Moved to Binghamton, N.Y., repainted brown, renumbered NYS&W #502 and used on local rail excursions. |
| 1985 | May, Westours inspects car in Binghamton, N.Y. Makes offer to by it and the six other cars owned by NYS&W. Turned down. Railroad wants to rebuild them and run them in excursion service some day. Indications are that railroad is under going a major expansion to handle "double stack" trains for Sealand. Westours stays in contact as the feeling is the railroad will need to sell the cars to fund its expansion. |
| December, NYS&W calls and wants to sell all seven cars before the end of the year. Car(s) acquired by Westours. | |
| 1986 | Car moved to Morrison-Knudsen, Railroad Division in Boise, Idaho to use as a parts car to complete the first six cars selected for rebuild. Left in storage in Boise. |
| 1988 | September, car moved to Tillamook, Oregon for rebuilding. Rebuild cost is $580,000 not including the cost of the car shell. |
| 1989 | May 8 , car leaves Tillamook by rail to Seattle and then, on May 12, by rail barge to Seward/Anchorage. |
| May 26 car leaves on first Anchorage-Denali-Fairbanks trip. | |
| 1994 | Car shipped to Tillamook for refurbishment, new air conditioning and electrical at end of season. $474,000 spent in refurbishment. |
| 1995 | Refurbished car returns to Alaska |