KOBUK CAR # : 551

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 C. C. Potter of Cincinnati, Ohio at the Auto-Train bankruptcy auction. Used for a period of time by a fledgling tour company called Golden Arrow out of Chicago. Car then disappears.
1985-87	Westours and its third party purchasing agent make several attempts to locate car. No one seemed to know what happened to it.
1989	Car located stored in the roundhouse on the Wisconsin & Calumet Railroad in Janesville, Wisconsin. Owners named Passenger Car Associates, Inc. Posters of the Golden Arrow operation still mounted on wall. Acquired by Westours through a third party. Car moved to Tillamook, Oregon for storage pending rebuild.
1993	Rebuilding of car started in Tillamook, Oregon.
1994	Rebuilding completed. Rebuild cost is $781,000 not including the cost of the car shell. Car shipped to Anchorage on May 19.
	June 3, first Anchorage-Denali-Fairbanks revenue trip.