This observation car has been in the Portland & Western yard at Albany Oregon for at least a few days. CalNorthern and P&W have the same parent company. Some quick internet research shows this car has an interesting history ...
The Appekunny Mountain was built for the 'Mid-Century' Empire Builder that was inaugurated on 6-3-51, replacing the 1947 'River' (later Coulee) series cars which were then transferred to the new Western Star. In 1955 when the Builder got the full length dome lounges, the 'Mountain' series cars were transferred to the Western Star, and the River series cars were rebuilt and renamed Coulee series cars, and re-assigned to the Empire Builder.
They were: 1290-Appekunny Mountain, 1291-St.Nicholas Mountain, 1292-Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, 1293-Catherdral Mountain, 1294-Trempaleau Mountain, and 1295-Little Chief Mountain. The St. Nicholas Mountain was a regular fixture on the CB&Q fantrips in the early 1960s. While some of the Mountain series cars survived, all [but one] of the GN 'Coulee' series cars were rebuilt into coaches in 1968.
This car also spent some time on the Wyoming-Colorado tourist operation out of Laramie, WY in the late 80's. At that time it was in full SP Daylight paint.
This car gets around. It finished the train on a number of #4449 runs in Daylight paint and did some time on the Verde Canyon in Arizona ...
