The Pacific Home was built in December 1949 as a 10-6 sleeper (10 roomettes, 6 bedrooms) by the Budd Company in Philadelphia, PA for the Union Pacific. It was built with no car number and named the Pacific Home, and although it was a stainless steel car, it was painted in solid UP Armour Yellow with red striping and lettering, a light grey roof, and silver trucks. The car entered normal Union Pacific passenger car service, and was used on the famous UP train City of Los Angeles on at least one occasion (March 31, 1950). The car was originally heated with steam from a boiler in the locomotive, as was the normal practice in railroad passenger service at that time. In August of 1969, the car was numbered #1418. From its delivery, the Pacific Home was lettered “PULLMAN” in its letterboard until the discontinuance of Pullman sleeper service in 1970, when the lettering was removed entirely, leaving only the small “UNION PACIFIC” lettering in the upper corner of the car’s letterboard.
Amtrak took over all national interstate passenger service in May of 1971. With much of its passenger equipment now surplus, the Union Pacific sold the Pacific Home to Amtrak in December of 1971. The car became Amtrak #2616 but retained its name. The Pacific Home had its yellow paint stripped off in favor of its natural stainless steel finish, and a simple Amtrak red, white, and blue windowband was applied. The Pacific Home ran on the first Amtrak train from New York to Montreal on September 30, 1972 and was a run-through car on the famous Southern Crescent on at least three occasions (October 30, 1975, March 9, 1977, and April 15, 1977). In December of 1979, Amtrak completely rebuilt the Pacific Home, re-upholstering and re-carpeting much of the interior, carpeting the walls, and removing the steam heat, replacing it with head-end power (HEP) and electric heat. The car was repainted with the newer style Amtrak windowband and renumbered #2885 at this time, and it kept this number until it was stored in September of 1995 and finally retired by Amtrak in 2001.
The car was acquired by Mercer County, NJ and moved to a disconnected piece of track at the Dempster Fire Training Center of the Mercer County Fire Academy in Lawrenceville, NJ. It was used to support fire training exercises.
Private car owner and mechanic Chuck Jensen purchased the car in 2009. The car was trucked over the road to the shop of the Morristown & Erie Railway in Morristown, NJ, and Jensen began restoring the car with the help of other mechanics. The Amtrak-applied wall carpeting was removed from the interior, and the electronics were fully upgraded. A new shower was installed, and a bathroom replaced one of the roomettes. The car now sleeps 21 people in 6 bedrooms and 9 roomettes. A generator was added so the car could power itself without power from a locomotive. The Amtrak red, white, and blue window band was removed, leaving the whole exterior in its shiny stainless steel finish with its “PULLMAN” lettering reapplied. The trucks and running gear were completely rebuilt to current Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak standards. After over three years of work, the Pacific Home was fully equipped to ride the rails again!
