Pioneer Zephyr
Encyclopedia
The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered
railroad train formed of railroad car
s permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogie
s, built by the Budd Company
in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
(CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington. The train featured extensive use of stainless steel
, was originally named the Zephyr, and was meant as a promotional tool to advertise passenger rail service in the United States
. The construction included innovations such as shotwelding (a specialized type of spot welding
) to join the stainless steel, and articulation to reduce its weight.
On May 26, 1934, it set a speed record
for travel between Denver
, Colorado
, and Chicago, Illinois
, when it made a 1,015-mile (1,633 km) non-stop "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of 77 mph (124 km/h). For one section of the run it reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), just short of the then US land speed record of 115 mph (185 km/h). The historic dash inspired two films and the train's nickname, "Silver Streak".
The train entered regular revenue service on November 11, 1934, between Kansas City
, Missouri
, Omaha
and Lincoln
, Nebraska
. It operated this and other routes until its retirement in 1960, when it was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry
, where it remains on public display. The train is generally regarded as the first successful streamliner
on American railroads.
. Without the money to purchase new goods, freight trains were not hauling as much as they had in the previous decade. People who could not buy goods also could not afford to travel to the extent that they had before, so passenger revenues were also down. Even if they did have the money to travel, the equipment that railroads were using to carry passengers had not changed much since the middle of the 19th century. Railroads needed a way to re-energize the traveling public and offer a bit of hope for the days to come.
One of the railroad presidents who faced this challenge was Ralph Budd
, formerly of the Great Northern Railway and now president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
(Burlington), who needed a new train to get the public interested in traveling again. Naming the train was task that was very seriously taken by Budd. He wanted a name that started with the letter Z because this train was intended to be the "last word" in passenger service; Budd and his coworkers looked up the last words in their dictionaries, but neither zymurgy nor zyzzle conveyed the meanings that Budd was looking for. The name of the new train came from The Canterbury Tales
, which Budd had been reading. The story begins with pilgrims setting out on a journey, inspired by the budding springtime and by Zephyrus, the gentle and nurturing west wind. Budd thought that would be an excellent name for a sleek new traveling machine—Zephyr.
In 1932 Ralph Budd met Edward G. Budd
(no relation), an automotive steel pioneer who was founder and president of the Budd Company
. Edward Budd was demonstrating his new carbody construction in a prototype rail motorcar built of stainless steel
. Stainless steel provided many benefits over traditional wood and hardened steel for railroad carbodies; it was a lighter and stronger material, and its natural silver appearance and resistance to corrosion
meant that it would not have to be painted to protect it from the weather. Since the carbody was much lighter than similar cars, it would be able to carry a higher revenue load for the same cost.
The problem with building stainless steel cars was that nobody could find an adequate way to hold the body together, until the Budd Company patented the shotwelding technique. On August 20, 1932, Earl J. Ragsdale, an engineer at the Budd Company, filed a patent application for a "Method and product of electric welding"; on January 16, 1934, the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) granted US patent 1,944,106 to the Budd Company. Basically, because of the nature of stainless steel, traditional welding
methods would unacceptably weaken the metal at the joint. In a spotweld, the two pieces of metal that are to be joined are pressed together at the joint with an electrode
on each side of the joint. A very high electric current is passed through the joint, which fuses the two pieces of metal together.
Another factor in making the Zephyr lighter than conventional trains was that the individual carbodies in the train share their trucks
with adjacent cars. In this design by Budd engineer Walter B. Dean, the train was three articulated compartments. On conventional passenger cars, each carbody rode upon a pair of trucks (wheel/axle assembly), with one truck at each end. The articulation not only reduced the number of trucks under the train, but it also dispensed with the need for couplers
between each of the carbodies, further reducing the train's weight.
The exterior design of the train was left to aeronautical
engineer Albert Gardner Dean (Walter Dean's younger brother) who designed the sloping nose shape, with architect
John Harbeson
and industrial designer Paul Philippe Cret
devising a way to strengthen and beautify the sides with the train's horizontal fluting. On April 15, 1936, Col. Ragsdale, Walter Dean and Albert Dean, filed patent applications for a "Rail Car Front End Construction". On September 23, 1941 the USPTO granted US patents 2,256,493 and 2,256,494 to the Budd Company.
The first Zephyr was completed by Budd Company on April 9, 1934, powered by an 8-cylinder, 600-horsepower
(447 kW), 8-201-A model Winton
engine. Like the diesel-electric locomotives that soon displaced the steam locomotive
on American railroads, this engine powered an electrical generator; the electricity it generated was then fed to electric traction motor
s connected to the axles in the train's front truck.
The train's engineer sat in a small compartment in the nose of the train, directly in front of the prime mover
. Behind the engine in the first carbody was a 30 ft (9.1 m) long railway post office
section. The second carbody consisted of a small baggage section and a short buffet and 20-passenger coach section. The third and final carbody in the train, as originally built, was configured as half coach (40-passenger seats) and half observation car
(12 passenger seats). As built, the train had 72 seats and could carry 50,000 pounds
(22.7 tonne
s) of baggage and express freight. This train's official christening occurred on April 18, 1934, at the Pennsylvania Railroad
's Broad Street Station
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.
The Budd Company used the experience learned in building the Zephyr to build similar trains (such as the Flying Yankee
) for other railroads, as well as a number of other Zephyrs for the Burlington.
' s route were diverted to sidings
and the turnouts
were spiked into the proper alignment for the Zephyr' s run. Track and maintenance of way workers checked every single spike and bolt along the train's route to ensure that there would not be any problems, and temporary speed signs were installed along the route to warn the Zephyr' s crew of curves that would be dangerous at high speeds. On the day of the dash, every road grade crossing was manned by a flagman to stop automobile traffic ahead of the train and to ensure that the crossing was clear. Stations along the route were protected by local police officers and members of the American Legion
and the Boy Scouts of America
.
The train left Denver at 7:04 AM Central Daylight Time and arrived in Chicago at 8:09 PM, 13 hours 5 minutes later, at an average speed of 77 mph (124 km/h). For one section of the run, the train reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), close to the world land speed record of 130.6 mph (210.2 km/h) of 1903, which had been achieved in repeated runs on dedicated test track. The non-stop 1,015 mile (1,633 km) trip exceeded the railroad's expectations in being 1 hour 55 minutes faster than was scheduled. Reporters along the route told of the "silver streak" that ran by faster than any other train that normally rode American rails at the time. The Burlington's contemporary passenger trains plied the same distance in around 25 hours.
Riding the train were Ralph Budd, Edward G. Budd, president H. L. Hamilton of the Winton Motor Company (at that time a part of the new General Motors Electro-Motive Division), a number of reporters, some Burlington employees, lucky members of the public, and Zeph, a burro
that was contributed by a Colorado
newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, as a mascot for the train. The newspaper had described Zeph to the railroad as a "Rocky Mountain Canary" so the train's crew had originally planned only enough space for a birdcage; when they found out it wasn't a bird, the railroad hastily built a pen in the baggage section and bought some hay for it. When asked about the burro, Ralph Budd replied "Why not? One more jackass on this trip won't make a difference."
After the train arrived in Chicago, it traveled a little farther to the 1934 Century of Progress
fair (noted in some press articles about the dash as the "Chicago World's Fair") where it was put on public display on opening day. After its display on the Wings of a Century stage, the train was taken on a 31-state, 222-city publicity tour. More than 2 million people saw the train before it entered revenue service.
Part of the tour included a test run between Chicago and Minneapolis–St. Paul a full five hours faster than the Burlington's fastest steam-powered train. Due to the Zephyrs success on this test run, the Burlington immediately ordered two more Zephyr trainsets that would be dubbed the Twin Zephyrs; the new trains debuted in April 1935 on this route.
505, and the coach-observation 570. The train was placed in regular service between Kansas City
, Missouri
, Omaha
and Lincoln
, Nebraska
, on November 11, 1934, replacing a pair of steam locomotive
s and six heavyweight passenger cars, weighing up to eight times as much as the Zephyr. By June 1935, it proved popular enough to add a fourth car, providing additional coach seating. The fourth car was originally a 40-seat coach number 525, but the following June it was switched to Twin Cities service, then back to the Pioneer Zephyr in December. Car 525 remained on the train until June 1938. Just over five years after it was introduced, the Pioneer Zephyr crossed the one million mile mark in regular service on December 29, 1939, near Council Bluffs
, Iowa
.
Ralph Budd and the Burlington capitalized on the Zephyrs success. However, most passenger trains needed larger capacity. Thus, as the Burlington made a transition to larger diesel-electric locomotives
pulling individual passenger cars, new streamlined cars of standard-size were ordered, which quickly became the standard of many railroads. However, Burlington was determined to be the leader, and ordered its large "E" series
passenger diesels to also be equipped with matching stainless-steel fluting. Many of the Burlington's long distance named passenger trains began operating under the Zephyr banner, including the Nebraska Zephyr
, Twin Cities Zephyr
, and perhaps the most famous of the namesake, the California Zephyr
.
On the second anniversary of the train's famous dash, the original Zephyr was rechristened the Pioneer Zephyr to distinguish it as the first of the Burlington's growing Zephyr fleet. In 1938, car 525 was replaced by car number 500, a 40-seat buffet/lounge car, to provide light meals. Car number 505, the baggage-coach combine
, was rebuilt at this time into a full baggage car
, but it kept its original windows.
In regular service, the Pioneer Zephyr had its share of accidents. In 1939 it was involved in a head-on collision with a freight train that completely destroyed the cab. The train was rebuilt and re-entered revenue service soon afterward, but the accident strengthened the desire of locomotive designers to move the cab back from the front of the locomotive to above a large nose, as on EMD F-unit
and EMD E-unit
locomotives.
Since the Pioneer Zephyr was built of stainless steel, which is not as recyclable as aluminum
, the train was spared from the metal recycling drives of World War II
. By contrast, Union Pacific's M-10000
, built of aluminum, was scrapped in 1942 for the war effort, among other reasons.
In 1948 and 1949, the Pioneer Zephyr was temporarily removed from service to participate in the Chicago Railroad Fair
's "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant. The fair's purpose was to celebrate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, and Pioneer Zephyr' s role in the pageant was to highlight the latest strides in railroad technology. It resumed regular passenger operations when the fair ended on October 2, 1949. By 1955 the Pioneer Zephyr' s route had been updated to run between Galesburg
, Illinois
, and Saint Joseph
, Missouri
; the trainset had been in continual service since 1934, operating over nearly 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometres). The Pioneer Zephyr' s last revenue run was a trip from Lincoln
, Nebraska
, to Kansas City
, Missouri
, (along the train's regular revenue route) that then continued to Chicago
on March 20, 1960. When Amtrak
took over passenger rail services in 1971, the legendary Zephyr name was preserved, and the California Zephyr is an Amtrak route in the 21st century.
. In that story, the crew was racing to the Boulder Dam construction site with an iron lung
, with only moments to spare. The original Zephyr trainset was used for the exterior shots in the film, while interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage in Hollywood. For the film, the "Burlington Route" nameplate on the train's nose was replaced with one that read "Silver Streak".
More than 40 years later, that classic film—or at least the name "Silver Streak"—served as the inspiration for a newer film of the same name. Silver Streak (1976) starred Gene Wilder
and Richard Pryor
; rather than using the Pioneer Zephyr, the combination murder-mystery and comedy was set in the era in which it was filmed, with the train being patterned more after the modern long-distance train, Amtrak's Southwest Chief
.
. Car number 500, which operated with the train from 1938, went along with Mark Twain Zephyr
trainset 9903 to a party in Mount Pleasant
, Iowa
, for static display in a town park, but plans for the train's display did not work out; car 500 and the Mark Twain Zephyr are currently stored in Chicago and plans are currently underway to display it in Fairfield
, Iowa
.
In Galesburg, Illinois, which is 162 rail miles from Chicago, the local high school
named all its athletic teams the "Galesburg Silver Streaks" in honor of the train.
The Chicago museum displayed the Pioneer Zephyr outside the museum, with no protection from the weather, until 1994. At that time, the steam locomotive that shared the display space with the Zephyr, Santa Fe
#2903, was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum
, while the Chicago museum prepared a new display location for the Zephyr.
The Chicago museum dug a pit in front of the building and built a new display area for the Zephyr, where it could be displayed year-round. In 1998, after the train received a cosmetic restoration by Northern Rail Car, in Milwaukee
, Wisconsin
, the pit was finally ready to receive the train. The Pioneer Zephyr train is still on display at the museum just outside the main entrance from the underground parking area for the museum, where it is one of the more popular exhibits.
In addition to the Pioneer Zephyr, two other legacies remain. An operable Nebraska Zephyr
train was donated to the large Illinois Railway Museum at Union
, west of Chicago. There, powered by one of the large "E" series
passenger diesels (an EMC E5
) with the distinctive and durable stainless-steel fluting, it is still operated on short runs on the Museum's substantial trackage, providing train enthusiasts and tourists with an experience reminiscent of the heyday of the Burlington's Zephyr service. The Silver Charger, power car of the General Pershing Zephyr
, is on display at the Museum of Transportation
in St. Louis
.
Also utilizing the famous name, the Minnesota Zephyr
was an elegant dining train located in the historic city of Stillwater
, Minnesota
, although it was not directly associated with the historic Burlington Zephyr fleet.
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
in Allentown
, Pennsylvania
has a miniature replica train ride called Zephyr which was built in 1935 and helped the park survive the Great Depression.
' s place in American railroad history, many model railroaders
have built their own versions of the Pioneer Zephyr in miniature. Several model manufacturers are now producing commercial ready-to-run models or kits of the train for modelers to build. This list is sorted by the manufacturer's release date:
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
railroad train formed of railroad car
Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
s permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogie
Jacobs bogie
Jacobs bogies are a type of rail vehicle bogie commonly found on articulated railcars and tramway vehicles....
s, built by the Budd Company
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
(CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington. The train featured extensive use of stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
, was originally named the Zephyr, and was meant as a promotional tool to advertise passenger rail service in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The construction included innovations such as shotwelding (a specialized type of spot welding
Spot welding
Spot welding is a process in which contacting metal surfaces are joined by the heat obtained from resistance to electric current flow. Work-pieces are held together under pressure exerted by electrodes. Typically the sheets are in the thickness range...
) to join the stainless steel, and articulation to reduce its weight.
On May 26, 1934, it set a speed record
Land speed record for railed vehicles
Determination of the fastest rail vehicle in the world varies depending on the definition of "rail".Official absolute world record for conventional train is held by the French TGV...
for travel between Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, when it made a 1,015-mile (1,633 km) non-stop "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of 77 mph (124 km/h). For one section of the run it reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), just short of the then US land speed record of 115 mph (185 km/h). The historic dash inspired two films and the train's nickname, "Silver Streak".
The train entered regular revenue service on November 11, 1934, between Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
and Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. It operated this and other routes until its retirement in 1960, when it was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
The Museum of Science and Industry is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
, where it remains on public display. The train is generally regarded as the first successful streamliner
Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
on American railroads.
Concept and construction
In the early 1930s, the U.S. was in the depths of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Without the money to purchase new goods, freight trains were not hauling as much as they had in the previous decade. People who could not buy goods also could not afford to travel to the extent that they had before, so passenger revenues were also down. Even if they did have the money to travel, the equipment that railroads were using to carry passengers had not changed much since the middle of the 19th century. Railroads needed a way to re-energize the traveling public and offer a bit of hope for the days to come.
One of the railroad presidents who faced this challenge was Ralph Budd
Ralph Budd
Ralph Budd was an American railroad executive.-Early life:One of six children of John and Mary Budd, Ralph was born on a farm near Waterloo, Iowa on August 20, 1879...
, formerly of the Great Northern Railway and now president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
(Burlington), who needed a new train to get the public interested in traveling again. Naming the train was task that was very seriously taken by Budd. He wanted a name that started with the letter Z because this train was intended to be the "last word" in passenger service; Budd and his coworkers looked up the last words in their dictionaries, but neither zymurgy nor zyzzle conveyed the meanings that Budd was looking for. The name of the new train came from The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
, which Budd had been reading. The story begins with pilgrims setting out on a journey, inspired by the budding springtime and by Zephyrus, the gentle and nurturing west wind. Budd thought that would be an excellent name for a sleek new traveling machine—Zephyr.
In 1932 Ralph Budd met Edward G. Budd
Edward G. Budd
Edward Gowen Budd was an American inventor and businessman.Budd was born in Delaware in 1870. He studied engineering in Philadelphia in 1888, and in 1899 he took his knowledge of pressed steel to the railroad industry...
(no relation), an automotive steel pioneer who was founder and president of the Budd Company
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
. Edward Budd was demonstrating his new carbody construction in a prototype rail motorcar built of stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
. Stainless steel provided many benefits over traditional wood and hardened steel for railroad carbodies; it was a lighter and stronger material, and its natural silver appearance and resistance to corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
meant that it would not have to be painted to protect it from the weather. Since the carbody was much lighter than similar cars, it would be able to carry a higher revenue load for the same cost.
The problem with building stainless steel cars was that nobody could find an adequate way to hold the body together, until the Budd Company patented the shotwelding technique. On August 20, 1932, Earl J. Ragsdale, an engineer at the Budd Company, filed a patent application for a "Method and product of electric welding"; on January 16, 1934, the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
(USPTO) granted US patent 1,944,106 to the Budd Company. Basically, because of the nature of stainless steel, traditional welding
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
methods would unacceptably weaken the metal at the joint. In a spotweld, the two pieces of metal that are to be joined are pressed together at the joint with an electrode
Electrode
An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit...
on each side of the joint. A very high electric current is passed through the joint, which fuses the two pieces of metal together.
Another factor in making the Zephyr lighter than conventional trains was that the individual carbodies in the train share their trucks
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
with adjacent cars. In this design by Budd engineer Walter B. Dean, the train was three articulated compartments. On conventional passenger cars, each carbody rode upon a pair of trucks (wheel/axle assembly), with one truck at each end. The articulation not only reduced the number of trucks under the train, but it also dispensed with the need for couplers
Coupling (railway)
A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
between each of the carbodies, further reducing the train's weight.
The exterior design of the train was left to aeronautical
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
engineer Albert Gardner Dean (Walter Dean's younger brother) who designed the sloping nose shape, with architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
John Harbeson
John Harbeson
John Frederick Harbeson was a Philadelphia architect and a long-time architecture professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a principal in the Philadelphia design firm, Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson, successors to the office of Paul Cret.Harbeson received a B.S...
and industrial designer Paul Philippe Cret
Paul Philippe Cret
Paul Philippe Cret was a French-American architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he headed the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.- Biography :...
devising a way to strengthen and beautify the sides with the train's horizontal fluting. On April 15, 1936, Col. Ragsdale, Walter Dean and Albert Dean, filed patent applications for a "Rail Car Front End Construction". On September 23, 1941 the USPTO granted US patents 2,256,493 and 2,256,494 to the Budd Company.
The first Zephyr was completed by Budd Company on April 9, 1934, powered by an 8-cylinder, 600-horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
(447 kW), 8-201-A model Winton
Winton Motor Carriage Company
The Winton Motor Carriage Company was a pioneer United States automobile manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Winton was one of the first American companies to sell a motor car.-1896:...
engine. Like the diesel-electric locomotives that soon displaced the steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
on American railroads, this engine powered an electrical generator; the electricity it generated was then fed to electric traction motor
Traction motor
Traction motor refers to an electric motor providing the primary rotational torque of a machine, usually for conversion into linear motion ....
s connected to the axles in the train's front truck.
The train's engineer sat in a small compartment in the nose of the train, directly in front of the prime mover
Prime mover (locomotive)
In engineering, a prime mover is an engine that converts fuel to useful work. In locomotives, the prime mover is thus the source of power for its propulsion. The term is generally used when discussing any locomotive powered by an internal combustion engine...
. Behind the engine in the first carbody was a 30 ft (9.1 m) long railway post office
Railway post office
In the United States a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to...
section. The second carbody consisted of a small baggage section and a short buffet and 20-passenger coach section. The third and final carbody in the train, as originally built, was configured as half coach (40-passenger seats) and half observation car
Observation car
An observation car/carriage/coach is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the last carriage, with windows on the rear of the car for passengers' viewing pleasure...
(12 passenger seats). As built, the train had 72 seats and could carry 50,000 pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(22.7 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s) of baggage and express freight. This train's official christening occurred on April 18, 1934, at the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
's Broad Street Station
Broad Street Station (Philadelphia)
Broad Street Station at Broad & Market Streets was the primary passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1881 to the 1950s...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
The Budd Company used the experience learned in building the Zephyr to build similar trains (such as the Flying Yankee
Flying Yankee
The Flying Yankee was a diesel-powered streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation...
) for other railroads, as well as a number of other Zephyrs for the Burlington.
Promotion: "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash
To catch the public's attention, this train was not simply rolled out of the factory for some dignitary to smash a bottle of champagne on its nose; it made a dash from one end of the CB&Q, in Denver, to the other, in Chicago. The railroad spared no expense in planning the operations. All other trains along the ZephyrRail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...
and the turnouts
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
were spiked into the proper alignment for the Zephyr
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
and the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
.
The train left Denver at 7:04 AM Central Daylight Time and arrived in Chicago at 8:09 PM, 13 hours 5 minutes later, at an average speed of 77 mph (124 km/h). For one section of the run, the train reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), close to the world land speed record of 130.6 mph (210.2 km/h) of 1903, which had been achieved in repeated runs on dedicated test track. The non-stop 1,015 mile (1,633 km) trip exceeded the railroad's expectations in being 1 hour 55 minutes faster than was scheduled. Reporters along the route told of the "silver streak" that ran by faster than any other train that normally rode American rails at the time. The Burlington's contemporary passenger trains plied the same distance in around 25 hours.
Riding the train were Ralph Budd, Edward G. Budd, president H. L. Hamilton of the Winton Motor Company (at that time a part of the new General Motors Electro-Motive Division), a number of reporters, some Burlington employees, lucky members of the public, and Zeph, a burro
Burro
The burro is a small donkey used primarily as a pack animal. In addition, significant numbers of feral burros live in the Southwestern United States, where they are protected by law, and in Mexico...
that was contributed by a Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, as a mascot for the train. The newspaper had described Zeph to the railroad as a "Rocky Mountain Canary" so the train's crew had originally planned only enough space for a birdcage; when they found out it wasn't a bird, the railroad hastily built a pen in the baggage section and bought some hay for it. When asked about the burro, Ralph Budd replied "Why not? One more jackass on this trip won't make a difference."
After the train arrived in Chicago, it traveled a little farther to the 1934 Century of Progress
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
fair (noted in some press articles about the dash as the "Chicago World's Fair") where it was put on public display on opening day. After its display on the Wings of a Century stage, the train was taken on a 31-state, 222-city publicity tour. More than 2 million people saw the train before it entered revenue service.
Part of the tour included a test run between Chicago and Minneapolis–St. Paul a full five hours faster than the Burlington's fastest steam-powered train. Due to the Zephyrs success on this test run, the Burlington immediately ordered two more Zephyr trainsets that would be dubbed the Twin Zephyrs; the new trains debuted in April 1935 on this route.
Regular revenue service
The Zephyrs power (leading) car was numbered 9900, the baggage-coach combine carCombine car
A combine car in North American parlance, most often referred to simply as a combine, is a type of railroad car which combines sections for both passengers and freight....
505, and the coach-observation 570. The train was placed in regular service between Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
and Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, on November 11, 1934, replacing a pair of steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s and six heavyweight passenger cars, weighing up to eight times as much as the Zephyr. By June 1935, it proved popular enough to add a fourth car, providing additional coach seating. The fourth car was originally a 40-seat coach number 525, but the following June it was switched to Twin Cities service, then back to the Pioneer Zephyr in December. Car 525 remained on the train until June 1938. Just over five years after it was introduced, the Pioneer Zephyr crossed the one million mile mark in regular service on December 29, 1939, near Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, known until 1852 as Kanesville, Iowathe historic starting point of the Mormon Trail and eventual northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trailsis a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States and is on the east bank of the Missouri River across...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
.
Ralph Budd and the Burlington capitalized on the Zephyrs success. However, most passenger trains needed larger capacity. Thus, as the Burlington made a transition to larger diesel-electric locomotives
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
pulling individual passenger cars, new streamlined cars of standard-size were ordered, which quickly became the standard of many railroads. However, Burlington was determined to be the leader, and ordered its large "E" series
EMD E-unit
EMD E-units were a line of passenger train diesel locomotives built by the General Motors Electro-Motive Division and its predecessor the Electro-Motive Corporation . Final assembly for all E-units was in La Grange, Illinois. Production ran from May, 1937, to December, 1963. The name E-units...
passenger diesels to also be equipped with matching stainless-steel fluting. Many of the Burlington's long distance named passenger trains began operating under the Zephyr banner, including the Nebraska Zephyr
Nebraska Zephyr
The Nebraska Zephyr was a named passenger train of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ....
, Twin Cities Zephyr
Twin Cities Zephyr
The Twin Cities Zephyr was a streamlined passenger train service of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad . It was the second Zephyr service introduced by CB&Q following the record-setting Denver–Chicago "dawn to dusk dash" of the Pioneer Zephyr trainset...
, and perhaps the most famous of the namesake, the California Zephyr
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...
.
On the second anniversary of the train's famous dash, the original Zephyr was rechristened the Pioneer Zephyr to distinguish it as the first of the Burlington's growing Zephyr fleet. In 1938, car 525 was replaced by car number 500, a 40-seat buffet/lounge car, to provide light meals. Car number 505, the baggage-coach combine
Combine car
A combine car in North American parlance, most often referred to simply as a combine, is a type of railroad car which combines sections for both passengers and freight....
, was rebuilt at this time into a full baggage car
Baggage car
A baggage car or luggage van is a type of railway vehicle often forming part of the composition of passenger trains and used to carry passengers' checked baggage, as well as parcels . Being typically coupled at the front of the train behind the locomotive, this type of car is sometimes described...
, but it kept its original windows.
In regular service, the Pioneer Zephyr had its share of accidents. In 1939 it was involved in a head-on collision with a freight train that completely destroyed the cab. The train was rebuilt and re-entered revenue service soon afterward, but the accident strengthened the desire of locomotive designers to move the cab back from the front of the locomotive to above a large nose, as on EMD F-unit
EMD F-unit
EMD F-units were a line of Diesel-electric locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors-Diesel Division. Final assembly for all F-units was at the GM-EMD plant at La Grange, Illinois and the GMDD plant in London, Ontario...
and EMD E-unit
EMD E-unit
EMD E-units were a line of passenger train diesel locomotives built by the General Motors Electro-Motive Division and its predecessor the Electro-Motive Corporation . Final assembly for all E-units was in La Grange, Illinois. Production ran from May, 1937, to December, 1963. The name E-units...
locomotives.
Since the Pioneer Zephyr was built of stainless steel, which is not as recyclable as aluminum
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
, the train was spared from the metal recycling drives of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. By contrast, Union Pacific's M-10000
M-10000
The Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000, delivered to the railroad on February 12, 1934, at a cost of $230,997, was the first internal combustion engine, lightweight streamlined express passenger train in the United States. The carbodies and interior fittings were built by Pullman-Standard...
, built of aluminum, was scrapped in 1942 for the war effort, among other reasons.
In 1948 and 1949, the Pioneer Zephyr was temporarily removed from service to participate in the Chicago Railroad Fair
Chicago Railroad Fair
The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is often referred to as "the last great railroad fair" with 39 railroad companies...
's "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant. The fair's purpose was to celebrate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, and Pioneer Zephyr
Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County....
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Saint Joseph is the second largest city in northwest Missouri, only second to Kansas City in size, serving as the county seat for Buchanan County. As of the 2010 census, Saint Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state. The St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
; the trainset had been in continual service since 1934, operating over nearly 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometres). The Pioneer Zephyr
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, to Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, (along the train's regular revenue route) that then continued to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on March 20, 1960. When Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
took over passenger rail services in 1971, the legendary Zephyr name was preserved, and the California Zephyr is an Amtrak route in the 21st century.
Use in film
Press publicity had apparently first coined the term "Silver Streak". The Pioneer Zephyrs famous Denver-Chicago dash served as the inspiration for the 1934 film The Silver Streak starring Charles StarrettCharles Starrett
Charles Starrett was an American actor best known for his starring role in the Durango Kid Columbia Pictures western series. He was born in Athol, Massachusetts.-Career:...
. In that story, the crew was racing to the Boulder Dam construction site with an iron lung
Iron lung
A negative pressure ventilator is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability....
, with only moments to spare. The original Zephyr trainset was used for the exterior shots in the film, while interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage in Hollywood. For the film, the "Burlington Route" nameplate on the train's nose was replaced with one that read "Silver Streak".
More than 40 years later, that classic film—or at least the name "Silver Streak"—served as the inspiration for a newer film of the same name. Silver Streak (1976) starred Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
and Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
; rather than using the Pioneer Zephyr, the combination murder-mystery and comedy was set in the era in which it was filmed, with the train being patterned more after the modern long-distance train, Amtrak's Southwest Chief
Southwest Chief
The Southwest Chief is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 2256-mile BNSF route through the Midwestern and Southwestern United States. It runs from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, passing through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California...
.
Legacy
On May 26, 1960, the 26th anniversary of the "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash, the original Pioneer Zephyr train (car numbers 9900, 505 and 570) was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science and IndustryMuseum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
The Museum of Science and Industry is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
. Car number 500, which operated with the train from 1938, went along with Mark Twain Zephyr
Mark Twain Zephyr
The Mark Twain Zephyr was an early articulated trainset that was similar to the Pioneer Zephyr in style. The train was built by Budd Company and was powered by a diesel engine produced by the Winton Engine Company. The train was given the name of 'Mark Twain Zephyr' because it was scheduled to...
trainset 9903 to a party in Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Mount Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Henry County, Iowa, in the United States. The population was 8,668 in the 2010 census, a decline from 8,751 in the 2000 census. It was founded in 1835 by pioneer Presley Saunders.- History :...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, for static display in a town park, but plans for the train's display did not work out; car 500 and the Mark Twain Zephyr are currently stored in Chicago and plans are currently underway to display it in Fairfield
Fairfield, Iowa
Fairfield is a city and the county seat of Jefferson County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,464 in the 2010 census, a decline from 9,509 in the 2000 census. - History :...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
.
In Galesburg, Illinois, which is 162 rail miles from Chicago, the local high school
Galesburg High School
Galesburg High School is a public high school in Galesburg, Illinois. Galesburg High School was established in 1861 in downtown Galesburg. It has since moved to Fremont Street on the west side of town...
named all its athletic teams the "Galesburg Silver Streaks" in honor of the train.
The Chicago museum displayed the Pioneer Zephyr outside the museum, with no protection from the weather, until 1994. At that time, the steam locomotive that shared the display space with the Zephyr, Santa Fe
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
#2903, was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum
Illinois Railway Museum
The Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States and is located in Union, Illinois, northwest of Chicago...
, while the Chicago museum prepared a new display location for the Zephyr.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, the pit was finally ready to receive the train. The Pioneer Zephyr train is still on display at the museum just outside the main entrance from the underground parking area for the museum, where it is one of the more popular exhibits.
In addition to the Pioneer Zephyr, two other legacies remain. An operable Nebraska Zephyr
Nebraska Zephyr
The Nebraska Zephyr was a named passenger train of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ....
train was donated to the large Illinois Railway Museum at Union
Union, Illinois
Union is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 580 at the 2010 census, up from 576 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Union is located at ....
, west of Chicago. There, powered by one of the large "E" series
EMD E-unit
EMD E-units were a line of passenger train diesel locomotives built by the General Motors Electro-Motive Division and its predecessor the Electro-Motive Corporation . Final assembly for all E-units was in La Grange, Illinois. Production ran from May, 1937, to December, 1963. The name E-units...
passenger diesels (an EMC E5
EMD E5
The EMD E5 was a , A1A-A1A passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive manufactured by Electro-Motive Corporation, and its corporate successor, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois, and produced exclusively for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , and its...
) with the distinctive and durable stainless-steel fluting, it is still operated on short runs on the Museum's substantial trackage, providing train enthusiasts and tourists with an experience reminiscent of the heyday of the Burlington's Zephyr service. The Silver Charger, power car of the General Pershing Zephyr
General Pershing Zephyr
The General Pershing Zephyr was the ninth of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Zephyr streamliners, and the last built as an integrated streamliner rather than a train hauled by an EMD E-unit diesel locomotive...
, is on display at the Museum of Transportation
Museum of Transportation
The Museum of Transportation of the St. Louis County, Missouri, United States Parks Department is a museum located in the Greater St. Louis area. It was first founded in 1944 by a group of individuals dedicated to preserving the past and has a wide variety of vehicles from American history...
in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
Also utilizing the famous name, the Minnesota Zephyr
Minnesota Zephyr
The Minnesota Zephyr is a heritage railroad operating out of Stillwater, Minnesota. It operates as a dinner train and serves a five-course, white linen dinner on a six-mile route, traveling between four and seven miles per hour. Power is provided by an EMD FP7 locomotive. The rolling stock...
was an elegant dining train located in the historic city of Stillwater
Stillwater, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,143 people, 5,797 households, and 4,115 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,340.0 people per square mile . There were 5,926 housing units at an average density of 915.7 per square mile...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, although it was not directly associated with the historic Burlington Zephyr fleet.
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park features nine roller coasters, other adult and children's rides, and a waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom....
in Allentown
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
has a miniature replica train ride called Zephyr which was built in 1935 and helped the park survive the Great Depression.
Models
Due to the ZephyrRail transport modelling
Railway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale...
have built their own versions of the Pioneer Zephyr in miniature. Several model manufacturers are now producing commercial ready-to-run models or kits of the train for modelers to build. This list is sorted by the manufacturer's release date:
- American FlyerAmerican FlyerAmerican Flyer was a popular brand of toy train and model railroad in the United States in the middle part of the 20th century.- The Chicago era, 1907–1938 :...
produced a ready-to-run Pioneer Zephyr model in S scaleS scaleS Scale is a model railroad scale modeled at 1:64 scale, S scale track gauge is . S gauge trains are manufactured in both DC and AC powered varieties...
(1:64) in 1965. - Challenger Imports imported limited production ready-to-run brass models in HO scaleHO scaleHO or H0 is the most popular scale of model railway in the world.According to the NMRA standard S-1.2 predominantly used in North America, in HO scale, represents 1 real foot ; this ratio works out to about 1:87.1. According to the MOROP standard NEM 010 predominantly used in Europe, the scale is...
(1:87) of the 4-car Pioneer Zephyr, Mark Twain Zephyr and the Boston and Maine RailroadBoston and Maine RailroadThe Boston and Maine Corporation , known as the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1964, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century...
's Maine Cheshire and Maine Minuteman in 1993. - Fine N-Scale Products released a kit in 1996 in N scaleN scaleN scale is a popular model railway scale/track gauge. Depending upon the manufacturer , the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. In all cases, the gauge is . The term N gauge refers to the track dimensions, but in the UK in particular N gauge refers to a 1:148 scale with track gauge modelling...
(1:160) that includes an option for car number 500. - Con-Cor made limited-run models available in both HO scale and N scale that were released in 2005.
- River Raisin Models released a ready-to-run model in S scale of both the Pioneer Zephyr (in three- and four-car configurations) and the similar Flying YankeeFlying YankeeThe Flying Yankee was a diesel-powered streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation...
, in 2005. - MTH Electric TrainsMTH Electric TrainsMTH Electric Trains, formerly Mike's Train House, is an American toy train and model railroad designer, importer, and manufacturer, based in Columbia, Maryland...
released a limited production ready-to-run model of the three-car Pioneer Zephyr in O scaleO scaleO scale is a scale commonly used for toy trains and model railroading. Originally introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scale in the United States and remained so until the early 1960s...
(1:48) in 2005. - In 2007, Fisher-PriceFisher-PriceFisher-Price is a company that produces toys for infants and children, headquartered in East Aurora, New York. Fisher-Price has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel since 1993.-History:...
released an engine called "Knight" for their GeoTrax Rail & Road System that is clearly inspired by the Zephyr.
See also
- Flying YankeeFlying YankeeThe Flying Yankee was a diesel-powered streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation...
—A very similar streamlined trainset that operated on the Boston and Maine Railroad; it is undergoing restoration to operating condition as of 2006. - Nebraska ZephyrNebraska ZephyrThe Nebraska Zephyr was a named passenger train of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ....
—Another of Burlington's Zephyr fleet, one example of which is preserved at the Illinois Railway MuseumIllinois Railway MuseumThe Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States and is located in Union, Illinois, northwest of Chicago...
. - "Fliegender Hamburger" ("Flying Hamburger")—a German diesel trainset entering service in 1933, performing regularly at speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h).
- StreamlinerStreamlinerA streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
- High-speed train
Further reading
Chronicle of the rise of diesel power on the Burlington with specific emphasis on the Pioneer Zephyr, its record-setting run, and its descendants. The author of this book was a passenger aboard the "Dawn-to-Dusk" run in 1934.External links
- All Aboard the Silver Streak: Pioneer Zephyr, image and exhibit of the Pioneer Zephyr at the Chicago Museum of Science and IndustryMuseum of Science and Industry (Chicago)The Museum of Science and Industry is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
- Zephyr Patents—PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
reproductions of the patents developed for construction of the Pioneer Zephyr. - Illinois Railway Museum official website—Home of many more Burlington artifacts, including the Nebraska ZephyrNebraska ZephyrThe Nebraska Zephyr was a named passenger train of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad ....
trainset. - Pioneer Zephyr images, Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
- "New Streamline Train Has Hit 125-Mile Speed" Popular Science, July 1934