The ''Denver Zephyr'' was a
streamlined passenger train
A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...
operated by the
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 Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
between
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, and
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. In peak years it ran to Colorado Springs. It operated from 1936 to 1973. The ''Denver Zephyr'' continued operating after the
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a Mergers and acquisitions, merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996.
Its historical lineage begins in the e ...
merger in 1970. BN conveyed the train to
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
in 1971; Amtrak merged it with the Denver–Oakland ''
City of San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
'' to form the ''
San Francisco Zephyr'' and dropped the "Denver" name in 1973.
The first Denver Zephyrs
The first Zephyr service to Denver began May 31, 1936, with the trainsets of the ''
Pioneer Zephyr'' and the ''
Mark Twain Zephyr
The ''Mark Twain Zephyr'' was an early diesel four-unit articulated zephyr train that was similar to the ''Pioneer Zephyr'' in style. The train was built by the Budd Company and was powered by a diesel engine produced by the Winton Engine Comp ...
'', trains 9900 and 9903. This new service was known as the ''Advance Denver Zephyr'' and operated on a 16-hour schedule. The trains did not have sleepers, but introduced hostesses called "
Zephyrette
A Zephyrette was a hostess on the ''California Zephyr'' between 1949 and 1970, while the train was jointly operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and the Western Pacific Railroad. T ...
s".
In the meantime, after the success of the 3-car and 4-car ''Pioneer Zephyr'', ''
Twin Zephyr
The ''Twin Zephyrs'', also known as the ''Twin Cities Zephyrs'', were a pair of streamlined passenger trains on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), running between Chicago and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minne ...
s'', and ''Mark Twain Zephyr''s, the Burlington had ordered two pairs of longer stainless steel streamliners from the
Budd Company
The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products ...
. One pair was fully articulated 6-car trainsets used to replace the 3-car ''Twin Cities Zephyrs''. The other pair were 10-car trainsets, partly articulated, which became the Chicago-Denver ''Denver Zephyr''. Accommodations on these trains included
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
es, sections, single and double rooms, and dining and lounge facilities. The
observation car
An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a platform on the rear of th ...
s carried parlor seats for local travel.
On October 23, 1936, one of the new ten-car trainsets made a special run nonstop Chicago to Denver in an effort to break the 1934 record of the ''Pioneer Zephyr'' between the two cities. The train went from Chicago to Denver in 12 hours, 12 minutes, and 27 seconds, at start-to-stop average of and reached between Akron and Brush in Colorado. Distance was given as via
Plattsmouth
Plattsmouth is a city and county seat of Cass County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 6,502 at the 2010 census.
History
The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed the mouth of the Platte River, just north of what is now Main Street Pla ...
direct to
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
, bypassing
Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
on the regular route of the train. The new trainsets went into regular service 16 days later, November 8, 1936, replacing the trainsets used on the route since May.
Power for the new trainsets came from the
General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. Each was led by a twin-engine forerunner to the E series featuring two Winton V-12 201-A diesels of each, articulated to a booster with one V-16 of for a total rating of 3000. These were bodied by
Budd in shotwelded stainless steel, and designated 9906A/B "Silver King and Silver Queen" and 9907A/B "Silver Knight/Silver Princess".
The train ran between Denver and Chicago overnight in 16 to 16½ hours. Within two years a dinette coach and an all-room sleeper were added.
The trainsets were refurbished in the winter of 1948–49 and operated in DZ service until October 1956 when they were reassigned to the Denver–Fort Worth/Dallas ''
Texas Zephyr'' route on Burlington subsidiaries
Colorado and Southern
The Colorado and Southern Railway was an American Class I railroad in the western United States that operated independently from 1898 to 1908, then as part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until it was absorbed into the Burli ...
and
Fort Worth and Denver Railway
The Fort Worth and Denver Railway , nicknamed "the Denver Road", was a class I American railroad company that operated in the northern part of Texas from 1881 to 1982, and had a profound influence on the early settlement and economic development ...
s.
File:Denver Zephyr dining car 1940.JPG, Dining car in 1940.
File:Denver Zephyr lounge 1940.JPG, 1940 lounge car.
File:Chicago Burlington and Quincy Denver Zephyr Silver King.JPG, A colorized
Film colorization (American English; or colourisation [British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia tone, sepia, or other monochrome moving-pi ...
postcard showing a Silver King locomotive pulling 13 cars on the Burlington Route's Denver Zephyr (before 1956)
The second Denver Zephyr
Around 1953
Union Pacific began reequipping its competing ''
City of Denver
Denver () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States#State capital, capital, and List of municipalities in Colorado#, most populous city of th ...
''. In addition, the Burlington,
Denver and Rio Grande Western
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...
, and
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
s had replaced their heavyweight Chicago-Oakland ''
Exposition Flyer'' with a new streamlined ''
California Zephyr
The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overal ...
'' carrying Vista-domes in 1949. Both of these trains took passengers from the DZ, but ridership remained respectable. But the train's consist — semi-articulated with a unique braking, steam connection system that was incompatible with other standard equipment — meant that cars could not be added to the train proper, but had to be added ahead of the
baggage car
A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passen ...
or as a separate section. These cars needed their own food service, compromising the economics of adding the additional cars. The Burlington decided in 1955 to reequip the train with more conventional non-articulated equipment. Thus was conceived the last complete streamlined train to be built for a private railroad in the United States.
The new stainless steel train, also built by the Budd Company, offered all room sleeping accommodations and, in addition to a full diner, offered a Vista-dome coffee shop car called the ''Chuckwagon''. Parlor seats continued to be available in the observation car. Because of the popularity of the Denver-Chicago segment of the Vista-dome ''California Zephyr'', the new train also carried Vista-Domes. In addition, a new all room sleeping accommodation, the
slumbercoach
The Slumbercoach is an 85-foot-long, 24 single room, eight double room streamlined sleeping car. Built in 1956 by the Budd Company for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad for service on the ''Denver Zephyr'', subsequent orders were placed ...
, offered private sleeping facilities, with in-room washstand and toilet, to passengers at coach fares plus a small surcharge. These cars were revolutionary in their use of fiberglass room modules. Each train carried two and they always were sold out, even up to the beginning of Amtrak. By 1959 slumbercoaches would appear on the trains of four other railroads, although three would later give them up. Between 1959 and late 1964, CB&Q's four cars and
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
’s four cars were pooled in ''Denver Zephyr'' / ''
North Coast Limited'' service. The pool required tight scheduling and good timekeeping and was discontinued when NP acquired eight additional slumbercoaches second-hand.
Even though only 18 of these revolutionary cars were built new, they remained popular, even after operation of rail passenger service was assumed by Amtrak, and carried passengers until the mid-1990s, when age and changes in passenger car requirements forced their retirement.
The second ''Denver Zephyr'' began operation at the end of October 1956 and soon eclipsed its competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad's ''
City of Denver
Denver () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States#State capital, capital, and List of municipalities in Colorado#, most populous city of th ...
''. As the train now had conventional equipment it could be expanded with other cars of Burlington streamlined passenger car fleet as well as leased cars. During the summer months trains of 20 or more cars were not uncommon and during that and holiday seasons, the train often split into two sections.
With the 1956 reequipping the train also began to serve
Colorado Springs. Sandwiched between the diner and the Chuckwagon, the section consisted of a coach, a slumbercoach, and a sleeper. These cars ran on the Denver and Rio Grande Railway's ''Royal Gorge'' passenger train between Denver and Colorado Springs.
Initially, the Chuckwagon operated with the section on to Colorado Springs, but, by the mid-1960s, to allow a longer service time between runs, the car ran only to Denver and a dome coach was substituted for the Chicago-Colorado Springs coach. On January 1, 1967, the Colorado Springs section was replaced by a bus connection.
Though the number of cars were reduced during the off-season, the train ran mostly intact until September 7, 1968, when the Chuckwagon became seasonal and the observation car, with its flat end and rear-diaphragm, became a midtrain lounge during the off season. The train name was retained by Amtrak in May 1971.
One consist of Denver Zephyr cars was sold to the
Saudi Railways Organization,
[ ] where it operated and subsequently went into storage in a yard in Eastern Saudi Arabia.
The Zephyr under Amtrak
Amtrak took over in 1971 and decided to run the ''Denver Zephyr'' daily between Chicago and Denver. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway declined to join Amtrak, so the tri-weekly Union Pacific/
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
''
City of San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
'' was diverted from
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...
into Denver for combination with the ''Zephyr'' to Chicago. During the summer of 1971 the ''City'' and the ''Zephyr'' ran as separate sections (on the same schedule) between Denver and Chicago; after that summer the two trains were combined on the days the ''City'' ran. Amtrak renamed the ''City of San Francisco'' the ''
San Francisco Zephyr'' on June 11, 1972. The ''Denver Zephyr'' name disappeared altogether on October 26, 1973. For several years afterward the ''San Francisco Zephyr'' carried Chicago–Denver cars.
See also
Comparable streamliners of the era also serving Denver and Colorado Springs from the Midwest:
* ''
Rocky Mountain Rocket
The ''Rocky Mountain Rocket'' was a Streamliner, streamlined passenger train of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Rock Island's train numbers 7 and 8 ran between Chicago's LaSalle Street Station and Denver, CO, Denver's Union Station ...
'' —
Rock Island Railroad
* ''
Colorado Eagle'' —
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...
Notes
References
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External links
1957 Denver Zephyr schedule at Streamliner Schedules
{{Former Amtrak routes
Passenger rail transportation in Colorado
Passenger rail transportation in Illinois
Passenger rail transportation in Iowa
Passenger rail transportation in Nebraska
Passenger trains of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Transportation in Denver
Midwestern United States
Named passenger trains of the United States
Night trains of the United States
Articulated passenger trains
Former Amtrak routes
Railway services introduced in 1936
Railway services discontinued in 1973
Former long distance Amtrak routes