Could someone who is an expert on the Q's Zephyrs (or someone who has more reference books than I ) help with the following questions? I need to know the dates when the following Zephyrs were inaugurated, if they used articulated cars at the outset, and what their original motive power was: Denver Zephyr Sam Houston Zephyr Ozark State Zephyr Ak Sar Ben Zephyr Zephyr-Rocket Texas Zephyr Kansas City Zephyr I know that changes were made in some services as time went on, what I need here is the original date and equipment. Thanks in advance for any help! Mark
Hemi, yes its a real train (Nebraska spelled backwards)...Burlingtonroute.com lists it as providing service between Lincoln and Chicago, but no other info, its also mentioned on several other web sites, but none give a starting date or much detail about the equipment used.
Found this so far. Denver Zephyr: Inaugurated November 8, 1936, with power unit 9906A Silver King (1800 HP) Budd/EMD built, power unit 9906B Silver Queen (1200 HP) Booster, Budd/EMD built. Mix of some two car articulated sets and some non-articulated cars. Sam Houston Zephyr: Inaugurated October 1936, with power unit 9901. Former Twin Zephyr with extra 40-seat Coach #525 added June 1938 to the all articulated trainset. Wrecked December 1944 and replaced with E5 and non articulated trainset. Ozark State Zephyr: Inaugurated December 1936 with power unit 9902. Former Twin Zephyr articulated trainset. Sold to Rock Island to become Texas Rocket November 1938. This ran on the Burlington Rock Island Joint Line between Dallas and Houston running the opposite direction from the SHZ. 60-seat Coach #100 added in June 1939. Became Chicago Ottumwa Hannibal September 1945. [ July 06, 2005, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: r_i_straw ]
Here is a cool web site with more information on the Zephyrs. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/streamliners/gallery/1.html Some of the dates don't match up exactly as the ones given in W. David Randall's book, The Passenger Car LibraryVol. 1 CB&Q [ July 06, 2005, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: r_i_straw ]
Thanks to all, esp. Mr. Straw, for the info... its filled in a few gaps! And george, thanks for the pic. I was at the museum last week when I was in chicago for a conference...a great place. I am amazed that it is ALL done with volunteers. If memory serves, that is the sole surviving E5.
Those E5's sure are classy with slant noses, stainless fluting, and dual 567's under hood.... Ain't nothing in the world sounds like a 567.... Man, I miss those.
Yup, they had a very unique sound. A funny story about that. In 1994 the NRHS chapter I belong to ran an excursion over the old MKT line between Houston and Smithville using the UP E units and excursion train. I was standing in a photo line with a gaggle of rail fans for a photo runby. As the train roared by, the guy next to me said something like, "I sure love the sound of those double 567 diesels." I didn't have the heart to tell him that UP rebuilt their three Executive Es with the guts out of GP-38s and they now only had one prime mover each. This one still has two. The Gold Coast Museum in Florida picked it up when BN was dumping all their old commuter power in Chicago and had the rail shop in San Antonio restore it. Sure was purdy.
The Ak sar ben Zephyr was the eastbound counterpart to the Nebraska Zephyr. It was light weight non articulated set (1 set articulated, the other not.)
