Great trains have long lives. The Flying Scotsman is close to 150 years. The Cornish Riviera, over 120. The Broadway lasted over 80. The 20th Century Limited, 65. Canada’s Canadian is still going strong at 70. But in its original incarnation, the California Zephyr lasted only 21. So how can it be on the list of rail’s greatest hits? Three reasons.
Firstly, the route. Over two days and nights, across prairies, through canyons, over (and through) mountains, on a timetable that maximised the impact of the scenery rather than sought to meet the schedule of business passengers, to San Francisco, California and the Pacific, still the destination of dreamers the world over.
Second, the name. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (the Burlington Route, and now the B in the mega BNSF system) was the first to offer the streamlined trains that took America by storm in the 1930s, and used the inspired Zephyr brand to raise them above mere trains. California and Zephyr together – well, wow!
Finally, the train itself. Up to fifteen aluminium and stainless steel cars oozing luxury and exclusivity, sprinkled generously with domes and an observation car at the rear, hauled by the colourful EMD diesels of the Burlington and its partners the Denver and Rio Grande Western and the Western Pacific (WP), making a shining silver snake through the landscape.
Let’s look at these elements in turn.
Chicago has always been the railroad hub of north America, and from the 1930s to the 1970s the system was at its height. Railroads ran to Chicago from every direction, but not through – it was the western terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio; Pennsylvania; Chesapeake and Ohio; New York Central, and many more; and the eastern of the Burlington Route; Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul and Pacific; Chicago and North Western; and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; and, of course, of the Aitcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe. The Burlington linked Chicago to the Twin Cities (competing with the Milwaukee and the North Western, and connecting to the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific), and to Denver, competing with the Rock Island and the Union Pacific across Nebraska, Kansas and westwards. An impressive network, with the great slogan ‘Everywhere West’.
At Denver, the mile high city at the foot of the Rockies, the Burlington linked to the Denver and Rio Grande Western, the ‘Mainline through the Rockies’. Through the Rockies means ten tunnels in 20 miles as the line heads out of Denver and up to the 6.2 mile long Moffat Tunnel at 9,200ft above sea level, which makes possible a direct main line through Colorado into Utah to Salt Lake City, and a junction with both the Southern Pacific (the western half of the original Overland Route from Omaha to Sacramento) and later rival Western Pacific, operating on an alternative route to San Francisco via the spectacular Feather River Canyon.
This became the 2,525 mile route of the California Zephyr, competing with the Super Chief of the Santa Fe and the ‘City’ trains of the Union Pacific and its allies the Southern Pacific and Milwaukee Road. On the CZ’s schedule, passengers left Chicago in time for cocktails and dinner before enjoying an overnight cruise over the flatlands of Illinois and Nebraska; arrived in Denver after breakfast and then headed up into the Rockies for a day of spectacular mountains; then a night crossing the Utah and Nevada deserts before the Feather River Canyon led the train down to the Bay at Oakland. It’s hard to think of many more dramatic rail journeys – the Canadian comes close, but the Overland Route and the Santa Fe were on routes designed to avoid the mountains!
And the Zephyrs? Where did these beauties come from? They were a child of the Great Depression, as a response to the collapse of long distance passenger traffic after 1929 – a fall of over half in the west. And, as the economy slowly recovered, the car became a practical option. Old fashioned, slow and dirty steam trains were not going to cut it any more. Europe turned to streamlined steam; but America went further, to a new technology.
Enter the unrelated Ralph Budd and Edward Budd. Ralph was president of the Burlington, and looking for something to save his passenger business. Ed was the founder of the Budd company, producing the first all steel automobile bodies and increasingly keen to use stainless steel for its lightweight and strength. Budd had developed a railcar running on pneumatic tyres, which, while not successful, showed the potential of the body construction, especially once Budd had patented shotwelding, which allows stainless steel to be welded without distortion or loss of strength. Ralph saw the concept, and took it to General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division (EMD) to find a power unit – the 600 hp Winton 201A diesel. Bingo!
In April 1934, the Pioneer Zephyr appeared and took America by storm. It was a three-car unit, with bogies (trucks) articulated between the cars to save more weight, a driving cab at the front and an observation car at the rear, in a new and distinctive streamlined style and finished in unpainted stainless steel. Nothing like it had been seen on the rails before.
The Pioneer Zephyr was exactly that – an experimental pioneer. The Burlington sent it on a publicity tour (beating the Union Pacific’s aluminium M10000 from Pullman-Standard, a very similar concept, by 2 months), including a record breaking 1,015 mile sprint from Denver to Chicago (the longest run possible on the Burlington) at an average of 77 mph, approximately twice as fast as contemporary steam hauled trains. The die was cast – diesel powered lightweight streamlined trains in stainless steel or aluminium were the way forward for the railroads.
The Burlington quickly developed a network of Zephyrs across its system, linking Chicago to Milwaukee, the Twin Cities and Denver, and all points in between. The Burlington also cooperated with the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific to operate the Empire Builder and North Coast Limited respectively to the Pacific North West via the Twin Cities. The other railroads soon caught up, with Union Pacific running trains using a ‘City of’ theme to LA, San Francisco and the northwest, and Santa Fe creating streamlined versions of the longstanding Chief and Super Chief for its route to LA via New Mexico and Arizona.
All these services sought to deliver their passengers to their destinations quickly as possible at convenient times. But the final Zephyr would upend this railroad instinct, and deliver passengers to the scenery at the best time to see it – the model now used by cruise trains across the world.
The California Zephyr broke cover in March 1949, replacing the Exposition Flyer which had run since the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939. This is the first eastbound service. Six trainsets, each of 10 cars, were built by Budd, funded and owned by the Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific in proportion to their share of the route.
Did I mention dome cars? The first dome car was built by the Burlington in 1945, reputedly after GM engineer Cyrus Osborn travelled on the Rio Grande through Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, in a caboose and had the inspiration to develop a passenger car that gave the same 360 degree panorama – which became the first of the Burlington’s Vista-Domes. By 1949, they were well enough established for the California Zephyr to have an unmatched 5 domes in its standard 10 car consist – and the CZ was the first transcontinental train to feature them. Seats in the dome were unreserved – you bought a sleeping car berth from a choice of a double bedroom, a roomette, or a traditional section, and moved to the dome car and the diner through the day. No ordinary coach seats on the CZ!
The centre section of a dome car is effectively double deck, with observation seats above – perhaps featuring a guide (a Zephyrette, no less), or steward offering drinks, and, on some Union Pacific trains, the chance to dine under the stars.
Below would be a bar or coffee shop, or perhaps dining seats.
By 1949, EMD had moved on from the experimental Zephyr power car to the 2,000 hp E6, 2,250 hp E7 and 2,400 hp E8 that were the American standard express passenger diesel and which Paul described so well here. Known to railfans as ‘covered wagons’, from the resemblance to the horse drawn wagons that first crossed the Prairie a century before, and famous for their distinctive ‘bulldog’ nose, these had 2 six wheeled bogies and came in A and B versions – the A had a driving cab at one end, the B was just a power unit. The Burlington used these in sets of up to 4 units (usually arranged A-B-B-A) for its streamliners.
The Rio Grande and the Western Pacific stuck with EMD’s F units, of 1,800 hp and 2 four wheel bogies. Originally intended for freight service (at which they excelled – they drove steam off the mainlines of America by 1960), the lower gearing and higher adhesion factor (as all axles were powered – the E had an unpowered centre axle on each bogie) made it suitable for heavy passenger trains in the mountains when equipped with a train heating boiler.
As the same basic diesel spread to dozens of railroads, the railroads and EMD invested imagination and effort in differentiating their appearance through flamboyant liveries. Burlington, as the pioneer, stuck to plain silver, with red highlights and fluting on the sides of the units to match the cars; Rio Grande had a dramatic gold and silver scheme with dramatic ‘speed lettering’ while Western Pacific preferred orange and silver in a variety of schemes. And as the CZ was the pride of the railroads, you could expect the power to be smart – and the train ran through carwashes at Denver and at Portola on the Western Pacific on each trip, to keep the dome windows clean for the scenery.
But it couldn’t last. By the early 1960s, even a fully loaded CZ was lossmaking, and the WP in particular (the smallest and weakest of the partner railroads) wanted out. It applied for consent to abandon the service from the ICC in 1966, but was denied – the Commission referred to the CZ as ‘a unique national asset’. Eventually, persistence paid off, and consent to end the train west of Ogden was granted, effective March 1970.
Here we see the proud crew of the last service to arrive in Oakland.
The Burlington and Rio Grande were stuck with having to operate three times a week between Chicago and Ogden, running as the California Service and the Rio Grande Zephyr respectively, and connecting with the Southern Pacific. However, the birth of Amtrak in 1971 led to the San Francisco Zephyr, running via Denver and Cheyenne, replacing the Burlington train, while the Rio Grande held out from the nationalised service until 1983.
The Rio Grande’s change of heart allowed Amtrak to reinstate a through train from Chicago to Denver, then over the Rio Grande to Ogden and the SP to San Francisco, which it promptly named California Zephyr, and survives to this day. But it lacks the ambition, style and drama of the original.
And as the railroads turned themselves into freight only businesses through the 1960s and 1970s, with passenger trains disappearing across America, so they consolidated. In 1970, the Burlington joined the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific as Burlington Northern; a merger with the Santa Fe in 1995 created what is now known as BNSF. In 1981, the WP became part of the Union Pacific system; the Rio Grande took over the SP in 1988, but used the SP name for the merged operation until it too was absorbed in to UP in 1996, which also included the former Chicago and North Western.
So, yes, you can still see America by passenger train. But for 20 years you could go one better, and see America from the California Zephyr. Who wouldn’t want to?
I have ridden on a train twice in my life, but never a breathtaking/scenic trip like that route.
First time was in kindergarten, the class took the train 10-15 miles to the farm of our teacher for a class picnic.
Second was Harrisburg to Chicago for Navy boot camp. I was amazed at how bumpy and jarring that trip was…I expected the train to derail at any moment.
Paul, I was privileged to ride the California Zephyr three times in early 1970, shortly after arriving at Beale AFB. The train stopped at Marysville. Marysville/Yuba City, aka the twin cities, were outside the base.
The train station was up across the street from the Greyhound depot, which looks as shabby today as it was 50 years ago!
Although I only rode the CZ to and from Sacramento, the conductor always seated the “shorts” in one of the 5 Vista Domes. Not all that scenic of a 45 minute trip across rice paddies and such, it was great just the same!
Incidentally, my fare for the CZ was $1.57 r/t vs. $2.10 r/t for the bus.
The train station is still there, but Amtrak’s CZ doesn’t go through Marysville. The WP station in Sacramento is now an Old Spaghetti Factory now!
My very first train ride was on the Wabash Bluebird – a deluxe domeliner in 1959 or so from Delmar station in STL to Decatur, IL and back in the one year I suffered as a cub scout. That ride plus two campouts were the only high points of that experience.
As for the CZ, it sadly came to an end in March that year. I had planned on taking it to Chicago when going home on leave later that year.
I wish passenger trains could be privatized again if they could figure out a way to make them profitable. Amtrak does the best ti can under the circumstances, and I take the train whenever possible. They are me preferred mode of travel.
“I wish passenger trains could be privatized again…”
Yeah, that worked so well in the UK.
“I wish passenger trains could be privatized again if they could figure out a way to make them profitable.”
And that is the key, right there. For nearly all railroads passenger service was a money losing operation that was subsidized by the freight business. As soon as the ICC would let them railroads pulled the plug on passenger operations in order to focus on freight service. The L&N railroad actually terminated passenger trains while some of them were on the road; as I understand it the passengers were given vouchers to ride a bus the rest of the way, and good luck to them.
Some of the costs of passenger service was subsidized by government contracts to haul the mail. When these contracts were reassigned to airlines it was one more nail in the passenger train coffin.
I don’t have any answers for this; I have ridden trains (well, the metro/subway/El) in big cities where it was convenient and that was usually much better than driving and finding somewhere to park the car. This works great as long as the train is going from where you are to where you want to be. The issue, at least for me, is having to travel some distance in order to get on the train. If that is the case riding the train loses much of its charm.
For nearly all railroads passenger service was a money losing operation that was subsidized by the freight business.
That’s true to an increasing extent in the post war years, but prior to that, passenger trains were a big source of profit for the railroads. That was actually the primary impetus in the early days of the railroad building days, the profits from passenger trains. And that applied to subways, streetcars, buses, and all modes of transit.
What changed?
In the US, the switch to cars combined with the growing labor expense. Before the war, there were no pensions or disability insurance or health insurance and other secondary labor costs. Plus the booming economy of the post war years meant that real wages increased strongly.
This has made all modes of transit (other than airlines) impossible to operate without either government subsidies or outright ownership. And that goes for Europe too.
In some poorly developed third-world countries, for profit transit still exists, in the form of jitneys, mini-buses, taxis, etc..But as these countries develop, public-supported mass transit inevitably becomes a necessity.
The airline industry, which was notoriously unprofitable for almost its whole existence until in recent years is now profitable because a lot of competition has been eliminated, and the airplanes are full, and there are federal subsidies like the FAA and such.
There are fro-profit trains, but strictly tourist undertakings that take advantage of the existing infrastructure. Frankly, to a large extent outside of the NE Corridor and a few other high-density routes, most of Amtrak’s trains are there for tourists, not for functional transit.
Just that happened in Canada. In 1988, VIA established an all-daylight excursion service from Calgary to Vancouver. After their budgets were slashed in 1990, VIA sold the rights to private interests, and what we now know as the Rocky Mountaineer still runs, profitably.
It still runs, with greatly expanded service and renewed rolling stock, though it is very much a summer season tourist service. Key to its success has been that it’s structured as a tourist excursion experience – more like a cruise – and not transportation. There are MUCH faster and cheaper ways to cover the ground this train covers, and most of its route is doubled by highways (including sections like Rogers Pass where the train runs through a tunnel).
Reminds me of the Taggert Transcontinental COMET.
Thanks for a wonderful article. It really communicates the feeling of romance, adventure and excitement that colored passenger rail travel. All sadly before my time, and as I have read, these trans continental routes were quite pricey. Well out of reach of my family while I was growing up. Lately I’ve seen some ads about some Canadian Rockies train travel. I guess that I still have a chance, but I better cough up the dough and go! And soon.
I greatly enjoyed this well-written and well-researched article. Thanks.
On the California Zephyr’s locomotives: Denver and Rio Grande Western did it differently at first. Theirs was the most mountainous and steepest route.
In Diesel-electric locomotives, as in cars, horsepower gets things done fastet. But torque provides pulling power in cars; in locomotives, it’s electrical energy, which is quantified by amperage in the traction motors. In the late 1940s, ElectroMotive (General Motors) catalogued no passenger locomotives with more than four traction motors per locomotive unit. Their specification called for derating of the motors with a train of the Zephyr’s weight on the Rio Grsnde’s grades. Rio Grande did not want to buy an extra locomotive to overcome this limitation.
The in-house EMD motor was an adaptation of an old General Electric design. GE had a new motor rated at higher amperage but would not supply it to EMD/GM because it had entered the Diesel locomotive business in partnership with American Locomotive Company…ALCo..
The ALCo-GE passenger locomotive also had four traction motors but with their higher amperage rating, did not have to be derated. So Rio Grande bought the ALCo-GE locomotive instead of EMD, as its Zephyr partners did.
Unfortunately the ALCo systems… the Diesel engine, cooling system, controls, turbocharger and other appurtenances, were not as reliable as the GE electricals. They gave troubles but Rio Grande had made its point. After a few years they went back to EMD, which by then had finally upgraded their traction motor. The new EMDs re-equipped the California Zephyr; the ALCo-GE units were reassigned to less-hilly routes and shorter trains.
“the train ran through carwashes at Denver and at Portola on the Western Pacific on each trip, to keep the dome windows clean for the scenery.”
I wish Amtrak would revive this practice. A few years ago I took the Coast Starlight from Sacramento to Santa Barbara, a route with scenery that rivals if not surpasses that of the California Zephyr, at least on the section south of Paso Robles. I claimed a seat in the observation car as we left Paso Robles and watched the scenery go by as we descended the Cuesta Grade and then ran right along the Pacific coast. But my god, the windows were so dirty photography was pretty much impossible. But I’m sure such things as washing the cars are beyond Amtrak’s budget.
Thanks for this look at one of the most romantic trains in the US. I would have loved to take it in its heyday.
LOVE this! More train stories appreciated…steamships also.
Thanks for this history. I’d of the CZ, but never appreciated its history.
I actually rode on the California Zephyr twice. Once in 1966 with my dad from Oakland to Denver, where we were met by my mom and sister, who had driven from California. And then a second shorter journey, Oakland to Stockton and back. Believe it or not that shorter trip was a birthday party for one of my elementary school classmates. I remember the kid’s name, though were not friends and I don’t really know why I was invited, but I can’t remember they year. It must have been very close to the time I rode the train to Denver with my dad. The Oakland to Stockton route wasn’t very exciting; the longer trip had some spectacular moments, especially in the Rockies.
I didn’t realize the original CZ stopped in Stockton. Did it take the route the ACE trains currently take?
ACE follows the CZ route from Niles to Stockton. When I lived in San Jose, I always wanted to take a ride on ACE to do a “mini-recreation” of a Zephyr trip but the inconvenience of getting out to Stockton by 5 in the morning or finding a way back to San Jose at night stopped me every time.
VIA still runs a service called “The Canadian,” but it’s not really considered to be the same as what the CPR originally established in 1955. When started, and inspired by the CZ, The Canadian ran from Toronto and Montreal (in separate sections, combining in Sudbury), via Winnipeg, Calgary & Banff, to Vancouver, completing the trip in 3 nights. But due to lagging ridership and losses, in 1990 VIA shifted the Budd streamliners to the more northerly CN route through Edmonton & Jasper, essentially renaming the old “SuperContinental” as the “Canadian.” This new train ran on a reduced schedule of only 3 times/week (twice a week in the offseason). In 2007 the schedule was changed again, so the trip is now completed in 4 nights (much like the old, slower Dominion train that the Canadian had originally replaced).
Because the scenery on the northern route is less dramatic, this is not really considered to be the “same” Canadian.
I rode the California Zephyr from Oakland to Chicago in 1969 as part of a family vacation. The scenery was spectacular. I would stand at the front windshield of the dome car and take it all in. Sometimes I’d sit at the very rear of the train – that tapered streamlined lounge car – and watch the ribbon of rails spool out behind me.
I’ve travelled by train across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver – CP route to Calgary and CN from Jasper to Vancouver- and across the northern USA from Seattle to New York. I also rode the Denver Zephyr from Denver to Chicago by myself. All before the age of 14. I got a sense of the breadth and beauty of the country that is not apparent from the air.
Thanks for this article. It brought back some wonderful memories.
Thank you for your work, you’ve given me an enjoyable & enlightening read.
Thanks, BP, for this enjoyable read. In my experience passenger trains in the US after 1929 was just one long, slow deterioration with the exception of a temporary uptick during WWII. Buses were cheap, airplanes were fast and cars were convenient. Trains offered none of these things unless priced too low to make a profit.
I never took a train west but took 2 or 3 trips on the old Pennsylvania RR/Penn Central from Indiana to Philadelphia between maybe 1965-69. The cars were old but for a kid it was great fun. I would love to do a tourist rail excursion sometime. But what little passenger service still runs in the central US the trains are few and schedules are inconvenient.
Thanks for this informative and enjoyable article.
Thanks, Mr Paws (or is it Mr Big?). Most evocative presentation.
As a ’70’s kid, I had an old Lucius Beebe hardback tome called Trains In Transition, from the early ’40’s. The plate b&w photos of these US brontosaurus beasts in steam, and the stainless clear-domed replacements of the future – already the past when I read it – caught my dreaming forever. One day, I will ride in a dome car, cocktail in hand, above a great rockslid ravine, just like in that book and in these photos.
Great work, and I will sleep well now.
I have always wanted to ride/experience the Zephyr train and the pre-war Pan Am Clipper airliner.
Both were too early for me, darn it all.
I can see why, in the age of cheap flight, trains cannot be competitive as simply a mode of travel from one place to another over long distances (trains win if the flight is shorter than 2 hours) but I’m surprised no one thought about reviving the Zephyr for tourists. There is no conceptual difference between it and any cruise ship operation and those are profitable.
“Reminds me of the Taggert Transcontinental COMET”
As found in “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. I am part of the way through it at this time.
The Pioneer Zephyr wasn’t strictly experimental, and spent a good deal of time as a four car train. It entered operation between Kansas City and Lincoln, Nebraska via Council Bluffs and Omaha. It remained in revenue service until 1960.
The Burlington never served Milwaukee. It did serve Minneapolis.
Precursors to the Zephyrs did use rubber tires, but they were solid, not pneumatic. They weren’t successful.
The Union Pacific M-10000 predated the Pioneer Zephyr, but initially was not diesel powered. It was equipped with an unsuccessful Winton 191-A spark engine burning distillate, which was replaced by a 201-A straight eight diesel like the Zephyr’s before the trainset entered service.
The United States produced a great many streamlined steam engines, some built that way, others converted. In fairness, Germany was also introducing streamlined, diesel powered trains in this same time period.
There were railroads dieselizing at the same time as the Burlington. Both the Union Pacific (in partnership with the C&NW and SP) and the Santa Fe got 1800 horsepower locomotives at the same time. The latter’s Super Chief was not a longstanding service; it was introduced with diesel power in 1936 and streamlined the next year. This operated on an impressive 2227 mile route which crossed the Mojave Desert. That road also introduced an articulated, spark distillate powered power car in 1931, though it was not streamlined.
The first dome cars were built by Pullman Standard for General Motors. The Burlington was the first to use them in revenue service.
The Burlington, Great Northern and Northern Pacific had been related for decades when the Burlington Northern was created.
Other than a few details, this is a great article!
By the way, many of the railroads which, unlike the Rio Grande, did turn their passenger services over to Amtrak did not want to. The Santa Fe and Seaboard Coast Line were particularly reluctant. They were forced to because the Interstate Commerce Commission forced them to run unpopular services which were losing too much money. Amtrak was not governed by the ICC, and as soon as these roads “joined” Amtrak all of these unpopular services were discontinued. If the railroads had been allowed to discontinue the routes Amtrak dropped, and had been allowed to cooperate with each other in a way Amtrak never did, privately run passenger trains may well have survived to this day in the U.S.