Pioneer Zephyr
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The Pioneer Zephyr as it appeared in 1934. |
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This "drumhead" logo originally adorned the end of the observation car on the Pioneer Zephyr. |
The
Pioneer Zephyr is a
diesel-powered railroad trainset (a set of
railroad cars permanently coupled together, actually an articulated railcar with
Jacobs Bogies) built by the
Budd Company in 1934 for the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), commonly known by the shorter name of Burlington. The train, which featured extensive use of
stainless steel, was originally named
Zephyr and was meant as a promotional tool to advertise passenger rail service in the
United States. The train's construction included innovations such as
shotwelding (a specialized type of
spot welding) to join the stainless steel, and articulation to reduce the train's weight.
On
May 26 1934 it set a speed record for travel time between
Denver, Colorado, and
Chicago, Illinois, when it made a 1,015-
mile (1,633
km) non-stop "dawn-to-dusk" dash, covering the distance in 13 hours 5 minutes 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), 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 trainset entered regular revenue service on
November 11 1934 between
Kansas City, Missouri,
Omaha and
Lincoln, Nebraska. It was operated on this route until its retirement in 1960 when it was donated to the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago where it remains on public display. The train is generally regarded as the first successful
streamliner on American railroads.
In the early 1930s, the U.S. was in the depths of the
Great Depression. Without the money to purchase new goods, freight trains weren't hauling as much as they had in the previous decade. People who couldn't buy goods also couldn't 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 hadn't 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.
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The engine in the Pioneer Zephyr |
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. 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 wouldn't have to be painted to protect it from the weather. Since the carbody was much lighter than similar cars, it would be able to haul 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 for a patent on "Method and product of electric welding"; on
January 16 1934, the
United States Patent and Trademark Office assigned to the Budd Company to cover the technique. Basically, because of the nature of stainless steel, traditional
welding methods would unacceptably weaken the metal at the joint. In a shotweld, 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 current of electricity is passed through the joint which effectively fuses the two pieces of metal together.
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The driver's controls for the Pioneer Zephyr. |
Another factor in making the
Zephyr lighter than conventional trains was that the individual carbodies in the train share their
trucks with adjacent cars. The train was essentially 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 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 Motor Company engine (the train's
prime mover). Like the diesel-electric locomotives that would soon displace the
steam locomotive on American railroads, this engine powered an electrical generator; the electricity it generated was then fed to electric
traction motors connected to the axles in the train's front truck.
The exterior design of the train was left to
aeronautical engineer
Albert Dean 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.
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The RPO section of the Pioneer Zephyr |
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-
foot (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 it was 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
tonnes) of baggage and express freight. This train's official christening occurred on
April 18 1934, at the
Pennsylvania Railroad's
Broad Street Station.
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 additional
Zephyrs for the Burlington.
To catch the public's attention, however, this train wasn't simply rolled out of the factory for some dignitary to smash a bottle of
champagne on its nose; it would make 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
Zephyr'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 driver 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, a total of 13 hours and 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), just short of the then-world land speed record of 115 mph (185 km/h). The non-stop 1,015 mile (1,633 km) trip exceeded the railroad's expectations by making the run one hour and 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 for this run 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 that operated a full five hours faster than the Burlington's fastest steam-powered train along the same route. Due to the
Zephyr's 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.
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Commemorative postal covers that were carried aboard the Pioneer Zephyr for its first revenue run (November 11 1934) and as it crossed the one million mile mark (December 29 1939). |
The
Zephyr's power (leading) car was numbered 9900, the baggage-coach
combine car was numbered 505, and the coach-observation was numbered 570. The trainset was placed in regular service between
Kansas City, Missouri,
Omaha and
Lincoln, Nebraska, on
November 11,
1934, replacing a pair of
steam locomotives and six heavyweight
passenger cars. The
Zephyr replaced a train weighing up to eight times as much. By June 1935, it proved popular enough to add a fourth car to the train's regular configuration, providing additional coach seating. The fourth car was originally a 40-seat coach number 525, but the following June 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.
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Burlington Zephyr passengers arriving at Chicago's Union station |
Ralph Budd and the Burlington capitalized on the
Zephyr's 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 as the
Pioneer Zephyr to distinguish it as the first of the Burlington's growing
Zephyr fleet. In 1938, car 525 was replaced with car number 500, a 40-seat buffet/lounge car to provide light meals during the train's travels. Car number 505, the baggage-coach
combine, was also rebuilt at this time into a full
baggage car, but it kept the windows as they were originally installed.
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Burlington Zephyr passenger train approaching station and waiting passengers at East Dubuque, Illinois |
In regular service, the
Pioneer Zephyr had its share of accidents on the railroad. In 1939 it was involved in a head-on collision with a freight train that completely destroyed the trainset's control cab. The trainset was rebuilt and re-entered revenue service soon afterward, but the accident strengthened the opinions of locomotive designers to move the cab back from the front of the locomotive up above a large nose (as can be seen in the
EMD F-unit and
EMD E-unit series 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 was built of aluminum and was scrapped in 1942 for the war effort, among other reasons.
In 1948 and 49, 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.
[Chicago Railroad Fair Official Guide Book (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.
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The advertising poster for the 1934 film. |
Press publicity had apparently first coined the term "Silver Streak". The
Pioneer Zephyr's famous Denver-Chicago dash served as the inspiration for the
1934 film
Silver Streak starring
Charles Starrett. 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 then modern long-distance trains.
On
May 26 1960, the 26th anniversary of the "Dawn-to-Dusk" dash, the original
Pioneer Zephyr trainset (car numbers 9900, 505 and 570) was donated to the
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Car number 500, which operated with the train starting in 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.
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.
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The observation car (rear) end of the Pioneer Zephyr as seen at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Exterior projectors display moving images on the now frosted windows. Viewers inside the car see the rapid motion of passing landscapes and grade crossings and view simulated passengers displayed as talking animated mannequins |
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 exist in modern time. 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
EMD 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.
Also utilizing the famous name, the
Minnesota Zephyr is an elegant dining train located in the historic city of
Stillwater, Minnesota, although it is 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.
Due to the
Zephyr'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:
*
American Flyer produced a ready-to-run
Pioneer Zephyr model in
S scale (1:64) in 1965.
*
Challenger Imports imported limited production ready-to-run brass models in
HO scale (1:87) of the 4-car
Pioneer Zephyr,
Mark Twain Zephyr and the
Boston and Maine Railroad's
Maine Cheshire and
Maine Minuteman in 1993.
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Fine N-Scale Products released a kit in 1996 in
N scale (1:160) that includes an option for car number 500.
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Con-Cor made a limited-run model available in both HO scale and N scale that were released in 2005.
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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 Yankee. These models were also released in 2005.
*
MTH Electric Trains released a limited production ready-to-run model of the three-car
Pioneer Zephyr in
O scale (1:48) in 2005
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Flying Yankee - A very similar streamlined trainset that operated on the
Boston and Maine Railroad; it is undergoing restoration to operating condition as of 2006.
*
Nebraska Zephyr - Another of Burlington's
Zephyr fleet, one example of which is preserved at the
Illinois Railway Museum.
* "
Fliegender Hamburger" ("Flying Hamburger"), a German diesel trainset entering service in 1933, performing regularly at speeds of up to 100 mph.
* American Society of Mechanical Engineers (
November 18 1980),
The Pioneer Zephyr (
PDF). Retrieved
February 24 2005.
* Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, excerpts from the
New York Times (
May 27 1934),
Pioneer Zephyr - A Legendary History. Retrieved
February 24 2005.
* Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (2002),
Pioneer Zephyr, a legendary history - The Dawn To Dusk Club. Retrieved
March 1 2005.
* Gordon-Gilmore, Randy (2002),
Pioneer Zephyr. Retrieved
February 24 2005.
* Lotz, David (
Spring 2002),
History of the Mark Twain Zephyr. Retrieved
February 27 2005.
* PBS Online / WGBH (2000),
American Experience / Streamliners / People & Events / Ralph Budd. Retrieved
February 22 2005.
* Ragsdale, Earl J. W., (
August 20 1932),
Patent number 1,944,106 - Method and product of electric welding (
PDF). Retrieved
February 27 2005.
* Trackside,
The Pioneer Zephyr comes home. Retrieved
February 25 2005.
* (February 2005) Trains Timeline,
Trains Magazine, p. 9.
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* The author of this book was a passenger aboard the "dawn-to-dusk" run in 1934.
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Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago official website - The current home of the
Pioneer Zephyr *
Zephyr Patents -
PDF reproductions of the patents developed for construction of the
Pioneer Zephyr.
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Illinois Railway Museum official website - Home of many more Burlington artifacts, including the
Nebraska Zephyr trainset.
*
The Burlington Pioneer Zephyr - site with photographs of the
Pioneer Zephyr trainset on outdoors display in Chicago.
