CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr

The Pioneer Zephyr as seen at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

The Burlington Zephyr- First Look, April 1934

The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered high-speed train formed of passenger cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington Route.

The Zephyr's christening was on 18 April 1934, at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, PA.

On May 26, 1934, a gleaming new train named for a Greek god of wind began a nonstop "Dawn to Dusk" speed run from Denver to Chicago. The train left Denver at 7.04 am Central Daylight Time and arrived in Chicago at 8.09 pm, thirteen hours five minutes later, one hour fifty-five minutes faster than scheduled.

From Chicago Union Station, the trainset went on display at the 1934 Century of Progress fair. After the fair, it started a thirty-one state, two hundred and twenty-two city publicity tour, during which more than two million people saw it. The Zephyr completed the trip in just over 13 hours, ushering in a new height of train travel and style. Its sleek Art Deco form was soon to be mirrored in everyday items from transportation to toasters.

The train entered regular revenue service on November 11, 1934, between Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; and Lincoln, Nebraska then by June 1935, it had proved so popular that a fourth coach car, #525, was added to the trainset seating forty.

In 1948 and 1949, the Pioneer Zephyr was temporarily removed from service to participate in the Chicago Railroad Fair's "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant then by 1955, the Pioneer Zephyr's route had been updated to run between Galesburg, IL, and Saint Joseph, MO.

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.

Trivia

• It was the first of the CB&Q's fleet of Zephyrs, one of the largest and most famous fleets of streamliners in the US.
• 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 The Silver Streak starring Charles Starrett.
• The train is generally regarded as the first successful streamliner on American railroads.
• The original Zephyr was renamed the Pioneer Zephyr in 1936 to distinguish it as the first of CBQ's growing Zephyr fleet.
• Following the Zephyr, Budd built an identical trainset, the Flying Yankee, for the Boston and Maine railroad, and went on to build a series of larger and more powerful Zephyr trainsets for Burlington.
• It was featured in GeoTrax as Knight.
• It was featured in Chuggington as Frostini.
• It set new standards in passenger service and formed the model for other railroad's streamlined trains as well as the CB&Q's later Zephyrs.
• The project hinged on two major elements: developing lighter railcars and developing an internal combustion driven power system adequate for high speed service.
• Originally christened the Zephyr, #9900 was built entirely of welded stainless steel.
• Its sleek Art Deco form was soon to be mirrored in everyday items from transportation to toasters.

See also

• Gallery