History of the California Zephyr

The California Zephyr's history actually goes back before the California Zephyr was inaugurated. Back in the 1930s, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, or CB&Q, ordered some all-new, diesel powered, all stainless steel passenger trains from the Budd Company. Boston & Maine had a similar trainset, more info on these trains here. To help promote this new service, they needed a new, modern name for these trains. Borrowing from Greek mythology, they used the name of Zephyrus, god of the west wind, and called their trains "Zephyrs." They liked the name so much they even stuck it to their other trains that didn't use the shiny new stuff.

After World War 2, the CB&Q launched a new Zephyr, the greatest Zephyr of them all. The California Zephyr was launched on March 20, 1949 and ran on CB&Q tracks from Chicago to Denver, where it was handed over to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW) which handled it from Denver to Salt Lake City, and there it was handed over once more, this time to the Western Pacific Railroad (WP) which brought the train to Oakland, with a ferry connection to San Francisco. The train's christening was no small ceremony, on March 19 the train was brought into San Francisco itself where the mayor of the city and the president of the Western Pacific Railroad attended the inauguration.

The train was billed as "the most talked about train in America" and "a vacation unto itself." It was also nicknamed "The Silver Lady" because of the stainless steel finish on the all-Budd consist. The ownership of the train's equipment was split by all three railroads and pooled together. One sleeper was owned the the Pennsylvania Railroad, because they operated a through sleeper off the California Zephyr to New York, so it was possible to travel from coast to coast without ever getting off your train. The California Zephyr ran a baggage car, three vista dome chair cars, a vista dome dormitory-buffet-lounge car, two 10-6 sleepers, a 48-seat diner, a 16 section sleeper, a 10-6 sleeper going to New York, and a vista dome dormitory-buffet-lounge-observation. The only change made to the consist was a 6-5 sleeper added in 1952. The train was short but did its job. It was billed as a "cruise train" and had no coach section. The train sported five domes for all the amazing scenery it goes through in Colorado and Feather River Canyon in California. Zephyrettes, special train hosts assigned specifically to the California Zephyr, served all the customer's needs while on board the train.

The California Zephyr, however, was short-lived. In March of 1970, the CB&Q, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Spokane Portland & Seattle Railroads merged to form Burlington Northern (BN). BN operated passenger trains, including the California Zephyr, until Amtrak took over 13 months later in 1971. However, WP had been petitioning with the ICC to stop running their end of the California Zephyr. ICC finally agreed , and the California Zephyr departed Oakland for the last time on March 20, 1970. BN only ran the train for three weeks. BN and DRGW continued to run their portions, but under a new name and only three times a week and without all the hype. BN called it California Service and DRGW called it Rio Grande Zephyr and extended their portion from Salt Lake City to Ogden, where it was scheduled to meet Southern Pacific's City of San Francisco. When Amtrak was formed in 1971, this operation was also killed off as BN gave up their passenger trains to Amtrak.

DRGW, however, held on to their passenger trains, one of only a few railroads that did. Amtrak inaugurated a new train, the San Francisco Zephyr, which ran over BN tracks from Chicago to Denver, Union Pacific's Overland Route through Wyoming instead of Colorado, and then Southern Pacific's route to California. This train ran three times a week. DRGW continued to run its Rio Grande Zephyr, still using original California Zephyr equipment, every day except Wednesday from Denver to Ogden. In 1983, the DRGW finally decided to give up their train, and two months later, Amtrak launched a new California Zephyr, which ran on the BN to Denver, the DRGW to Salt Lake City, WP to the middle of nowhere in Nevada where it crossed over to the SP to California, avoiding the original Feather River Canyon route. Amtrak even found one of the original Zephyrettes and invited her on board for the inaugural run. In October of 2000, Amtrak finally upgraded the California Zephyr to daily service, and it has remained unchanged since then.

Some California Zephyr cars still exist today. Many were handed over to Amtrak in 1971, but Amtrak has replaced them with Superliners. Most of the cars were scrapped but some found their ways to museums and private collections. Five still operate as private cars today, dome-observation "Silver Solarium," dome-coach "Silver Lariat," sleepers "Silver Rapids" and "Silver Quail," and a dome-lounge that has been renamed "Sierra Hotel." I have never seen these cars, but three of them often operate together.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with the vintage photos I want to share, so to see them please click here go to this article on the website.