One of my brothers called from Colorado this morning to say that today is the 60th anniversary of the California Zephyr, one of the country's premier long-distance trains. The Zephyr ran from Chicago to San Francisco over the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific railways. The usual consist included eleven stainless steel Budd cars, five of them with vista domes. I traveled on the Zephyr between Grand Junction, Colorado and San Francisco when I was in college. The $50 trip took 28 hours, most of which I spent in a vista dome. There never was a better way to travel. The last Zephyr made the journey on March 21, 1970, sixty years to the day from its first trip.
One of my brothers called from Colorado this morning to say that today is the 60th anniversary of the California Zephyr, one of the country's premier long-distance trains. The Zephyr ran from Chicago to San Francisco over the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific railways. The usual consist included eleven stainless steel Budd cars, five of them with vista domes. I traveled on the Zephyr between Grand Junction, Colorado and San Francisco when I was in college. The $50 trip took 28 hours, most of which I spent in a vista dome. There never was a better way to travel. The last Zephyr made the journey on March 21, 1970, sixty years to the day from its first trip.
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Wow what a coincidence! I hope Scott does mind me telling this story but I thought it was great. At the Milford NH Show Scott found an HO layout featuring this train. Now Scott really knows this train having grown up in a town where it came through and stopped every day. So Scott said to the man operating the layout ”You know you have the dome cars on the wrong end of the train?” I kind of wander off looking at something else as I could see Scott and the guy where having a good time discussing his train and it looked like he would be a while. Little did the man know he had encountered an expert with a brother who was even more of an expert. I look back and I could see Scott on his cell phone. Later, I found out he had call his brother in Colorado to verify his memory. Well, he was so good that he knew the name of every car and it’s proper sequence in the train. So it ended up the man rearranged his whole train according to Scott's specifications and probably went home and said “Wow, you wouldn’t believe what happened to me today!“
Scott,
So what is the proper order for the cars? Since I have 6 of the USA Train's extruded SS CA Zephyr cars(Coach, Diner, Vista Dome, RPO, Baggage, and Observation), I want to make sure that I put them in the right sequence on the OMRR.
Thanks...
I don't remember that the Zephyr ever ran with an RPO car. A baggage car always came first, followed by four vista domes, the last one of which was a lounge/crew quarters car. On the Zephyr, the short ends of the vista domes faced forward. (USA Train has their car backwards.) The dining car followed the lounge car, then four pullmans and the observation car. The observation car also had a vista dome. I would be hard-pressed to remember the names (all of which began with "Silver"). But my brother Brian could not only remember them, but where each ended up.
Ray, I look forward to seeing your CZ cars next summer. Here is a url that has a nice discussion of the Zephyr. It lists all the cars, and perhaps there is an RPO in the listing. calzephyr.railran.net
Yes, John, that experience in New Hampshire was fun, especially for my brother.
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