No. 10524 Electro-Motive F-7 ABA Diesel Locomotive, heading up the "California Zephyr" Streamlined Passenger Train

Western Pacific Railroad

The Budd Company, Philadelphia-based, was long associated with lightweight passenger car construction. A unique design by Budd resulted from an order in June, 1933, from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (Burlington) for a lightweight, stainless steel train powered by a diesel-electric engine capable of 100 mph with enough space for 25 tons of baggage and Railway Express, and able to seat 70 passengers.

The revolutionary result was the 3-unit air-conditioned articulated consist Budd delivered to Burlington in April, 1934; a slope-browed, shovel-nosed sleek silvery slip of fluted stainless steel with a 600 horsepower General Motors Winton Engine Division diesel engine in the front power car. The 197-foot long, shotwelded train set featured a Railway Post Office and mail storage compartment in the power car, a baggage-coach, and a coach-parlor observation car, seating 72 in total. It was called the "Burlington Zephyr." The train weighed about 100 tons, just slightly more than a single traditional steel heavyweight passenger car.

This was America's first diesel-powered streamliner (Union Pacific's M - 10000, introduced in February, 1934, was the first true streamliner, but it was powered by a Winton spark-ignition distillate fuel engine, which proved to be unsatisfactory compared to the diesel power plant (see No. 10026). The "Zephyr" made its first test runs in April, 1934, reaching a top speed of 104 mph.

The train was truly an art form from head to tail, its exterior design largely the work of Albert Dean, an aeronautical engineer who worked for Budd. The smart interiors were designed by John Harbeson, a Philadelphia-based architect, and partner architect, Paul Cret. That same April saw the "Zephyr" embark on a nationwide exhibition tour that would last into the fall season. In May, the "Zephyr" traveled nonstop between Denver and Chicago on a dawn-to-dusk run of 1034 miles, averaging 78 mph, breaking by far all existing speed records. In November, the celebrated train went into regular service on the 250-mile, Lincoln-Omaha-Kansas City route, becoming America's first regularly scheduled diesel-powered stainless steel streamliner.

Dramatic in appearance and half as costly to operate as a traditional steam-powered 3-car heavyweight train, the "Zephyr" was an immediate success. In June, 1935, a dinette-coach was added to the "Zephyr's" consist, upping the 4-car train seating to 112 (See No. 10239). The little train's success spawned new similar articulated trains for Burlington, and late in 1935 the "Burlington Zephyr" was renamed "Pioneer Zephyr" to differentiate it from other "Zephyrs" being added to the fleet.

In March and April, 1935, two new "Zephyr" train sets made their appearances on Burlington's rails, the articulated "Twin Cities Zephyrs" (3-car sets, 88 seating capacity), operating between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul (437 miles). In October, a fourth articulated "Zephyr" train set was added, 4 cars, the "Mark Twain Zephyr," on the 221-mile St. Louis-Burlington (Iowa) route. But, in December, 1936, the demand on the twin-city route was so great that new "Twin Cities Zephyrs" were put into service, two articulated 8-car train sets, with the power plants increased to 1800 horsepower. The original 3-car "Twin Cities Zephyrs" were rechristened "Sam Houston Zephyr" (Dallas-Houston) and "Ozark State Zephyr" (Kansas City-St. Louis). Then came two more "Zephyr" sets the Chicago-Omaha-Lincoln-Denver overnight "Denver Zephyrs," each with Electro-Motive power/booster locomotives generating 3000 horsepower, heading up 10-car, Budd-built, semi-articulated, stainless steel trains (see No. 10490). With service starting in November, 1936, the two trains could make the 1034-mile trip in a little over 12 hours, top speeds peaking at 116 mph between Chicago and Denver (see No. 10490). Then, in 1939, one more "Zephyr" would join the group, the non-articulated St. Louis-Kansas City "General Pershing Zephyr" (the only prewar non-articulated "Zephyr" to be put into service). These pre-war "Zephyr" trains remained in service until the late 1950s, when they were replaced with more modern Electro-Motive diesel locomotives and new Budd-built passenger car equipment, including Vista-Dome coaches. Service with "Zephyr" trains remained largely intact into the Amtrak era of the 1970s. The most notable post-war addition was the non- articulated "California Zephyr," Chicago to San Francisco (1949 - 1970), subject of this history.

The original "Pioneer Zephyr" (3-cars) has been fully restored and can be seen today as a featured exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

With this bit of background, let's get to the celebrated post-war "California Zephyrs," among America's finest streamliners and serious competition for Union Pacific's "City of San Francisco" streamliners (established 1941 with Electro-Motive E-6 diesel units as power) (see No. 10265), although "Zephyr" service was established eight years later.  Burlington's partners in this venture were the Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads, the daily route from Chicago including Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco (Oakland)  (2532 miles).

In December, 1945, Burlington and its two partners placed an order with the Budd Company for seven 10-car lightweight stainless steel train sets - four owned by Burlington, two by Rio Grande, and one by Western Pacific. The train's concept was unconventional for the time - they were designed, built, and scheduled for sightseeing, and the new Vista-Domes would be the trains' hallmark, with five Vista-Dome cars assigned to each train. At the time of the trains' introduction in 1949, the "California Zephyrs" were the only long-distance trains to feature domes.

As a diesel-powered lightweight train, the "CZ" enabled the three carriers to speed up overall Chicago - San Francisco running times to under 51 hours, the schedules positioning the trains in the Rocky Mountains one day during daylight hours and in California's Feather River Canyon the next in daylight, maximizing the scenic impact for the enthralled passengers looking up through the glassed-in domes.

Looking after "CZ's" guests on these trips was a popular innovation the - "Zephyrettes," or train hostesses, first employed successfully on the pre-war "Denver" and "Twin Cities" Zephyrs.

The no-extra-fare "California Zephyr" was very much a people's train, marketed to families as a vacation unto itself, very user friendly, which the competition (UP's "City of San Francisco") was not (see No. 10265).

Ridership was so strong that additional cars were ordered and delivered in 1952.

However, by the mid-1960s, rising costs and competition from the new interstate highways and jet airliners were having a negative impact on the trains' operations. All three partners began to lose money on the "CZs", and finally in February, 1970, the ICC ruled that the Western Pacific could discontinue "CZ" operations, meaning "CZs" would not operate west of Ogden, Utah. The final departure of the "real" "CZs" left San Francisco and Chicago on March 20, 1970 -21 years after the service had been inaugurated.

No. 10524 represents an accurate semi-scale model of Western Pacific's Electro- Motive *F-7 ABA diesel locomotive (1500 horsepower per unit), heading up the 6-car streamlined train "California Zephyr" (No. 10525) as it would have been seen Chicago-San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s. The model train is in "0"gauge by K-Line.

Note: "Articulated" means the cars are permanently attached to one another and cannot be separated (a 4-car train is always a 4-car train). "Non-articulated" means each car is independent so that trains can be made longer or shorter depending on ridership demand.

Amtrak has adopted the "California Zephyr" name for its currently operating coach and sleeper train between Chicago and San Francisco. This fine streamliner features a full-service Dining Car and a Cafe'/Lounge Car with sandwiches, snacks, and bar service. Notable are the bi-level "Superliner" stainless steel coach, sleeping, lounge, and dining cars (see Nos. 10359 and 10600).

         * As a footnote, Electro-Motive introduced the F-7 to American railroads in November, 1948, and it remained in production until December, 1953. 2,316 "A" units were manufactured and 1,483 "B" units - the F-7 was the most popular in terms of orders of all of EMD's "F" units.