California Zephyr, 1948-1952, Con-cor train

Fred Klein, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2016

The California Zephyr ran from Chicago to Oakland and was introduced in 1948.  The Budd Manufacturing Company made all of the cars.  The CZ ran over Chicago, Burlington and Quincy rails from Chicago to Denver, then on Denver and Rio Grande Western track to Salt Lake City, then on the Western Pacific to Oakland.  Passengers then continued by ferry to San Francisco.  Six trainsets (plus some extra spare cars) ran the route to keep daily service.  The trainset did not change over the route: new motive power from each railroad was simply switched on in Denver and Salt Lake City.  The cars were owned by the individual railroads in numbers proportional to the mileage of each railroad along the route.  Cars were lettered “California Zephyr”, but each end of the car was labeled with its owner in small letters.  Cars were named “Silver …” and not numbered. Information about the train with references can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr.

 

The California Zephyr in Gore Canyon, Colorado, in the summer of 1969. From Karl Zimmerman’s Burlington’s Zephyr, page 126.

 

The Con-cor Budd passenger cars, introduced in 2000, make it possible to model the California Zephyr very accurately because most of the cars have CZ prototypes.  All but one of the cars in the typical consist (six different car types) of the Con-cor models exactly match the prototype cars.  The dome-buffet-lounge-dormitory (and later the 5-compartment/6 double bedroom sleeper) do not have off-the-shelf models available, but there are good substitutes.  The largest noticeable model difference is that the prototypes had full-length skirts, but for practical reasons of turning on sharp curves, the model skirts are cut away around the trucks.  The Con-cor cars shown here were decorated with Microscale decals, because the factory CZ lettering is too small. Each of the four CZ web pages in my series has different engines: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy; the Denver and Rio Grande Western for two different time periods, and the Western Pacific.

 

 

 

Power section

 

The power here is for Denver and Rio Grande Western’s portion of the trip.  In 1948 D&RGW pulled the CZ with an A-B-A set of Alco PA’s purchased in 1947 for the CZ.  The locomotives are in their as-delivered yellow-on-black “honeybee” colors in a scheme designed by the Electromotive Division for DRG&W’s FT locomotives.  These Alco PA models are made and painted by Like-like.  This paint scheme lasted for the first few months after inauguration, but DRGW sought a scheme better suited to the silver passenger cars.  The PA’s were repainted in the short-lived silver with orange nose scheme (models made by Kato), then in 1950 in the final Grande gold and silver scheme with black stripes. See the 1952-1964 CZ page for F units done in this attractive paint, which I think is visually much better suited to a stainless steel train.  There were two semi-permanently coupled A-B-A sets, numbered 600 and 601.  One would normally never see 600 coupled to 601 as pictured here. 

 

One baggage car (1948) began each consist.  It also carried express merchandise.  Names were Silver Coyote (shown), Buffalo, Stag, Bear, Antelope and Beaver.  The Con-cor model closely follows the prototype. 

 

Coach section

 

Next came three dome coaches for which the Con-cor model matches the 1948 prototype.  There were very minor differences between the three coaches, each kept its place and there were small CZ-22, CZ-21, CZ-20 (un-modeled) numbers near the door.  The first coach had a child’s forward section and the second coach had a conductor’s cubicle, but these are difficult to notice in a model.  The names of the cars in the picture are Silver Dollar (WP), Mustang (D&RGW) and Bridle (CB&Q).  These are typical names of the three coach positions.  The next dome car was a buffet-lounge-dormitory.  It had a different window arrangement but is substituted here with the same dome coach.  Names of the buffet cars are “Silver Club, Lounge, Roundup (shown), Shop, Chalet and Hostel”.

 

First sleeper section

 

The first two sleepers are 10 roomette/6 bedroom cars that Budd built in 1948 for the CZ.  Typical car names are “Silver Palisade” and “Silver Butte”.  Budd built 19 of these cars, 6 for the CB&Q, 5 for the DRG&W, 7 for the WP, and 1 for the PRR for through service east of Chicago.  The 1948 10/6 sleeper was made for the CZ (Con-cor model prototype) and has three more hallway windows than the 10/6 sleepers made in 1952 for other zephyrs (Kato model). Budd supplied six diners for the California Zephyr in 1948 (3 for the CB&Q, 2 for the WP and one for the D&RGW).  The diner ran kitchen-end forward (small window end).  Pictured above is the Con-cor Budd diner, which used the California Zephyr diner as its prototype. 

 

Substitute diner

 

Pictured above is an alternative diner model for the CZ.  It is one of the Burlington 1938 diners made by Kato in one of their 4-car sets.  Diners like the Burlington “Silver Spoon” were made for the Aristocrat and Twin Cities Zephyr, but were used as spare diners for the CZ.  Including this car in the CZ is thus very prototypical, but not without sending the CZ diner to the repair shop first.

 

Second sleeper section

 

The next car in a 1948 CZ consist is a 16-section curtain sleeper.  The cars were named after trees, like “Silver Poplar”.  These became unpopular and were withdrawn in 1952.  The 16-section sleepers were later made into coaches and placed back in the CZ in 1964.  The 16-section sleeper/coach is the prototype for the Con-cor Budd coach car.  The next sleeper is another 10 roomette/6 bedroom car.  This car is the through sleeper switched through to New York via the Pennsylvania or New York Central.

 

The final car is the 3-bedroom /1-double-room /buffet-lounge dome car made in 1948.  The model matches the prototype and is the CZ signature car.  Car names are “Silver Horizon, Solarium, Penthouse (CBQ), Sky (D&RGW), Crescent and Planet (WP, shown)”.

 

 

REFERENCES

MacGregor, Bruce, and Ted Benson, Portrait of a Silver Lady, The train they called the California Zephyr, Pruett Publishing, 1977.

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

Zimmerman, Karl, Burlington’s Zephyrs, MBI Publishing, 2004.

Zimmerman, Karl, The story of the California Zephyr, Quadrant Press, 1972.

 

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