California Zephyr, about 1952-1964, Con-cor cars

Fred Klein, 2001, 2003, 2004, 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 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. More information, links and references on the California Zephyr can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr.

 

In 1952, a 5 compartment-6 double bedroom sleeper replaced the 16-section old-fashioned curtain sleepers that was in the original 1952 consist. Otherwise, the train was essentially the same.

 

The CZ near Fraser Canyon at Tabernash, Colorado in 1969, the year of its discontinuance. Photo from Karl Zimmerman’s Burlington’s Zephyrs, page 115.

 

 

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 two 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 5-compartment/6 double bedroom sleeper do not have off-the-shelf Con-cor 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 Con-cor model skirts are cut away around the trucks.  The Con-cor cars shown here were decorated with Microscale decals. 

 

Also see the web page for the 1964-1970 CZ:  most of the cars on that page are the more prototypical Kato cars, and can also be used during this 1952-1964 time period. 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.

 

 

Diesel Power

 

The power here is for Denver and Rio Grande Western’s portion of the trip.  In 1952 D&RGW began pulling the CZ with a new A-B-B-A set of F3’s in the “Prospector” colors of Grande gold and silver with black stripes. In later years, F7s began replacing the F3s.  The F3s are the factory painted diesels from Kato.

 

Coach section

 

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

 

Next came three dome coaches for which the Con-cor model matches the 1948 Budd 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 play area in the forward section and the second coach had a conductor’s cubicle with a small (un-modeled) window.  The names of the cars in the picture are Silver Dollar (WP), Silver Mustang (D&RGW) and Silver 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”.

 

Sleeper section

 

 

Next came the diner.  Budd supplied six of these diners for the California Zephyr in 1948 (3 for the CB&Q, 2 for the WP and one for the D&RGW).  Starting about 1952, the diner was located in the consist between the coaches and the first class cars, to separate the two classes of service.  The diner ran kitchen-end forward (small window end): coach passengers forward of the diner would then have to wait for seats in the narrow corridor adjacent to the kitchen.  Pictured is the Con-cor Budd diner, re-lettered “Silver Platter”, which matches the California Zephyr diner as a prototype. 

 

The next car in a CZ consist is 5 compartment-6 double bedroom sleeper.  These were built in 1952 to replace the 16-section old-fashioned curtain sleepers that became unpopular and were withdrawn.  The 16-section sleeper/coach is the prototype for the Con-cor Budd coach car.  No model (Con-cor or Kato) exists for the 5/6 sleeper car, but I use the coach or 16-section model as a stand-in.  These cars are named “Silver [bird]” and the stand-in is lettered “Silver Dove”.

 

The three following sleepers are 10 roomette/6 bedroom cars, which are modeled on the 1948 CZ prototype.  These also keep their place in the consist and are numbered CZ-15, CZ-14 and CZ-11.  The third car is the through sleeper switched through to New York via the Pennsylvania or New York Central.  The car names are typical of these three positions and are “Silver Palisade, Butte and Glacier”.

 

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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