text: pioneer zephyr the pioneer zephyr is a diesel - powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with jacobs bogies , built by the budd company in 1934 for the chicago , burlington and quincy railroad ( cb & q ) , commonly known as the burlington . the train featured extensive use of stainless steel , was originally named the zephyr , and was meant as a promotional tool to advertise passenger rail service in the united states . the construction included innovations such as ( a specialized type of spot welding ) to join the stainless steel , and articulation to reduce its weight . on may 26 , 1934 , it set a speed record for travel between denver , colorado , and chicago , illinois , when it made a 1 , 015 - mile ( 1 , 633 km ) non - stop " dawn - to - dusk " dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of 77 mph ( 124 km / h ) . for one section of the run it reached a speed of 112 . 5 mph ( 181 km / h ) , just short of the then us land speed record of 115 mph ( 185 km / h ) . the historic dash inspired a 1934 film and the train 's nickname , " the silver streak " . the train entered the regular revenue service on november 11 , 1934 , between kansas city , missouri ; omaha , nebraska ; and lincoln , nebraska . it operated this and other routes until its retirement in 1960 , when it was donated to chicago 's museum of science and industry , where it remains on public display . the train is generally regarded as the first successful streamliner on american railroads . concept and construction in the early 1930s , the us was in the depths of the great depression . without the money to purchase new goods , freight trains were not hauling as much as they had in the previous decade . people who could not buy goods also could not afford to travel to the extent that they had before , so passenger revenues were also down . automobile travel travel had increasingly cut into rail ridership since the mid - 1920s , making faster , more efficient service imperative for railroads to compete . railroads needed a way to re - energize the traveling public and offer a bit of hope for the days to come . one of the railroad presidents who faced this challenge was ralph budd , formerly of the great northern railway and now president of the chicago , burlington and quincy railroad ( burlington ) , who sought to develop a more efficient high speed train to replace conventional steam - powered heavyweight equipment to lower operating costs , attract more customers , and restore profitability to passenger service . the project hinged on two major elements : developing lighter railcars and developing an internal combustion driven power system adequate for high speed service . in 1932 ralph budd met edward g. budd ( no relation ) , an automotive steel pioneer who was founder and president of the budd company . edward budd was demonstrating his new budd - michelin rail motorcar built of stainless steel . pneumatic - wheeled railcars never found popularity for actual service in the us - they tended to derail - but they demonstrated the successful construction of lightweight stainless steel unibody railcars . stainless steel provided many benefits over traditional wood and hardened steel for railroad carbodies ; it was a lighter and stronger material , and its natural silver appearance and resistance to corrosion meant that it would not have to be painted to protect it from the weather . since the carbody was much lighter than similar cars , it would be able to carry a higher revenue load for the same cost . in developing the budd - michelin railcar , the budd company used the formed steel technology in which they were industry pioneers and solved the most difficult problem in using stainless steel for railcar construction : developing a welding technique that would not compromise the strength and corrosion resistance of the stainless steel . on august 20 , 1932 , earl j. ragsdale , an engineer at the budd company , filed a patent application for a " method and product of electric welding " ; on january 16 , 1934 , the united states patent and trademark office ( uspto ) granted us patent 1 , 944 , 106 to the budd company . , as ragsdale termed his method , involved automatic control of the timing of individual spot welds . in spot welding , the two pieces of metal that are to be joined are pressed together with an electrode on each side of the joint . a very high electric current is passed through the joint and fuses the two pieces of metal together . if a spot weld is heated too long , heat will spread from the weld at a middling temperature that weakens the stainless steel and compromises its corrosion - resistant properties unacceptably ; ragsdale 's precisely - timed welds solved the problem . with their patented welding process at the core of stainless steel railcar construction , the cars produced by budd were a truly unique product . the other major problem ralph budd faced in developing a practical high speed lightweight train was to find a powerplant adequate to drive a trainset at a speed competitive with the faster steam trains . the existing powerplants for motorized railcars were completely inadequate . contemporary four - stroke diesel motors had unacceptably low power - to - weight ratios and were only efficient under an unacceptably narrow range of operating conditions . spark - ignited petroleum distillate motors also suffered from low power - to - weight ratios along with being maintenance - intensive and smokey , and gasoline motors showed limited potential for higher power hauling applications . the solution to budd 's problem presented itself in the new two - stroke diesel motors developed by the partnership of the winton engine company and general motors , which represented a factor - of - four improvement in power - to - weight ratio over the previous generation of diesel motors . their efficient operating range was also improved , owing largely to improvements in fuel injection developed by gm and winton . a diesel - electric system driven by the new motor was used to power general motors ' automotive assembly exhibit at the 1933 century of progress chicago world 's fair . budd saw the compact , efficient system in action , saw a major piece of his lightweight train puzzle fall into place , then approached gm about developing it into a system for rail propulsion . the result was a diesel - electric drive system powered by an eight - cylinder , 600 hp winton 201a diesel motor installed in a new three car stainless steel streamliner within a year . in 1933 a century of progress exhibit inspired the zephyr streamliner ; the following year the new zephyr streamliner inspired the century of progress fair and the rest of the country . another factor in making the zephyr lighter than conventional trains was that the individual carbodies in the train share their trucks with adjacent cars . in this design by budd engineer walter b. dean , the train was three articulated compartments . on conventional passenger cars , each carbody rode upon a pair of trucks ( pivot - mounted wheel - axle assembly ) , with one truck at each end . the articulation not only reduced the number of trucks under the train , but it also dispensed with the need for couplers between each of the carbodies , further reducing the train 's weight . it did , however , mean that train lengths could not be easily changed by switching out cars . the exterior design of the train was left to aeronautical engineer albert gardner dean ( walter dean 's younger brother ) who designed the sloping nose shape , with architects paul philippe cret and john harbeson , devising a way to strengthen and beautify the sides with the train 's horizontal fluting . on april 15 , 1936 , colonel ragsdale , walter dean and albert dean , filed patent applications for a " rail car front end construction " . on september 23 , 1941 the uspto granted us patents 2 , 256 , 493 and 2 , 256 , 494 to the budd company . the streamlining extended to the undercarriage as well to reduce drag . naming the train was a task that was very seriously taken by budd . he wanted a name that started with the letter z because this train was intended to be the " last word " in passenger service ; budd and his coworkers looked up the last words in their dictionaries , but neither nor conveyed the meanings that budd was looking for . the name of the new train came from the canterbury tales , which budd had been reading . the story begins with pilgrims setting out on a journey , inspired by the budding springtime and by zephyrus , the gentle and nurturing west wind . budd thought that would be an excellent name for a sleek new traveling machine — zephyr . the first zephyr ( 9900 ) was completed by the budd company on april 9 , 1934 , powered by an eight - cylinder , 600 - horsepower ( 447 kw ) , 8 - 201 - a model winton engine . like the diesel - electric locomotives that soon displaced the steam locomotive on american railroads , this engine powered an electrical generator ; the electricity it generated was then fed to electric traction motors connected to the axles in the train 's front truck . the train 's engineer sat in a small compartment in the nose of the train , directly in front of the prime mover . behind the engine in the first carbody was a 30 ft ( 9 . 1 m ) long railway post office section . the second carbody consisted of a small baggage section and a short buffet and 20 - passenger coach section . the third and final carbody in the train , as originally built , was configured as half coach ( 40 - passenger seats ) and half observation car ( 12 passenger seats ) . as built , the train had 72 seats and could carry 50 , 000 pounds ( 22 . 7 tonnes ) of baggage and express freight . this train 's official christening occurred on april 18 , 1934 , at the pennsylvania railroad 's broad street station in philadelphia , pennsylvania . following the zephyr budd built an identical trainset , the flying yankee , for the boston and maine railroad , and went on to build a series of larger and more powerful zephyr trainsets for burlington . promotion : " dawn - to - dusk " dash to catch the public 's attention , this train was not simply rolled out of the factory ; it made a dash from one end of the cb & q , in denver , to the other , in chicago on may 26 , 1934 . the railroad spared no expense in planning the operations . all other trains along the zephyr 's route were diverted to sidings and the turnouts were spiked into the proper alignment for the zephyr 's run . track and maintenance of way workers checked every spike and bolt along the train 's route to ensure that there would not be any problems , and temporary speed signs were installed along the route to warn the zephyr 's crew of curves that would be dangerous at high speeds . on the day of the dash , every road grade crossing was manned by a flagman to stop automobile traffic ahead of the train and to ensure that the crossing was clear . stations along the route were protected by local police officers and members of the american legion and the boy scouts of america . the train left denver at 07 : 04 central daylight time and arrived in chicago at 20 : 09 , 13 hours 5 minutes later , at an average speed of 77 mph ( 124 km / h ) . for one section of the run , the train reached a speed of 112 . 5 mph ( 181 km / h ) , close to the world land speed record of 130 . 6 mph ( 210 . 2 km / h ) of 1903 , which had been achieved in repeated runs on dedicated test track . the non - stop 1 , 015 mile ( 1 , 633 km ) trip exceeded the railroad 's expectations in being 1 hour 55 minutes faster than was scheduled . reporters along the route told of the " silver streak " that ran by faster than any other train that normally rode american rails at the time . the burlington 's contemporary passenger trains plied the same distance in around 25 hours . riding the train were ralph budd , edward g. budd , h. l. hamilton , president of the winton motor company ( at that time a part of the new general motors electro - motive division ) , a number of reporters , some burlington employees , members of the public , and zeph , a burro that was contributed by a colorado newspaper , the rocky mountain news , as a mascot for the train . the newspaper had described zeph to the railroad as a " rocky mountain canary " so the train 's crew had originally planned only enough space for a birdcage ; when they found out it was not a bird , the railroad hastily built a pen in the baggage section and bought some hay for it . when asked about the burro , ralph budd replied " why not ? one more jackass on this trip won 't make a difference . " after the train arrived in chicago , it traveled a little farther to the 1934 century of progress fair ( noted in some press articles about the dash as the " chicago world 's fair " ) where it was put on public display on opening day . after its display on the wings of a century stage , the train was taken on a 31 - state , 222 - city publicity tour . more than 2 million people saw the train before it entered revenue service . part of the tour included a test run between chicago and minneapolis – st. paul a full five hours faster than the burlington 's fastest steam - powered train . due to the zephyr 's success on this test run , the burlington immediately ordered two more zephyr trainsets that were dubbed , the " twin zephyrs " , starting the spread of the zephyr brand . the early zephyr series trains following the pioneer zephyr 9900 , two identical trainsets , 9901 and 9902 , were built and put into service as the twin cities zephyr between chicago and minneapolis - st. paul in april 1935 . the four car set 9903 entered service as the mark twain zephyr between st. louis and burlington , iowa in october 1935 . the six car sets 9904 and began service as the denver zephyr in may 1936 then replaced 9901 and 9902 on the twin cities run in december 1936 ; the smaller trains were assigned to new zephyr routes . two new ten car trains , 9906 and 9907 , replaced 9904 and as the denver zephyr in november 1936 . the last of the classic zephyrs , 9908 , entered service as the general pershing zephyr between kansas city and st. louis in 1939 . while 9900 - 9903 were power cars , only one more , the unique 9908 , was built . 9904 - 9907 were locomotives with the twin 900 hp 12 - cylinder engine layout that the early e - units would use . 9906 and 9907 , built for the ten car denver zephyr sets in 1936 , included booster units . 9908 used the new 1000 hp emd 567 motor in a single motor configuration . after 9908 , all burlington passenger engines were standard production locomotives , except for the cosmetic stainless steel bodywork of the . 9900 , and sisters , 9901 - 9903 , were successful as streamliners , but had the drawbacks of articulated trainsets and early two - stroke diesel motors . however , despite their shortcomings , 9900 and 9902 - 9908 were all in service until at least 1954 . 9900 remained in service until 1960 . the 9908 power car remained in service until 1966 . as of 2016 9908 is undergoing restoration to operational condition . winton diesel engines were used in early emc designs , and 9900 had an eight - cylinder 201a model developing 600 hp at 750 rpm . two - stroke diesel motors , while a breakthrough in locomotive power , were an immature technology . some of their early reliability problems were mitigated with changes to individual parts such as pistons ; other solutions had to wait for a differently designed motor . for example , the first generation of pistons in the winton motor only had about 50 , 000 miles of useful life , later extended to about 100 , 000 miles . emc 's next generation diesel motor had pistons with a useful life of over 500 , 000 miles . the problems were most acute under the operating conditions of locomotive , rather than stationary or marine , use . even with the problems of the 201a , their maintenance regime was significantly lower than for steam locomotives . 9900 and 9901 - 9903 were articulated trainsets , with common trucks ( jacobs bogies ) between each car . this caused operating problems , as train lengths could not be changed for demand and any single failure affected the entire train . all following power units were separate from their train , although four more articulated and semi - articulated were built . regular revenue service the zephyr 's power ( leading ) car was numbered 9900 , the baggage - coach combine car 505 , and the coach - observation 570 . the train was placed in regular service between kansas city , missouri , omaha and lincoln , nebraska , on november 11 , 1934 , replacing a pair of steam locomotives and six heavyweight passenger cars , weighing up to eight times as much as the zephyr . by june 1935 , it proved popular enough to add a fourth car , providing additional coach seating . the fourth car was originally a 40 - seat coach number 525 , but the following june it was switched to twin cities service , then back to the pioneer zephyr in december . car 525 remained on the train until june 1938 . just over five years after it was introduced , the pioneer zephyr crossed the one million mile mark in regular service on december 29 , 1939 , near council bluffs , iowa . ralph budd and the burlington capitalized on the zephyr 's success . however , most passenger trains needed larger capacity . thus , as the burlington made a transition to larger diesel - electric locomotives pulling individual passenger cars , new streamlined cars of standard size were ordered , which quickly became the standard of many railroads . however , burlington was determined to be the leader , and ordered its large " e " series passenger diesels to also be equipped with matching stainless - steel fluting . many of the burlington 's long distance named passenger trains began operating under the zephyr banner , including the nebraska zephyr , twin cities zephyr , and perhaps the most famous of the namesake , the california zephyr . on the second anniversary of the train 's famous dash , the original zephyr was rechristened the pioneer zephyr to distinguish it as the first of the burlington 's growing zephyr fleet . in 1938 , car 525 was replaced by car number 500 , a 40 - seat buffet / lounge car , to provide light meals . car number 505 , the baggage - coach combine , was rebuilt at this time into a full baggage car , but it kept its original windows . in regular service , the pioneer zephyr had its share of accidents . in 1939 it was involved in a head - on collision with a freight train that completely destroyed the cab . the train was rebuilt and re - entered revenue service soon afterward , but the accident strengthened the desire of locomotive designers to move the cab back from the front of the locomotive to above a large nose , as on emd f - unit and emd e - unit locomotives . since the pioneer zephyr was built of stainless steel , which is not as recyclable as aluminum , the train was spared from the metal recycling drives of world war ii . by contrast , union pacific 's m - 10000 , built of aluminum , was scrapped in 1942 for the war effort , among other reasons . in 1948 and 1949 , the pioneer zephyr was temporarily removed from service to participate in the chicago railroad fair 's " wheels a - rolling " pageant . the fair 's purpose was to celebrate 100 years of railroad history west of chicago , and the pioneer zephyr 's role in the pageant was to highlight the latest strides in railroad technology . it resumed regular passenger operations when the fair ended on october 2 , 1949 . by 1955 the pioneer zephyr 's route had been updated to run between galesburg , illinois , and saint joseph , missouri ; the trainset had been in continual service since 1934 , operating over nearly 3 million miles ( 4 . 8 million kilometres ) . the pioneer zephyr 's last revenue run was a trip from lincoln , nebraska , to kansas city , missouri , ( along the train 's regular revenue route ) that then continued to chicago on march 20 , 1960 . when amtrak took over passenger rail services in 1971 , the legendary zephyr name was preserved , and the california zephyr is an amtrak route in the 21st century . use in film press publicity had apparently first coined the term " silver streak " . the pioneer zephyr 's famous denver - chicago dash served as the inspiration for the 1934 film the silver streak starring charles starrett . in that story , the crew was racing to the boulder dam construction site with an iron lung , with only moments to spare . the original zephyr trainset was used for the exterior shots in the film , while interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage in hollywood . for the film , the " burlington route " nameplate on the train 's nose was replaced with one that read " silver streak " . legacy influence on trains the sensation caused by the new zephyr trainsets sparked intense competition centered on speed and styling in the region served by the cb & q. in may 1935 the milwaukee road introduced the class a steam - powered high speed streamliner locomotive on its chicago - twin cities hiawatha run . the styling of the class a was directly evocative of the zephyr , with a " shovel - nose " front end featuring a high - mounted headlamp ensconced in . another early adopter of streamline styling was the new york central railway with its commodore vanderbilt steam locomotive , showing styling elements borrowed from the zephyr , unveiled in december 1934 . a zephyr - type trainset , the flying yankee , started service between boston and portland , maine in april 1935 , signaling new competition for steam - powered passenger service on the east coast . the gulf , mobile , and northern rebel featured styling similar to that of the zephyr , entering service on july 10 , 1935 between new orleans and jackson , tennessee . the race was on nationally to develop faster and more stylish locomotives for passenger service , boosting the streamliner trend . style and structural elements of the zephyr were incorporated into the emc " e " series diesel locomotives introduced in 1937 , featuring " shovel - nose " front ends beneath their elevated cabs . the e5 units produced for cb & q paid homage to the original zephyr trainsets with a stainless steel body , fluted lower bodywork , horizontal black stripes across the front , and faux flanking the upper headlamp . the lightweight construction introduced to mainline service by the zephyr trainsets became the standard for new railcars used with the new emc - powered diesel streamliners such as the at & sf super chief . zephyr - mania with zephyr - mania sweeping the country , tributes turned up in the names of everything from sports teams to commercial products . in 1934 , father becker , principal of the newly built st. mary high school in , wisconsin , was so inspired by the dawn - to - dusk run that he chose " zephyrs " as the mascot for the new school . in galesburg , illinois , which is 162 rail miles from chicago , the local high school named all its athletic teams the " galesburg silver streaks " in honor of the train . in 1935 , the h. n. white company changed the name of its top - line saxophones to " king zephyr . " ford motor company introduced the " mercury zephyr " with the 1936 model year . if advertisers could find a way to cash in on zephyr - mania , they did . later years on may 26 , 1960 , the 26th anniversary of the " dawn - to - dusk " dash , the original pioneer zephyr train ( car numbers 9900 , 505 and 570 ) was donated to chicago 's museum of science and industry ( msi ) . car number 500 , which operated with the train from 1938 , went along with mark twain zephyr trainset 9903 to a party in mount pleasant , iowa , for static display in a town park , but plans for the train 's display did not work out ; car 500 and the mark twain zephyr are currently stored in granite city , illinois and plans are currently underway to display it in fairfield , iowa . msi displayed the pioneer zephyr outdoors , with no protection from the weather , until 1994 . at that time , the steam locomotive that shared the display space with the zephyr , santa fe # 2903 , was donated to the illinois railway museum ( irm ) at union , west of chicago , while msi prepared a new display location for the zephyr . msi dug a pit in front of the building and built a new display area for the zephyr , where it could be displayed year - round . in 1998 , after the train received a cosmetic restoration by northern rail car in milwaukee , wisconsin , the pit was finally ready to receive the train . rohn metal , known for its expertise in stainless steel fabrication , played a part in the interior restoration of the zephyr . the pioneer zephyr train is still on display at msi just outside the main entrance from the museum 's underground parking area , where it is one of the more popular exhibits . thomas rohn , owner of rohn metal , was " happy to lend his company 's expertise " in the train 's restoration . in addition to the pioneer zephyr , two other legacies remain . an operable nebraska zephyr train was donated to irm . there , powered by one of the large " e " series passenger diesels ( an emc e5 ) with the distinctive and durable stainless - steel fluting , it is still operated on short runs on the museum 's substantial trackage , providing train enthusiasts and tourists with an experience reminiscent of the heyday of the burlington 's zephyr service . the silver charger , power car of the general pershing zephyr , is on display at the museum of transportation in st. louis , and the same train 's " diner - parlour and observation car " is now the silver star cafe in port hedland , australia . also utilizing the name , the minnesota zephyr was a dinner train located in the historic city of stillwater , minnesota , although it was not directly associated with the historic burlington zephyr fleet . dorney park & wildwater kingdom in allentown , pennsylvania has a miniature replica train ride called zephyr which was built in 1935 and helped the park survive the great depression . models due to the zephyr 's place in american railroad history , many model have built their own versions of the pioneer zephyr in miniature . several model manufacturers are now producing commercial ready - to - run models or kits of the train for modelers to build . this list is ordered by the manufacturer 's release date : american flyer introduced one of the earliest versions of the zephyr in 1934 . originally sold as a three - car set , the body shells were produced in sand - cast aluminum and hand - polished to represent the stainless steel - skinned prototype . additional cars became available and the locomotive or " power unit " underwent some refinements during production ; and a less expensive stamped lithographed steel version was also produced . the zephyr set appeared in the 1934 - 1938 american flyer catalogs . with the purchase of the american flyer line in 1937 by the a. c. gilbert company , a new line of o scale ( 1 : 48 ) trains moved into production phasing out the zephyrs and previous o - scale products collectively known as " chicago flyer " . challenger imports imported limited production ready - to - run brass models in ho scale ( 1 : 87 ) of the four - car pioneer zephyr , mark twain zephyr and the boston and maine railroad 's maine cheshire and maine minuteman in 1993 . fine n - scale products released a kit in 1996 in n scale ( 1 : 160 ) that includes an option for car number 500 . con - cor made limited - run models available in both ho scale and n scale that were released in 2005 , and then again in 2012 . river raisin models released a ready - to - run model in s scale ( 1 : 64 ) of both the pioneer zephyr ( in three- and four - car configurations ) and the similar flying yankee , in 2005 . mth electric trains released a limited production ready - to - run model of the three - car pioneer zephyr in o scale in 2005 . in 2007 , fisher - price released an engine called " knight " for their rail & road system that is clearly inspired by the zephyr .