Pioneer Zephyr

The Pioneer Zephyr, original Burlington Zephyr, was one of the first power line segments, which were used in passenger transport in the United States. Its futuristic design made ​​him a style icon.

Name

The train is by Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind, named. Originally just called Zephyr, he was then introduced as Pioneer Zephyr to the public and then reversed commercially as Burlington Zephyr. Besides these official designations of the train also Silver Streak (Silver line ) was called.

Technology

The Pioneer Zephyr was a diesel articulated railcars, which was built in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB & Q) by Budd. The bodyshell of the railcar camped on Jakobs trucks. The structure of the vessels was largely carried out in stainless steel, which has been joined by means of spot welding.

The drive was about an 8- cylinder diesel engine of Winton 201- A, which drove a generator of General Electric, which supplied the two traction motors suspended the driving bogie with power.

The train is one of the first power line segments, which have been used successfully in the United States. On the part of the staff there was also criticism of the vehicle. Since the engineer had his work behind a glass wall at the top of the train, he was extremely vulnerable during collisions. Therefore, the space engineer's higher and further moved the vehicle backwards in later designs for diesel locomotives and railcars.

First Appearances

After the delivery of the train was first used in 1934 to promote travel to the CB & Q. Among these was on 26 May 1934, a speed record on the route between Denver, Colorado, and Chicago. The train covered the 1633 km long route in a day's drive of 13 hours and 5 minutes, which corresponds to a cruising speed of 124 km / h. The top speed of 181 km / h was reached, which in the U.S. was only slightly below the then- record speed for land vehicles. This record attempt was the trigger for two film projects that focus on the train stood.

Commercial traffic

From 11 November 1934, the train has been commercially deployed and perverted it between Kansas City, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. Later, the train was also used on other connections until it was withdrawn from circulation in 1960. He was then the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago paid. There are exhibited today:

• The motor car, which includes the cab, the staff toilets and a mail compartment. The latter possessed a post fishing hook, with the mail bags that were hung in special racks while driving could be collected;
• The middle car with baggage compartment, kitchen and a small metropolitan area second-class compartment for smokers;
• The end and pulpit car with a Large Second Class, toilets for travelers and a compartment at the rear of the train prospect for travelers first class.

In this embodiment, the train was shown on the promotional tours and in this composition, the record drive between Denver and Chicago took place. So the train could carry 84 travelers. In commercial traffic he received served to increase the number of passengers that could be transported more cars.