The Mark Twain Zephyr

Using the fourth set of streamlined Zephyr equipment made for the Burlington, this train was inaugurated in October, 1935 between St. Louis and Burlington, where it connected with the Aristocrat. In keeping with the theme, the power car was named Injun Joe (injun-engine–get it?) and the cars were named Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher.


Click image to download a 1.9-MB PDF of this brochure.

The Mark Twain Zephyr continued on the Burlington-St. Louis route for just seven months, after which it was temporarily diverted to Chicago-Denver route to compete with the Union Pacific City of Denver, which was finished before Burlington’s Denver Zephyr. Thus, this brochure must be from late 1935 to early 1936.

The rosy-cheeked portrayal of Mark Twain on the cover looks more like Santa Claus than Samuel Clemens. Clemens was a world-class cynic, and there are few, if any, photographs of him smiling. But, while cynicism may sell seats in theaters, it doesn’t sell seats on trains.


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