California Zephyr 1969 Timetable

If yesterday’s timetable was one of the first ones issued for the California Zephyr, this one was the last one. Curiously, while yesterday’s has the logos of all three partner railroads, this one is just from the Western Pacific, the partner that would quit running the train a few months after this timetable was issued.


Click image to download a 1.2-MB PDF of this timetable.

The timetable is twice as big–four panels instead of two–as the 1950 edition. The extra panels are used for the color photo on the cover–you can barely see the train in the photo’s background–and for a map, list of agents, fares, and “general information” about the train. The timetable itself takes just one panel, and that includes listing the times of connecting trains to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Minneapolis.


The California Zephyr is doing a booming business in this 1969 photo taken near Tabernash, Colorado. At least three of the seven sleepers on this train are from other railroads. The front of the train has a Rio Grande Prospector coach and another foreign car to handle the overflow from the dome coaches. Click image for a larger view. Photo from The Best of Our Past.

As for the timetable itself, it is roughly the same as in 1950. Interestingly, the trip over the Western Pacific was faster in both directions, while the trip over the Burlington was slower in both directions and the Rio Grande portion was slower eastbound. This works out to a slightly longer eastbound trip but a westbound schedule that took exactly the same number of hours as in 1949.


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