This is what other railroads call a “condensed” timetable, but Burlington just calls it “schedules of principal trains.” It manages to squeeze a lot of trains into seven panels, but still leaves out a number of branch line trains. Click … Continue reading
Here’s a dinner menu with the same date, March 1956, as yesterday’s lunch menu. This one is obviously marked for the Kansas City Zephyr instead of the Nebraska Zephyr, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the zephyrs during … Continue reading
In the mid-1950s, someone at the Burlington Route decided that all Zephyr menus should follow a single brand standard. This standard dispensed with beautiful cover photos of trains or scenery and enticing descriptions of places to go by train on … Continue reading
The illustration on this menu cover shows a Burlington E5 locomotive lettered “California Zephyr” pulling a train through Colorado’s Gore Canyon. Of course, no locomotives were ever lettered for the California Zephyr and Burlington locomotives are not likely to have … Continue reading
Here’s another Twin Zephyr menu, this one dated 1950. By that time, Burlington had replaced the 1936 Twin Zephyrs with the world’s first domeliner in scheduled service, consisting of a baggage-refreshment car, four dome coaches, a diner and dome-observation car. … Continue reading
The original three-car (including locomotive) Twin Zephyrs featured in yesterday’s brochure had 88 seats, but the trains were so popular that Burlington immediately made plans to replace them with a six-car (plus locomotive) train that had 222 revenue seats. The … Continue reading
This 1937 Burlington vacation guide features cover art by Paul Proehl (1887-1965), who I am surprised to realize I haven’t mentioned before as he did work for both Chicago & North Western and Illinois Central. An Illinois native, Proehl received … Continue reading
Yesterday’s brochure noted that the Twin Zephyrs were inaugurated in April, 1935, and each ran in the afternoon between Chicago and Minneapolis. By July, the trains had proven both reliable and popular enough for Burlington to schedule two daily round-trips. … Continue reading
This brochure was apparently handed out on a publicity run of the original Twin Zephyr from Minneapolis to Chicago, as it notes that “Jack Ford, who piloted the first Zephyr” on its 1934 Denver-to-Chicago record-breaking trip, “will accompany the new … Continue reading
In 1929, Burlington issued a California escorted tour booklet jointly with the Santa Fe railroad. That booklet described just one 22-day tour that went on the Santa Fe from Chicago to Los Angeles with stopovers in Santa Fe and the … Continue reading
