CHICAGO Museum of Science and
Industry - June, 2012
The Pioneer Zephyr (and other images)
Note - Click on any small photo to see larger
version
Front
view of the Pioneer
Zephyr, a diesel-electric train formed of 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
shotwelding (a specialized type of spot welding) to join the stainless
steel, and articulation to reduce its weight. The train was VERY light
weight and the streamlining enabled it to reach 112.5 MPH, which was FAST in
1934.
Side
view of Burlington Zephyr in the museum. Tours of the train are free and
feature an annimated presentation in each car.
Rear
of the Burlington Zephyr. Note the stainless steel skirt over the rear
bogey. Classy!!
This
is the baggage car. The donkey ("Zephyr") is animated and he moves and
talks in time with the historic movie that plays on the monitor above him.
He's very convincing - so much so that you want to pet him.
This is the "radio" car. It's a coach with a radio / PA system. Mannequins
represent various typical 1934 passengers (bearing in mind that the coach fare
was $8 and the Observation car was $12 for the Denver to Chicago trip in 1934).
This
is the observation car with animated mannequins. They are very well done
and give a narrative summary of the trip while various scenes go by. The
scenes are displayed on the four "windows," which are actually rear-projection
movie screens. Very realistic - looks like you are actually on the train.
Inside
the baggage compartment which is behind the engine in the first car of the unit
train. It has a virtual postmaster who explains the standard RPO process.
This
is the engine compartment, looking back towards the baggage room. On the
exhaust (fireman's side) of the Winton 201A diesel engine.
Engine
compartment, looking towards the cab, fireman's side.
Engine
compartment, looking towards the cab, engineer's side. Note the air tanks
on the right.
View
of the cab from the fireman's seat. It's very cramped; you cannot get
between the engineer's and the fireman's seats in the cab. You must exit
the cab, go around the rear of the engine, and back up the other side of the
cab. Lots of fun if she's in run 8!
This
is the air compressor. It's driven off of the front of the generator and
sits in between the engineer and the fireman!
Engineer's
seat. I couldn't get into it because the plexiglass barricade was too high
and cab door was in the way. I almost tried to get into it, but decided
that it would not be cool to get stuck trying! The Zephyr scared the
engineer's who ran it. There was absolutely no protection in front and the
seating positions in the cab were relatively low; only about 12 feet off of the
ground. They did say that it was thrilling to run though. She would
do over 110 MPH (which it hit ocassionally on the run between Denver and
Chicago) and the train averaged about 77 MPH on the trip. In 1934, that
was FAST!
This
is the view out of the front of the cab, fireman's side. A museum
management staff person walked by while I was sitting in the seat.
Fortunately, it's hard to see anybody in the cab from the floor of the museum.