Twin Cities Zephyr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Twin Cities Zephyr was a passenger train service of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q). It was the second "Zephyr" service introduced by CB&Q following the record-setting Denver-Chicago "dawn to dusk dash" of the Pioneer Zephyr trainset. Since the service was inaugurated with an identical pair of diesel powered trains that ran in opposite directions, it was sometimes called the Twin Zephyrs. The service was discontinued in 1971 with the inauguration of Amtrak.

[edit] History

The first Twin Cities Zephyr entered service on December 18, 1936. For the first run, the two trainsets built for the service departed Chicago simultaneously on parallel tracks with several pairs of twins as a publicity stunt.^{[citation needed]}

The last run for the Twin Cities Zephyr service occurred in 1971 when Amtrak took over the majority of intercity passenger train service in the United States.^[1]

According to railroad house organ magazines, The Twin Cities Zephyrs for many years ran the highest average speeds in the United States between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul run , eased by by the gradual trackage along the Mississippi River.

[edit] Equipment used

Motive power for the Twin Cities Zephyr originally consisted of EMD E5 diesel-electric locomotives, in contrast to the Pioneer Zephyr's integrated power car.

[edit] References

• Zimmerman, Karl (2004). Burlington Zephyrs. Andover Junction Publications. ISBN 0-7603-1856-5. 

1. ^ The Decline of the Streamliner. Retrieved on 2006-12-17.

This United States train or rolling stock-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.