Movie (9m 28s)
The California Zephyr operated between Chicago and the west coast from March 20, 1949 to March 22, 1970. The journey covered 2,525 miles in 51 hours, and included two nights of widely differing sleep options en route.
The motive power for the journey was split into three segments: The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad moved the passenger consist from Chicago to Denver, at which point the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad took the consist on to Salt Lake City. From there, the Western Pacific Railroad continued on to the San Francisco area.
This movie is a fanciful interpretation of one such journey.
Featured are EMD F3 motive power liveries of:
•Chicago, Burlington, Quincy (CB&Q)
•Denver Rio Grande (DRG)
•Western Pacific (WP)
and
•General Motors (GM) Train of Tomorrow (EMD E7A)