Hi Gang,
This weekend a fellow Burlington fan came up with an interesting question
that I thought would be a good one to post to the list. What was the
"official "name of the Zephyrs that went from Chicago to the Twin Cities?
I did some research in the material the BRHS has and found some interesting
things. I would be interested in other's findings and opinions. Here's
what I found:
It appears that the "Twin Zephyr" name was used to describe the "service" or
the trains in general, while the terms "Morning Zephyr" and "Afternoon
Zephyr" was used to describe specifically scheduled trains.
The earliest evidence I found was a press release dated March 18, 1935,
which refer to the subject Zephyrs as the "TWIN ZEPHYRS."
All of the early brochures, newspaper ads and pamphlets for the 1st set of
Zephyrs exclusively called them the "TWIN ZEPHYRS." One of the brochures
provides photographic evidence that the tail car carried the number(s)
9901/9902 near the center of the car's sides and the artist's rendition show
the words "Burlington-Zephyr" towards the rear of the car.
The first Burlington reference of the use "Twin Cities Zephyr" I found in a
1945, 10th Anniversary pamphlet...the cover, the captioning and the majority
of the text uses "Twin Zephyr," but in the last paragraph, announcing that
in "...the summer of 1945 it is planned that a unique glass-domed car, based
upon designs developed by general Motors, will be demonstrated on the Twin
Cities Zephyrs."
However, the brochures of 1948, regarding the "New Twin Zephyrs...featuring
Vista Dome Cars" never use "Cities" in the train's name.
One of the brochures from the 1949 Chicago Railroad Fair uses only "Twin
Zephyrs," while the November 1949 pamphlet "From Wagon Wheel to Stainless
Steel" labels the route on its centerfold map "Twin City Zephyr."
A July, 1957 brochure uses only the "Twin Zephyr" name.
So...it appears that the "official" name of the trains was the "Twin
Zephyr," but it later became known as the "Twin Cities Zephyr."
Dave
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