(Comments on the restoration of Flying Yankee in New Hampshire)
My question is this: What hope is there for a Zephyr being restored and
returned to some kind of service?
One of the "rationalized" (5 out of 7 cars) Nebraska Zephyrs (nee 2nd Twin
Cities Zephyr) was, last I heard, still operational at the Illinois Railroad
Museum in Union, IL, matched with the sole surviving E5A.
Of much more interest to me (see e-mail address), the Mark Twain Zephyr
survives (together with coach dinette 500 from the Pioneer). It was purchased
from a Kansas City banker's estate about 20 years ago by a Chicago attorney who
planned to restore it for gamblers' runs from Chicago to the Quad Cities to
reach the Iowa riverboat casinos.
Unfortunately for him, before the investments had come in, Illinois legalized
its own boats, and the whole project went into limbo. About five years ago (and
with much fanfare), the attorney transferred the MTZ to a rail rebuilder in
Minooka, IL, claiming that it would be fully restored and placed in fan trip
service. Meanwhile, nothing has happened (except that the attorney is reported
to have threatened model manufacturers with lawsuits if they do models or
images of 9903 without paying royalties to him). So - MTZ is reasonably safe,
but in limbo.
In addition, parts of one of the original (1936) Denver Zephyrs have been
reported intact in South Dakota, but no restoration plans are known to me. The
other DZ was sold to Saudi Arabian Royal Railway ca 1970. I have been unable to
determine whether it is still in operation (or in existence) - but the KC
banker had bought the MTZ to refurbish and sell to the Saudis, dying before
that could be done.
9908 Silver Charger is at the National Museum of Transportation at Barrett
Street Station, St. Louis, in an advanced state of restoration. The problem
there is that the ground rules of the NMT endowment include that no restored
equipment may be operated. (In order for Frisco 1522 to be operated, it had to
be formally transferred from NMT to an operating group).
9900 is at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and r4ecently
underwent a complete restoration. MSI appears to operate under rules similar to
the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, where exhibits are restored to complete
operational standards, but not allowed to fly for fear of damage or loss.
As for the rest of the original Zephyrs, 9901 was destroyed by fire in 1944;
9902 was scrapped in the mid-fifties; shovel-nose A units 9904-07 were
converted to boosters in 1952, and scrapped 1955-56; the DZ B-units were
scrapped '54-'56; the other TCZ II/NZ set was scrapped in '68.
Of the 9 Zephyrs built between 1934 and 1939, the survival of all or part of
six of them is truly amazing - but it doesn't get us any closer to having more
than one operate <sigh>
Marshall Thayer - zephyr9903@e...
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