RE: [CBQ] Re: Early Dome Trips (was Denver Zephyr Sign)

[HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com>]

Bill:
 
I have a slide or two (from a friend) of an introductory CZ run at Galesburg behind E5s in early 1949, but nothing on such a run for the TCZ.
 
My first dome ride was not until the introductory run out of Denver for the new DZ in October 1956.  Still have the silver souvenir tickets from that afternoon trip (my mother accompanied me, as I was just 11), which duplicated the introductory run of the 1936 DZ, going east from Denver to the wye at Tampa (where the Prospect Valley sugar beet spur left the main and headed south), turned and returned to Denver.  I had seen the domes on the CZ quite often, but up to that time had never had an occasion to ride that train.
 
I later rode Silver Dome a number of times, both on excursions and in regular service, and it was by far the most uncomfortable dome car ever built!  If you were unfortunate enough to be stuck in one of the longitudinal coach seats beneath the dome, you were almost guaranteed to hit your head when getting up from the seat -- even if you tried not to.
 
Hol 
 

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To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: clipperw@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 09:07:56 -0500
Subject: [CBQ] Re: Early Dome Trips (was Denver Zephyr Sign)

 

Pete,

I vaguely recall a ride with my parents on a dome equipped Zephyr train in the late 1940s. It was an introductory trip for the public before the train went into regular service. I believe we boarded the train in late afternoon or early evening at Downers Grove where we lived or one of the other suburban stations. It seems like the trip last a couple of hours or so and we returned to our starting point after dark. I was probably 4 - 6 years old at the time. I have always thought that the trip was the introduction of the dome equipped Twin Cities Zephyr (the third set) which would have been in 1947, but it could have been the CZ. It definitely was not the dome equipped DZ, introduced in 1956. 

I don't know where we rode to, but in my child's mind's eye, it seemed like a long ways. It was my first ride in a dome car and would not be repeated until the 4000/637 fan trip to Streator in Sept, 1956. Does anyone else recall such a trip in the Chicago area?

Bill Barber

Gravois Mills, MO

On Oct 22, 2013, at 4:52 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:

Re: Denver Zephyr Sign

Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:41 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

petehedgpeth

Rich et al

Even though I said it was 49...I'll go with 1945 for my trip Hamburg to Langdon...I was very young then...As in the case of the Dome on DZ I did make the actual trip and it was on the original dome car...Give me credit...I did get the name right.

As I asked before....do we know when the Silver Dome began its "try out" trips around the system and where the car actually ran during it's promotional tours.

I am repenting in "Sackcloth and Ashes"

Pete

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