That's right, those three Pullman betterment cars (meaning modernized with streamlined roofs, skirting and full width diaphragms) were used for several years in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, the last heavyweight sleepers used on 29-20. Here's a link to an Otto Perry photo of
Zephyr Tower set out beside the Broomfield, Colo., depot after the head-on collision there in September 1959 between No. 30 and northbound freight No. 77.
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/43982/rec/1 The
Tower series sleepers were replaced by a variety of lightweight cars, details of which can be found in the
Classic Trains article on "The Nightcrawler" that appeared in the September 2011 issue of that publication. A full history of passenger train service on the Denver-Billings line may be found in the final article of three by Russ Powers, this one covering the Denver-Cody-Billings line and the Sterling-Cheyenne Branch, and appearing in the Winter 20-13-14 issue of The Timetable Collector, publication of the National Association of Timetable Collectors.
And responding to the other query, 29-30 were the only trains over the line through Worland after the mid-1920s, when trains 31-32 were cut back first to Denver-Casper and then to Denver-Cheyenne -- except during the summer months between 1936 and 1941 when trains 25-26, the
Buffalo Bill, were operated between Denver and Cody. Dining car service on the trains changed many times over the years, but there was never more than one dining car assigned to cover both 29 and 30, and it was generally changed out at a point in northern Wyoming, but by the early 1950s the dining car was gone and short meal stops were the order of the day.
Hol Wagner
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:39:20 -0600
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Train 29/30 ?
John,
In John Strauss Jr's book Burlington Route Passenger Trains Vol. 2
he states that a Tower series (8 sections-3 double bedrooms-1
drawing room) (names Zephyr Tower, Missouri Tower and Denver Tower)
was assigned to 29 and 30 in 1959 between Denver in Billings during
July and August and between Denver and Greybull the remainder of the
year. There is a page of photos of Zephyr Tower and Denver Tower
from Hol Wagner (taken 1963-64) in Bill Glick's Burlington Passenger
Car Photo Album. They show a centered Pullman in Zephyr type
lettering with the car name in Zephyr type lettering on a car
painted to match the stainless steel consists.
If modeling the train in HO, NKP Car Company recently produced the
Tower series cars as kits and The Coach Yard has announced them as
brass models.
Bill Hirt
C&S/CB&Q Train 29/30 carried a Pullman car Denver to
Billings late forties to late fifties, does anyone know what
kind ?(8-1-2 or 10-1-2 maybe). Was it lettered Pullman or
Burlington? If it was Pullman, was it sub-lettered CB&Q on
the ends of the letterboard? And last but least, did it have a
name ?
__._,_.___
Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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