California Zephyr
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When the Roberts family moved from Palmdale to New England, I discovered (and became enamored with) trains. It now seems that every place I wanted to go was within travel distance by commuter train, with every museum and major landmark available to me.
Our house on Andover Street in Lawrence, Mass., was built in the late 19th century as a doctor's home and private hospital/clinic. It had many rooms and a huge attic. The Roberts' boys (my father, brother, and I) built a HO gauge model railroad in the attic on a 12'x8' plywood layout table. It featured mountains, rivers, a small town, and, oh, it also included model trains.
Even today, I still enjoy standing beside a diesel engine spooling up and leaving a train station.
After spending two years in New England, the Roberts family migrated westward. Farnsworth Electronics hired my father, and the Roberts family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana.[Note 1]
I joined the US Navy the following August and reported for duty at Naval Recruit Training Center (RTC), Great Lakes, Illinois, just north of Chicago in October. While I was at Great Lakes, the Roberts family moved to Denver, Colorado, and my dad went to work at the Martin-Denver missile test facility. [Note 3]
Christmas rolled around, and I got two weeks' leave. I took the train to Chicago's North Station and boarded the 'California Zephyr (CZ) for Denver. The sixteen-train-car Zephyr leaves after noon daily on its three-day trip to Oakland, CA. With stainless steel dome cars, dining cars, and sleepers, it was a sight to be seen. The Chicago-Denver segment was thirty-six hours long, giving passengers plenty of time to get to know each other.
Freshly showered and shaved, sea bag over my shoulder I was warmly greeted aboard by the Zephyr staff. Meals in the Dining Car were always delicious and served with decorum.
When I arrived in Denver, my dad was there to greet me. When I asked how he knew which train I was on, he replied that only three west-bound trains pass through Denver within ninety minutes. He took me by the Denver Mint, the State House, the Library, three museums, and five churches. He then told me I could find the rest of 'the entertainment' on my own.
It had been snowing, so we spent most of my leave indoors, except for a few evening excursions to check out "sailor entertainments".
Ten days later, I boarded the Zephyr for my return to Chicago. As the luck of the draw would have it, this segment had the same staff as my Chicago-Denver trip. I felt like I had returned home.
When I graduated from Electronics and Electricity Prep school thirteen weeks later, I returned to Denver aboard the Zephyr. As I approached the train (dressed in my whites sporting my new Seaman's stripes), the conductors and service staff greeted me, "Good afternoon, Mister Roberts. It's good to see that you are traveling with us again." It was kind of fun to be greeted with such warmth. Nearly three hundred people were ready to board in suits and dresses, and I was in my whites, and I am the one recognized by name.
The marketing department for Zephyr paid attention when they designed the route and the schedule. The train leaves at noon on day one, so that the train crosses the Midwest grain belt on the first night and passes through the Rockies during daylight hours. It crosses the Great Salt Lake during the second night to allow passengers to see the Sierra Nevadas during daylight hours.
In the 50s, the Zephyr stopped in the middle of West Embarcadero at Broadway. It didn't stop long, but it snarled traffic to have a train with sixteen cars plus engines parked in downtown Oakland. On the corner was a coffee shop where passengers could await the east-bound Zephyr. The one thing I remember about this venue was the map. On the far wall parallel to Broadway was a hand-painted mural of the California Zephyr route across the country with little vignettes of California life. Next to the restaurant was the Thunderbird Motel.
I made six round trips on the Zephyr that year. The California Zephyr still holds a special place in my memories.
- For my RCR-67 (2008) & RCR-70 (2011) birthday parties, several of the BackDrop staff and I boarded the 3 pm California Zephyr in Emeryville (EMY) [Note 4] and took the train to Reno, NV (RNO). We stayed overnight at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino and went to the Rail Museum in Portola, CA, the next day. One more night in Reno and back aboard the Zephyr for our return trip to Oakland and a ride home.
Upon our arrival at my home, we showered and took twelve-hour naps!
Notes
- ↑ Philo Farnsworth was the guy who designed raster-scan television
- ↑ The building just to the right and behind the CZ engine was a diner providing meals and beverages to CZ passengers. The rear wall of the restaurant had a 3d map of the CZ route from the Bay Area to Chicago.
- ↑ The Martin Titan ICBM missile test stand blew up while my father was in the missile control room. It moved the bunker (made of twelve-foot-thick concrete) ten feet off its foundation, and the resulting fire lasted three days.
- ↑ Todays three letter airport codes are a carry over from old railway codes. Three letters are required for brevity in Morse code, and three for a parity check. If the message didn't have a three-letter code, you knew there had been an error in transmission.
External links
- Pinterest California Zephyr post
- Video: "Ride the California Zephyr in the 1950s and 1960s" SKU: DVD-MLMP-CZ ($19.95)
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