Denver Zephyr

The Denver Zephyr was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad streamliner that linked Chicago with Denver, and at times Colorado Springs, from 1936 until Amtrak dropped the name in 1973. It began with the Pioneer Zephyr and Mark Twain Zephyr trainsets as the Advance Denver Zephyr, then gained two ten-car, partly articulated stainless steel trainsets from the Budd Company, one of which made a record nonstop run from Chicago to Denver in just over twelve hours in October 1936. Each was led by a General Motors Electro-Motive Division diesel unit bodied by Budd. In 1956 the Burlington replaced them with a conventional Budd train carrying Vista-Dome cars and the new slumbercoach sleeper, the last complete streamliner built for a private American railroad.