Yep, yep, and yep, I reside up near the famous CB&Q's racetrack, the three track span that goes from Chicago's Union Station to the Quad Cities, where the Zephyrs of old used to roam. Currently it's served by Amtrak, with their version of the California Zephyr, the Carl Sandburg(day trains), and the Illinois Zephyr(day trains) with the suburbs utilizing parts of it for the Metra service, as it was decreed in May 1971 that all passenger service would be turned over to a national passenger rail system. Some of the names stayed the same, but many of the lines(this is nationwide now) were all but removed. The transition to a uniform set of cars was also gradual. I remember from the pictures that when the passenger lines came under one system, you started seeing not only CB&Q cars, but also GN's Big Sky Blue cars, WP cars, BN cars, I mean it really looked like a rainbow of cars going by, lol. I also have an affinity for the N&W's passenger lines, and this happened to them as well. What was neat was on that fateful day, they decided that they were going to round up all of the passenger cars for the still existing Pocahontas route, locate a 4-8-4, which was actually a NKP engine, and send them off in the grandest way possible.
The humor is I belonged to a train club here who had members who were NUTS for the Zephyr lines(think every detail, every car, every locomotive in brass and in the consist must be as accurate as possibe kinda nuts). If I forgot any of this information on the Zephyrs or CB&Q's heritage, may I be struck down from above somehow, lol.
The humor is I belonged to a train club here who had members who were NUTS for the Zephyr lines(think every detail, every car, every locomotive in brass and in the consist must be as accurate as possibe kinda nuts). If I forgot any of this information on the Zephyrs or CB&Q's heritage, may I be struck down from above somehow, lol.
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