Way of the Zephyr – A 1943 Railroad Snapshot

Hey everybody. Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.

What I have today is an unused Burlington Route railroad ticket holder envelope. This was pulled from one of a couple of lots I purchased from a local online auction sometime late last year.

It’s just over 6 x 3” and the front says Burlington Route, Everywhere West. It has one train above and 2 trains below. The background color is now a faded light green with a hint of yellow even and I do believe its because it may have once been a light blue as the images of the trains and the text are a navy blue.

On the underside of the envelope’s flap, it’s set up like a form, with various blank fields to be filled in. Your name, address, where you’re going. A breakdown of Rail and Pullman fare and taxes. Your train number via which railroad, station departing from and even the salesman’s name.

At the bottom it says, “30,000 Burlington Employees thank you for your business and welcome you as a traveling guest.”

The lower left is stamped, FORM 5062, 3-43 200M. While I couldn’t find exact documentation on these types of envelopes and how they were dated, based on other things I’ve come across before, I do believe the 3-43 would stand for March 1943 in which it was printed and the 200M, with M being the Roman Numeral for 1,000 so, 200,000 being printed.

1943 would fall in line, as the other side of the envelope says, COOPERATION WILL HELP WIN THE WAR. Materials, labor and plant capacity are so urgently required for ships, tanks, planes and guns that the American railroad and civilian public have been asked to help win the war by getting along without additional passenger equipment for the duration.

Here are some helpful suggestions:

Travel during the middle of the week, whenever possible, so as to avoid weekend travel peaks.
Spread vacation travel, so far as practical, over the entire year instead of concentrating it into a few weeks.
Travel light – check baggage you will not require en route.
Consult any Burlington representative for travel advice; you can profit by the counsel of travel experts.

The back of the ticket envelope says, Way of the Zephyrs followed by listing all of them along with their interchanges and connections at the time.

And I found some information on most of the listed trains and I’ll share a bit about them here.

As I was trying to figure out an order to talk about everything, I realized there’s not necessarily going to be one outside of pretty much following the envelope down the list. Since I don’t have any experience in trains or knowledge in trains whatsoever, I look at everything I’m going to talk about as interesting on an individual level, because it is. As a whole the railway system is incredible and I’m sure there are connections, no pun intended, I could have or should have made but, I may not have made a one. If you’re curious like me though, we’ll be fine.

Having said that, if you do know your trains and I’m way off on something, definitely let me know where I can turn to to get further information.

So, starting with the Denver Zephyr, it ran between Chicago & Denver, operating from May 1936 to 1973. In October of 1936, it broke a world record. The Chicago Tribune wrote about it saying, “Streaking 1,017 miles across four states from daylight to dusk the Burlington streamlined, stainless steel Denver Zephyr established a new world’s long distance train speed record today by pulling into this city at 8:12 ½ p.m.”

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Zephyr**

It ended up taking 12 hours 12 minutes and 27 seconds nonstop. With the average speed being 83.4 miles per hour and for 1 mile within the trip, it did reach 116 miles per hour.

They wrote of how farmers were watching from the fields basically mesmerized by how quickly someone could get from one place to another. And how, in the baggage coach “conductors and brakemen, huddle over their fat watches and anxiously check off the familiar landmarks. “We’re goin’ up hill now,” said one.”

**Newspapers.com – Subscription needed**

Next, The Twin Zephyrs ran between Chicago and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. going from 1935 to 1971. They had a Morning Zephyr and an Afternoon Zephyr.

They eventually expanded to 7 cars each and one was called “Train of the Goddesses,” with cars named, Juno, Minerva, Venus, etc. The other, the “Train of the Gods.” with cars named Apollo, Cupid, Jupiter and so on.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Zephyr**

In 1947, a tragedy occurred in Downers Grove, Illinois, when a tractor fell from a freight train onto a parallel track and into the path of the ‘Train of the Goddesses,’ which was traveling around 75 miles per hour. The collision caused a derailment, injuring many and resulting in the deaths of two passengers and the engineer.

The Zephyr Rocket was an overnight passenger train, running between St. Louis and the Twin Cities. It operated from 1941 to 1967. And an old advertisement I found highlighted the fact it had, “Drawing rooms, double bedrooms, standard berths. Deep-cushioned reclining seats in coaches. Extra comfort, no extra fee.”

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_Rocket**

In 1949 the Zephyr Rocket collided with a freight train who’s car had become detached and was unable to re-attach and clear the line in time. The 2 hit head on injuring 19 with 3 being seriously hurt.

The Mark Twain Zephyr operated between 1935 and 1958 and it traveled from St. Louis up to Burlington, Iowa, with a stop through Hannibal, Missouri, Mark Twain’s hometown. Its 3 cars were named Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer, and Huck Finn. The engine named Injun Joe.

In 1945 an article in the Morning Star out of Rockford, IL wrote about how President Truman was 1 of many prominent people invited to the 10^thanniversary of the christening of the Mark Twain Zephyr.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain_Zephyr**

The Texas Zephyr was a passenger train operated by the Colorado and Southern Railway and Fort Worth and Denver Railway which were both subsidiaries of the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad. Its first date of service was in 1940. It was also under contract with the U.S. Mail railway post office or RPO. And when the Post Office Department canceled all “mail by rail” in 1967, that ended its run. And the U.S. Postal Service stopped using railway altogether in 1977.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Zephyr**

The Sam Houston Zephyr connected with the Texas Zephyr in Dallas. The streamlined train began service on October 1, 1936, during Texas’ centennial year, and was named after the state’s hero, Sam Houston. It lasted 30 years, ending service in 1966.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Houston_Zephyr**

The Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr got its name from the fraternal organization, civic and philanthropic group, The Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. It was established by Omaha’s elite businessmen and maintained strict racial barriers with African American members not being admitted until the 1960s. I found an article from The Omaha Evening Bee out of Omaha, dated April 21, 1895 that says, “The committee whose duty it is to select a name for state fair week fetes have made a happy selection. They have taken the word Nebraska, cut it into three sections and written it backward.”

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ak-Sar-Ben_Zephyr** or **Newspapers.com – Subscription Needed**

On to the Pioneer Zephyr. It was the first trainset in 1934 to be put into revenue service. The 1934 movie, the Silver Streak, was inspired by the Pioneer’s historic dash where it made a 1,015.4 mile non-stop “Dawn-to-Dusk” dash. It took 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of almost 78 mph with a small stretch of that reaching a speed of 112.5 mph. Its nickname became the Silver Streak.

**Later named Pioneer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Zephyr**

Later, in 1940, when a new train began its run, it ended up being officially named The Silver Streak Zephyr which ran until 1959.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Streak_Zephyr**

The Exposition Flyer went from 1939 to 1949. Service began due to making the decision to carry passengers to the Golden Gate International Exposition. The GGIE was a World’s Fair operating in 1939 and again in 1940 to celebrate the newly built San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Flyer**

**One of my postcards of the Oakland Bay Bridge**

This one had numerous accidents. One in 1941 where it collided head-on with a steam locomotive. 2 accidents occurring in 1946. One was a derailment in Nevada. The other which was the deadliest in which the Expedition hit the Advance Flyer which had made an unscheduled stop to check its running gear. This ended up with 45 deaths and 125 injuries.

The envelope has American Royal listed under the Steam Trains but, in searching, all I found was the American Royal Zephyr which was not listed on my envelope with the other Zephyrs. And then, I see its first service wasn’t until 1953. So, I don’t know exactly what that means.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Royal_Zephyr**

But, as far as the American Royal Zephyr, it was named after the Midwest’s largest and oldest livestock exhibition which when I saw this, it reminded me I have an old booklet I purchased at a thrift store that is all but fully falling apart, it is so bad but, the printed calendar on the inside is from 1921. On the back it says, Clay Robinson & Co. Live Stock Commission.

It has handwriting in pencil and things that were purchased, what was paid for it and maybe I’ll do an episode on this one day.

When it comes to The Black Hawk, Wikipedia doesn’t have much about it at all. But it did offer overnight service as a nighttime counterpart to the morning and afternoon Twin Zephyrs I’d mentioned earlier.

Another one on the envelope says The North Coast Limited which I found launched in 1900. It was operated by Northern Pacific Railway and was known for it’s dining services.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Coast_Limited**

And the last one called Adventureland left me empty-handed really. I came across a Wikipedia page called Adventureland and it has a bunch of amusement parks listed, a film, a video game, and the last thing it says Adventureland train but, all it says there is “a Burlington Route passenger train from Kansas City, Missouri to Billings, Montana” So, at least that matches what my ticket holder says.

The last train I’ll talk about from the envelope is The Empire Builder. It was introduced in 1929 and is still around today, now operated by Amtrak. In 1931, a tornado struck the train while in MN and 117 passengers were on board. All cars except for the locomotive and coal tender were thrown from the tracks with one car being thrown 80 feet off track. One passenger died with 57 others injured. It ran daily for almost a century until service was reduced due to COVID-19 in Oct 2020. At that time they moved to tri-weekly runs and in March of 2021 Amtrak announced it would go back to it’s daily schedule.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Builder**

The Empire Builder was named in honor of J. James Hill born 1838. He was a railway entrepreneur and the CEO of lines lead by The Great Northern Railway. Wikipedia quotes Hill as saying, “What we want is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it.” It goes on to say, The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants, and one of the few not to go bankrupt.

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Hill**

When he died in 1916, he was worth more than $63,000,000 which is roughly $1.9 billion today.

I was curious about how fast trains are allowed to go and of course, it depends. Track type matters along with if it’s freight for passenger. There’s a chart on Wikipedia saying on a Class 1 track, freight is set to 10mph with passengers set to 15.

And on the chart it goes up to Class 9 but, the small print says there’s currently no Class 9 high-speed rail in the U.S. and that Amtrak has done test runs on Acella trains at 165 mph.

As far as Amtrak goes, it operates like a business, but is owned primarily by the U.S. government receiving both federal and state subsidies. It started carrying passengers in 1971. While it does sell tickets and brings in revenue, the subsidies support routes that wouldn’t be profitable on their own. Today, it does serve much of the United States.

I’m happy to say I do have at least one story and one connection to a train. When I was 18 I somehow knew, I just knew, I wanted to be with my boyfriend forever. We had talked about marriage and I let him know how I felt.

We went to dinner one night at a local historic railroad-themed restaurant where the dining rooms were refurbished railroad cars. We had a private room and I remember it like it was yesterday. He proposed to me that night, I said yes, and six years later we did get married and 29 years later, we are still together.

When the restaurant closed down, a local museum called, Wheels O’ Time took them and now they’re displayed so you can walk through them. If you ever go, you’re going to need to have 3, 4, 5 hours set aside to go through. It’s pretty incredible. We visited not all that long ago and it was so comforting knowing that it was saved.

In the end, I’m not fully sure when this little blue envelope was made or when it would have been used. I guess all I really know is, it’s a little faded, blank, and wasn’t fully used but, it too was saved.

I’ll share the link to this episode over at RetellSeller.com, R-E-T-E-L-LSELLER.com in the show notes which is where you’ll find endless amounts of links that I found and shared today.

I could have told SO many more stories. There were good stories, frustrating stories, and shocking ones. Most of which would not have been the route, no pun intended, I wanted to take. It can be hard to stay on track though ya know? Okay, pun intended.

Thank you for joining me. As I shared a snippet of the past, I’d love to know if it connected with you in some way. Did it spark a memory or make you see something differently? If so, consider sharing it. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional info, links and ways to connect. It’s not nostalgia, it’s human. Until next time, may you find something worth holding onto.

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DISCLAIMER: The content on this site is for storytelling purposes only.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & INFO:

Any Newspapers.com links will require a subscription to view them. I am not currently an affiliate.

Denver Zephyr:

Twin Zephyr: