   #copyright

General Pershing Zephyr

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   The General Pershing Zephyr in 1939 near Denver, Colorado.
   Enlarge
   The General Pershing Zephyr in 1939 near Denver, Colorado.
   9908 Silver Charger hauling a regular train in 1946.
   Enlarge
   9908 Silver Charger hauling a regular train in 1946.

   The General Pershing Zephyr was the ninth of the Chicago, Burlington
   and Quincy Railroad's Zephyr streamliners, and the last built as an
   integrated streamliner rather than a train hauled by an EMD E-unit
   diesel locomotive. It was constructed in 1939 with bodywork and
   passenger cars by Budd Company and diesel engine, electric
   transmission, power truck, and other locomotive equipment by General
   Motors' Electro-Motive Division. Because its intended Kansas City,
   Missouri to St. Louis, Missouri route passed near the birthplace and
   boyhood home of famous World War I General John J. Pershing, the train
   was named after him. The power car was named Silver Charger, after
   Pershing's horse Charger, while the passenger cars were named after
   U.S. Army badges of rank—Silver Leaf, Silver Eagle, and Silver Star.

   Unlike previous Zephyrs, the General Pershing Zephyr was completely
   non-articulated; each car was self-contained and joined to the next by
   couplers, rather than shared trucks. The inflexibility of the
   articulated layout had been recognised; it was hard to lengthen,
   shorten, or replace parts of the train. The route did not require a
   high-capacity train nor a powerful locomotive, so the General Pershing
   Zephyr returned to the pattern of the first Pioneer Zephyr, being a
   power/baggage car and three trailers.

   The power car, 9908 Silver Charger, was unique. It utilised the new EMD
   567 V-12 engine developing 1,000 hp, like half of the contemporary EMD
   E3. It had one Martin Blomberg-designed E-unit A1A passenger truck at
   the front, driving the outer axles and with a centre idler axle, and an
   unpowered trailing truck, giving it the unusual wheel arrangement of
   A1A-2. The back half of the power car was a baggage area.

   The train ran its assigned route until World War 2 disrupted things in
   1942, following which the trainset ran many different routes. As 9908
   Silver Charger was really a separate locomotive, it continued in
   service hauling other trains after the rest of the streamlined trainset
   was withdrawn. In this form it lasted in service until 1966, following
   which it was donated to the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis,
   Missouri.

   The diner-lounge-observation car Silver Star was sold to AMAX Iron Ore
   Corporation in 1974 and given to Mt Newman Mining (now part of BHP
   Billiton) in Western Australia and renamed Sundowner. It was used for
   many years as passenger accommodation on the fortnightly supply train
   to the mines. As at 2006, it is still used for VIP and inspection
   trains.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Pershing_Zephyr"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
