Sam Houston Zephyr

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Does anybody have information on a typical consist for the CB&Q/FWD Sam Houston Zephyr from the late 40s/early50s? I’ve got several references, including about 10 years of the Burlington Route Historical Society Bulletin, but I can’t find, or have overlooked, this information.

I know that the SHZ left Dallas for Houston in the evening during that period, so I’m guessing it had sleeping cars as well as maybe day/night chair cars. Did it ever have a dome car?

Thanks for any insight, and bonus thanks if anybody has specific named cars that ran on the SHZ.

2

I can’t offer you any information as the Zephyrs I model are a bit north of where you’re looking. However, you may want to post this question on the CBQ Yahoo group as well.

Edit: Just did a quick check, looks like it was just chair cars and a diner, only a 5 hour run in the morning #4 (Houston-Ft Worth) or evening #5 (Ft Worth-Houston) so no sleeping cars.

http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track9/samhouzeph195008.html

The other sources I had access to didn’t specify specific cars or trainset after 1944.

Ricky

3

Hello,

Ricky is right about the timings: The Sam Houston Zephyr was a day train northbound and an evening train southbound, so it didn’t need sleepers*. Official Guide* entries from the late '40s and early '50s list it as carrying a dining/parlor car and chair cars. Photos from around that time show a single E unit (E7 or E8, maybe even an E5 on occasion) with a baggage-express car, four or five chair cars, and a diner/parlor/observation. All the cars were Budd fluted-stainless lightweights.

So long,

Andy

4

Thanks both Ricky and Andy. That is exactly what I was looking for.

5

First you’re welcome!

Second, still not the expert in this, but I would imagine most cars would be the pre-war flat top (non dome) Budd cars. Easily identified from the post war cars on the Q as the pre-war had skirts with cutouts at the wheels and post war cars had full skirts.

EDIT: Found some nice pics

http://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=sam+houston+zephyr&t=fulltext

Ricky