Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
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Template:Infobox SGRailroad The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Template:Reporting mark was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the railroad served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver. Beacuse of this extensive tracking in the mountain states the Q used the slogan "Everywhere West"
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History
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad began operation in 1849 by running a single passenger lashup over recycled rails from Aurora to Chicago. However, within the next three years, the railroad was able to expand into the true namesake - holding trackage extending through the cities of Chicago, Burlington, Quincy, and Aurora. The CB&Q became well known as one of the finest "grainger roads" or a railroad which served agricultural areas, often through smaller branch trackage.
With a steady accusition of locomotives, cars, equiptment, and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. As of this year, that railroad has been the only Class I US railroad to constantly pay dividents and never run into debt or default on a loan. With the first World War having the effect on the Burlington as on all other railroads, during the 1920s the Burlington Route had an increasingly heavy amount of equiptment flooding the yards. With the advent of the great depression, the CB&Q held a good portion of this for scrap. Despite the decrease of passengers, it was during this time that the Q introduced the famed Zephyrs.
After the second World War, the CB&Q was innudated by the overworked steam locomotives existant in a fleet that was already begining to dieselize. By 1957, the last steam trains had been run over the Q.
As the financial situation of American railroading continued to decline, the Burlington merged with the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroads on March 2, 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.
The Burlington Zephyrs
The railroad operated a number of streamlined passenger trains known as the Zephyrs which were the most famous and largest fleet of streamliners in the United States. The Pioneer Zephyr, America's first diesel-electric powered streamlined passenger train, made its famous "Dawn-to-Dusk" run from Denver, Colorado to Chicago, Illinois on May 26, 1934. On November 11, 1934 the train was put into regularly scheduled service between Lincoln, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri. Allthough the distinctive, articulated stainless steel trainsets were well known, and the railroad adopted the "Way of the Zephyrs" slogan, they did not attract passengers back to the rails, and the last one stopped running with the advent of Amtrak.
The Zephyr service included
- Pioneer Zephyr (Lincoln–Omaha–Kansas City),
- Twin Cities Zephyr (Chicago–Minneapolis-St. Paul),
- Mark Twain Zephyr (St. Louis–Burlington),
- Denver Zephyr (Chicago–Denver),
- Nebraska Zephyr (Chicago–Lincoln),
- Sam Houston Zephyr (Houston–Dallas-Ft. Worth),
- Ozark State Zephyr (Kansas City–St. Louis),
- General Pershing Zephyr (Kansas City–St. Louis),
- Silver Streak Zephyr (Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln),
- Ak Sar Ben Zephyr (Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln),
- Zephyr-Rocket (St. Louis–Minneapolis-St. Paul),
- Texas Zephyr (Denver–Dallas-Ft. Worth),
- American Royal Zephyr (Chicago–Kansas City),
- Kansas City Zephyr (Chicago–Kansas City),
- California Zephyr (Chicago–Oakland).
Innovations
The Burlington was a leader in implementing technological innovation; among its firsts were use of the printing telegraph (1910), train radio communications (1915), streamlined passenger diesel power (1934) and vista-dome coaches (1939).
References
- Burlington Route Historical Society (http://www.burlingtonroute.com/)
External links
- Pioneer Zephyr Exhibit at Chicago's Muesum of Science and Industry (http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/zephyr/index.html)
- California Zephyr Virtual Museum (http://calzephyr.railfan.net/)
- The CB&Q Mark Twain Zephyr (http://www.gatewaynmra.org/articles/mt-zephyr.htm)
- Streamliners: America's Lost Trains (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/streamliners/) – The American Experience
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