This is one of the most comprehensive train books that I own, and I have a fair number of them. It has a nice history of the Western Pacific railroad and a lot of information about the CZ, including interviews with people who worked on this train. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the golden age of train travel in the US.

Excellent product. Great transaction.

SENSACIONAL

This delightful book includes over 400 photos (almost all black-and-white) and four chapters of fascinating text about the California Zephyr, a classic streamlined passenger train between Chicago and San Francisco from 1949 to 1970, and about the people who ran it. The book will make a marvelous addition to your collection: a must-have for railfans, but also a wonderful gift for anyone with fond memories of the postwar streamliners or interested in the history of passenger trains. The authors, Bruce MacGregor and Ted Benson are a great storyteller-photographer team, supported by other distinguished railfans such as Richard Steinheimer. The book was published in 1977, six years before Amtrak fortunately revived the California Zephyr on its original route as far west as Winnemucca, Nevada.

Three railroads, the Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific cooperated to run the Zephyr. It was unique among the dozen luxury trains from Chicago to the West Coast in offering a genuine “land cruise” at regular fares. Its route traversed some of Western America’s best scenery and its schedule, about 10 to 12 hours slower than the fastest trains on other routes, was calculated to pass this great scenery during daylight hours: the Rockies, the canyons of the Colorado River, the Wasatch, the Sierras, and Feather River Canyon. A Vista-Dome in every coach plus two Vista-Domes for sleeping car passengers facilitated 360° viewing. The train was a perennial sell-out until the mid-1960s, holding its own against competition from larger, richer railroads such as Union Pacific and Santa Fe.

Portrait of a Silver Lady’s 4 chapters truly make it 4 books in 1.

The big 2nd chapter is the centerpiece: the history of the California Zephyr, with these three long, wonderful photo sections:

• “An Essay in 18-8” (i.e., the stainless steel used on the Zephyr, which is 18% chromium and 8% nickel): building the Zephyr’s cars, the original crews, and the inaugural runs
• “Run Eight” (the full-power setting on a diesel locomotive): follows the Zephyr’s path from Chicago to Oakland with action photos, scenes of employees at work, and goings-on at the stations – look at those pictures and relive the Zephyr experience
• “Midnight at Middle Harbor Road” (the Western Pacific’s passenger yard in Oakland): servicing and preparing the train for departure, then retracing the Zephyr’s path back from Oakland to Chicago

The text of the 2nd chapter includes the history of Vista-Domes, streamlined trains, the Budd Company (builder of the Zephyr’s cars), the industry’s optimism on luxury passenger trains in 1945-1950, and how the three railroad companies cooperated to run the Zephyr.

The 1st chapter is the story of the Western Pacific Railroad, illustrated with many historic photographs, somewhat in the style of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg’s “Rio Grande.” The WP main line from Oakland to Salt Lake was completed only in 1909, as an alternative to the long-established Overland Route of the much larger Southern Pacific. Its advantage was a gentler grade up into the Sierras (via scenic Feather River Canyon), but at the cost of a route about 140 miles longer than the SP. Competing with the powerful SP and completely dependent on interchange traffic from other railroads at Salt Lake, Western Pacific struggled to survive. It was audacious for WP to invest scarce capital in a luxury streamliner after World War 2.

The 3rd chapter details the everyday work of Pullman porters and dining car cooks and waiters on the Zephyr. Then it launches into the entire history of Pullman’s on-board services. The Pullman training manual inculcated “that services be rendered in a uniform manner…and not in accordance with the individual ideas of various employees.” The staff should function like automata or “invisible men” – but, of course, porters thwarted anonymity by the warmth of their personalities and their ability to solve just about any problem that came up during a trip. This chapter is enlivened by MacGregor’s writing and by the 1st-person narratives of Barney Osborne, waiter, John Norford, chef, and Jim Coleman, porter – and by many photos of work and life aboard the cars, plus reproductions of historic dining car menus.

The 4th chapter walks you through the process Western Pacific had to follow to discontinue the Zephyr in those days before Amtrak. WP petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (the Federal agency that closely regulated the railroads back then) to drop the train in 1966 and received permission in 1970 after years of hearings and public meetings. But the chapter starts much earlier, showing how WP at first continually upgraded the train with new equipment. After 1956, when even the well-patronized California Zephyr could no longer earn its operating costs, WP still maintained the equipment and service to high standards. But the cars were gradually wearing out; there would be no capital for unprofitable investments in new cars – and, in any case, the companies that built passenger equipment were shutting down. WP management loved the train and respected its value as a “flagship,” but continued losses could doom a railroad that had always operated on the edge. The ICC could and did require railroads to operate trains at a loss if they continued to meet a public need (as evidenced by hearings, public meetings, protest demonstrations, and volumes of statistics), but relented if there was ruinous impact on freight operations that were essential to the U.S. economy. Of course, Amtrak ultimately saved the passenger train, but only in 1971, a year after the Zephyr stopped running on the WP. Here, too, MacGregor’s text reads like a drama and Benson contributes photos of the protests and evocative scenes of the train in its last years.

Being a train buff all my life, I received this book as a gift back in 1979. I can still remember when we would visit my grandmother's, in Fairfield, Ia. every summer. As a young boy, I would go down to the train station to see the California Zephyr almost every day, even it didn't stop there. This book goes back to the history of the three railroads that ran the California Zephyr, the agreement between them birthing the train , and finally the last train March 21, 1970. Inbetween, many stories and pictures in the 355 pages. Although all the pictures are b&w, there seems to be hundreds, and from all three railroads, from Oakland to Chicago. If you liked the stanless steel streamliners, such as the California Zephyr, you'll love this book.

I've always wanted this book, now its in my library.