Rio Grande Zephyr

The "Rio Grande Zephyr" was a passenger train operated by Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW or Rio Grande) between Denver, Colorado and Ogden, Utah in the Western United States. It operated from 1971 until 1983.

History

The train was a remnant of the original California Zephyr, which was jointly operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and Western Pacific Railroad. This iteration of the Zephyr ended operations on March 22, 1970 when the Western Pacific discontinued its portion. Amtrak planned to take over service of the original California Zephyr on May 1, 1971. However the Rio Grande and Amtrak could not come to terms over a contract agreement, and just four days before Amtrak began operation, Union Pacific's Overland Route was substituted for the Rio Grande's Moffat Tunnel Route.

The Rio Grande Zephyr commenced operation using the D&RGW's portion of the California Zephyr route from Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. The route was extended to Ogden, Utah to allow for California bound passengers to connect to the City of San Francisco, which did not serve Salt Lake. The Rio Grande Zephyr used mostly the same equipment and staff as was formerly used for the California Zephyr.

For twelve years the Rio Grande Zephyr operated three days a week in each direction. It never operated on Wednesday. It made its final run on April 24, 1983, when the Rio Grande reversed its earlier decisions and joined Amtrak. Just a few days before, the route had been truncated to operate between Denver and Grand Junction, Colorado because of a massive landslide at Thistle, Utah which forced the closure of the D&RGW tracks in Utah.

Amtrak was to reinstate the California Zephyr name and begin running daily service over the Denver and Rio Grande Western, however the landslide at Thistle delayed the new service's introduction until July. After the tracks were re-routed around Thistle, Amtrak commenced the new iteration of the California Zephyr, which is still in operation. The modern California Zephyr uses the route of the Rio Grande Zephyr from Denver to Salt Lake; service to Ogden was discontinued. Service from Salt Lake to Ogden was still available via the Desert Wind and Pioneer passenger trains, until they were discontinued in 1997. Ogden will remain without passenger train service until the FrontRunner commuter train begins operation.

Equipment used

The equipment used when the Rio Grande Zephyr began service was as follows:
* EMD F9 locomotives (A-B or A-B-B)
* Steam Generator car rebuilt from an ALCo PB1
* Combine 1230 or 1231
* Coach - Silver Aspen
* Coach - Silver Pine
* Vista-Dome Coach - Silver Bronco
* Vista-Dome chair car - Silver Pony
* Vista-Dome chair car - Silver Colt
* Vista-Dome chair car - Silver Mustang
* Vista-Dome dormitory-buffet-lounge car - Silver Shop
* Diner (48 seats) - Silver Banquet
* Vista-Dome buffet-lounge-observation - Silver Sky

The combine, dome coach(es), dome-lounge or diner, and dome-lounge-observation were always in the consist, size and configuration of the train varied from day to day based on the number of tickets sold. All cars carried the prefix Silver in their name, a hold over from their days in California Zephyr service. Silver Aspen and Silver Pine were rebuilt in 1962-1963 from 16 section sleeping cars.

Communities served

From east to west, the communities with regular station stops on this train were:

* Denver, Colorado
* Granby, Colorado
* Bond, Colorado
* Glenwood Springs, Colorado
* Rifle, Colorado
* Grand Junction, Colorado
* Thompson Springs, Utah
* Green River, Utah
* Price, Utah
* Helper, Utah
* Provo, Utah
* Salt Lake City, Utah
* Ogden, Utah (Eventually a bus service replaced the Salt Lake City-Ogden portion)

References

*

ee also

* "California Zephyr"

External links

* [http://calzephyr.railfan.net/ "California Zephyr" Virtual Museum]
* [http://www.californiazephyr.org/ "California Zephyr" Museum Online]
* [http://calzephyr.railfan.net/cars/cars.html Cars of the "California Zephyr"]