Saturday, June 18, 2011

Museum of Transportation, West County

4 comments:

  1. America's first, and for the most part, last true attempt at a high-speed train designed from the start as such. Certainly there were other trains of that era which were streamlined, but they were essentially just steam locomotives tricked out with cladding in an effort to reduce drag. This lady and her sister, the Zephyr, were designed from the frame up to be lighter and faster than anything on rails. I believe she is one of the first diesels, as well. Beautiful piece of design and craftsmanship.

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  2. Tom Maher-KirkwoodJune 18, 2011 at 2:01 PM

    This is the power unit (only) to the BN "General Pershing Zephyr," which ran between KC and STL. The unit is named "Silver Charger," after Pershing's horse.

    It was quite unique from the other Zephyr trains, both in the engine type and the fact that it was the only one that is non-articulated - it used regular couplers between the cars.

    The Wiki site for this unit is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Pershing_Zephyr

    I remember when the Museum was established; I grew up just East of there and, in fact, still live there. It was a fascinating place for kids to hang out - especially since my Gpaw was an engineer for the MOP, starting in the late 1890's

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  3. Thanks for the additional info, Mr. Maher. I did not know that these trains were named, though that's not very surprising, since many of the Pan-Am flying boats were namesakes. I knew that some trains took on the names of the routes, but not that some were named outright. I need to get back out there. It's been a few years, at least.

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  4. Here's a great link about the Mark Twain Zephyr.
    http://www.railmerchants.net/mt-zephyr.htm

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