Further to our posts on train observation cars, the most famous were the Vista Domes of the California Zephyr, a train that was operated jointly by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) and Western Pacific Railroad (WP) between 1949 and 1970 and ran between Chicago and Oakland, California.
Train hostesses were elevated to a new level on the California Zephyr in the form of the "Zephyrette." The Zephyrettes filled just about any role required to ensure that the passengers had a memorable trip. A pool of approximately twelve women was assigned at any given time to the California Zephyr in this capacity.
The original California Zephyr ceased in 1970. However, the D&RGW continued to operate its own passenger train service, named the Rio Grande Zephyr, between Salt Lake City and Denver using the original equipment until 1983.
Since 1983, the California Zephyr name has been applied to a Chicago-San Francisco Amtrak service, which operates daily and is a hybrid route between the route of the original CZ and the route of its former rival, the City of San Francisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment