A PLATINUM JUBILEE, MORE OR LESS.

The California Zephyr made its first trip on March 20, 1949.  Seventy-five years later, Amtrak held a rolling anniversary party on-board.

Passengers who drifted in to the westbound California Zephyr’s crowded Sightseer Lounge leaving Chicago on Tuesday found themselves in the middle of an Amtrak-sponsored onboard event commemorating the first runs of the original Burlington-Rio Grande-Western Pacific streamliner on March 20, 1949.

They were treated to an informative lecture by Thomas Whitt, director and president of the Illinois-based Burlington Route Historical Society. He brought along a generous supply of detailed handouts tracing the pre-Amtrak history of the CZ, and its speedy shovel-nosed predecessor, the Pioneer Zephyr.

Both onboard and at Galesburg, Ill., where Whitt repeated his talk for a large crowd that included the mayor of nearby Macomb, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari filled in developments from 1971 on. His audience included some behind-the-scenes company employees and members of the Young Professionals in Transportation Chicago Chapter who came along for a trip on the Zephyr,with a return on the Illinois-sponsored Carl Sandburg.

Souvenirs for passengers included individually numbered “proof of travel” certificates signed by Amtrak’s top management. The handout was accompanied with stickers and pins featuring original branding artwork.

But the big surprise was the Zephyr’s brief stop at Princeton, Ill., where a raucous crowd of more than 50 townspeople sang “Happy Birthday” as the train pulled in. They presented Magliari with two boxes of Princeton tote bags, which the onboard crew promptly passed out to coach passengers.

I included that "more or less" in the title as the original California Zephyr made its last run in the spring of 1970,  being replaced by a "California service" of a tri-weekly extended Nebraska Zephyr to Denver, the also tri-weekly Rio Grande Zephyr continuing the daytime crossing of the Rockies, but without any sleeping cars, and a cross-platform connection to Southern Pacific's City of San Francisco, also tri-weekly, but with sleeping car space.  Upon Amtrak gaining control of the passenger trains, a through sleeping car returned, although the train was sometimes referred to as the City of San Francisco, on Southern Pacific and Union Pacific as far as Denver via Cheyenne, thence on Burlington.  That Rio Grande Zephyr remained as a day train until 1983, when Rio Grande joined Amtrak, and the through train regained its California Zephyr name and the Rio Grande routing between Salt Lake City and Denver.

Like Amtrak's other cross-country trains, the Zephyr is part cruise train, part basic accommodation.

The Princeton stop illustrates how — with a little effort —enthusiasm can be generated in a rural community that has grown to value the mobility Amtrak provides with trains like the Zephyr, Southwest Chief, and two state-supported roundtrips.

As expected, this anniversary version of Amtrak’s California Zephyr was sold out with one standard Superliner coach and one coach baggage with no lower level seating. With its shortened consist, travelers are turned away daily on at least a part of its route. Yet for the people who managed to make it on board and those who came out at Princeton and Galesburg to witness this little celebration, the Zephyr’s 75th anniversary event turned out to be something special.

Because Princeton is east of where the Zephyr and Chief go their separate ways at Galesburg, there's almost a corridor service to it, although the last trains leave before their Oktoberfest wraps up.  If those Quad Cities trains ever start running, the opportunities for train travel in west central Illinois might be further enhanced.  But the Zephyr is a notoriously poor time keeper, even though an Amtrak fact sheet notes, "In many of the smaller communities it serves, the California Zephyr is the only option for intercity transportation."  Unless you're driving, which is what seems to be the default option in the hinterlands.

In July 2010, I reported on a Zephyr ride from Oakland to Chicago.  Links cover segments, Oakland to bedtime in Nevada, rising in Utah to Denver, day parts of Denver to Chicago.  More recently the train was my way to the 2021 O Scale Convention in Denver.