General Pershing Zephyr: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:18, 25 March 2009

Revision as of 18:15, 25 March 2009

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Unlike previous ''Zephyrs'', the ''General Pershing Zephyr'' was completely non-articulated; each car was self-contained and joined to the next by [[coupling (railway)|coupler]]s, rather than shared trucks. The inflexibility of the articulated layout had been recognised; it was hard to lengthen, shorten, or replace parts of the train. The route did not require a high-capacity train nor a powerful locomotive, so the ''General Pershing Zephyr'' returned to the pattern of the first ''[[Pioneer Zephyr]]'', being a power/baggage car and three trailers.

The power car, 9908 ''Silver Charger'', was unique. It utilised a single new EMC 567 [[V-12]] engine developing 1,000 hp, rather than the pair used in the contemporary [[EMD E3|EMC E3]]. It had one [[Martin Blomberg]]-designed E-unit A1A passenger truck at the front, with powered outer axles and a center idler axle, and an unpowered trailing truck, giving it the unusual [[wheel arrangement]] of A1A-2. The back half of the power car was a baggage area.

The train ran its assigned route until [[World War II|World War 2]] disrupted things in [[1942]], following which the trainset ran many different routes. As 9908 ''Silver Charger'' was really a separate locomotive, it continued in service hauling other trains after the rest of the streamlined trainset was withdrawn. In this form it lasted in service until [[1966]], following which it was donated to the [[Museum of Transportation]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]].