Content deleted Content added
m Fix links to Kansas City (via WP:JWB) |
Kokopelli-UK (talk | contribs) first disc brake application to passenger cars |
||
Line 7:
The train replaced the "[[Ozark State Zephyr]]", which had been inaugurated three years earlier. In September, 1938, a second trainset was added, the 9903, which had previously served as the "[[Mark Twain Zephyr]]" running between Burlington, Iowa and St. Louis via [[Samuel Clemens]]' birthplace of [[Hannibal, Missouri]]. The "Ozark State" service inaugurated operating out of [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] in the morning and [[St. Louis]] in the afternoon, with the second trainset alternating. The new equipment took over the original schedule, while the alternate timing was renamed the [[Mark Twain Zephyr]] (despite not operating through Hannibal).
Unlike previous ''Zephyrs'', the ''General Pershing Zephyr'' was completely non-articulated; each car was self-contained and joined to the next by [[Railway coupling|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. Budd also fitted [[disc brake]]s, the first such practical installation to railroad passenger cars.<ref>D.P. Morgan, "All About the RDC," ''[[Trains (magazine)|Trains & Travel]]'' magazine, March 1953</ref>
[[File:General Pershing Zephyr trial run ticket 1939.JPG|thumb|150px|left|Ticket from the train's trial run between St. Louis and Alton, Illinois on April 23, 1939. It entered regular service between Kansas City and St. Louis on April 30, 1939.]]
The power car, 9908 ''Silver Charger'', was unique. It utilised a single new [[EMD 567|EMC 567]] [[V12 engine|V-12]] engine developing 1,000 hp, rather than the pair used in the contemporary [[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. This made it mechanically half of an E3. The back half of the power car was a baggage area. This made it similar to special power-baggage units built by [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]] for the Colorado Springs section of the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific]] "[[Rocky Mountain Rocket]]", though the latter had a carbody and E-3/[[EMD E6|E-6]] styling by [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]]. The "Silver Charger" was the last power unit built by Budd with the unique "Zephyr"/"Flying Yankee" shovelnose styling.
| |||