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Pioneer Zephyr A National Historic Mechanical THE Engineering Landmark The American Society of Mechanical PIONEER Engineers November 18, 1980 Museum of Science and Industry ZEPHYR Chicago, Illinois NATIONAL HISTORIC MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LANDMARK THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS - 1980 THE PIONEER ZEPHYR “Each of us can say—as he steam engine, changing forever the tics to back up his proud claim that would at Plymouth Rock or at Inde- nature of the entire railroading in- the era of diesel railroading started pendence Hall—‘it all started right dustry. The 97½-ton train itself was with the Burlington’s Zephyr. In here.’ And ‘right here,’ to Bur- an impressive 196 feet of fluted, 1934, the year the Zephyr made its lington men, is the specific point in stainless steel, a lightweight mate- first run, some 50,000 smoke- history at which this railroad rial never before used in the con- belching steam locomotives were turned its attention from our mag- struction of rail cars. Not only was puffing their way back and forth nificent steam engines to the early the steel beautiful to look at, it also across the United States, racking diesels. This point is marked by the held together better and wore up 17.8-billion passenger miles and Pioneer Zephyr,” wrote former Bur- longer than the metals it replaced. 268-billion ton-miles of rail trans- lington Railroad President H.C. Inside the train, the Zephyr pro- portation. Murphy in 1963. vided luxury accommodations to- By 1961, following the Pioneer Comparing the introduction of day’s rail travelers can only dream Zephyr’s lead, the country had be- the Pioneer Zephyr—the world’s about. come completely “dieselized.” Ap- first diesel-powered, stainless steel With all those advantages back- proximately 28,500 diesel units streamlined train—to the landing ing it up, the Pioneer Zephyr sal- produced 20-billion passenger of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, vaged the role of the railroad as a miles and 565-billion ton-miles. In might strike some as grandiose. carrier of passengers, as well as other words, the diesel-powered But as every railroad buff knows, freight. In the coming years, the units were capable of doing almost the debut of the Pioneer Zephyr powerful diesel engines intro- four times the work performed by was, in its own right, that impor- duced by the Zephyr would prove a their predecessors, the steam tant. formidable match to the burgeon- locomotives. For underneath the Zephyr’s bril- ing trucking industry that In the early days, the advantages liant silver exterior lay a revolution- threatened to take away the rail- of the dieselized engine were not ary two-cycle diesel engine that roads’ freight traffic. so evident. would soon replace the traditional Murphy presented some statis- THE RAILROAD VERSUS long distance travel. Budd was newly devised “Shotweld Process.” THE MODEL T among the first to admit that “the The system allowed rivetless seams loss of railway passenger traffic of stainless steel to be joined with- Anyone watching a 1920 Model T during the last decade has been out damaging its corrosion- automobile jerking and backfiring caused by a shifting from the rail- resistant qualities. At the same down the road would find it hard to ways to the highway, and not from a time, it provided a joint stronger believe that the abject of so much decline in total travel. In fact, the than the steel it held together. derision would one day threaten total passenger one-mile units of Ralph Budd knew a good prod- the very existence of the railroad as travel have greatly increased.” uct when he saw one. He decided a passenger carrier. But that is Budd reasoned that since au- this would be the material for the exactly what happened. tomobile engineers had derailed new train he set out to build to re- In 1924, the Burlington Railroad the passenger train, they could be capture the rail passenger market. carried a whopping 18-million pas- the ones to put it back on the On June 17, 1933, barely a year sengers. Only five years later, as the tracks. As author David Morgan since he first stepped into office, automobile’s popularity increased, noted in “Diesels West!,” such Ralph Budd signed a contract with that figure dropped to 13.8-million. thinking implied the use of a kind of the Budd Co. to construct a train And by 1933, in the midst of the automotive internal combustion out of stainless steel. The firm was Great Depression, only 7-million power instead of the steam given virtually free reign in the de- travelers rode the rails. Passenger locomotive, upon which the indus- sign of the train. revenues followed a parallel de- try had relied for a century. Now Budd needed a power unit scent. To the amazement of many, for his stainless steel train, to re- the railroad, with a tradition as THE FIRST STAINLESS place the hopelessly outdated grand as any in America, was STEEL-SHOD TRAIN steam engine. As usual, Budd got slowly being replaced by an army what he went after. of 30 mph automobiles. One of Budd’s first moves was to Luckily for the railroad industry visit the Edward G. Budd (no rela- DIESEL POWER ERA and the traveling public, a figure tion) Manufacturing Co. in DAWNS appeared on the scene in the early Philadelphia. The Budd Co. had 1930s, with the know-how and de- been the first to produce the all- The expertise of no less than termination to build a train to meet steel automobile wheel, as well as three firms was brought to bear on the demands of the 20th century the all-steel automobile body. Now the problem of building a two-cycle traveler. His name was Ralph Budd, it was ready to tackle passenger diesel engine to meet the demands and he became president of the train construction. for train engines with increased Burlington Railroad in 1932. At the Budd Co. plant, the Bur- horsepower. The work was led by By the time Budd arrived at the lington president examined a test the General Motors Co., which was Burlington, the automobile had rail car body incorporating a greatly aided by the company’s edged out trains as the favored number of radical innovations, in- 1930 acquisition of the Winton En- means of transportation, even for cluding a gas engine and rubber gine Co. and rail carbuilder tires. Budd immediately dismissed Electro-Motive Co. these alterations as impractical. But it was Charles F. Kettering, What caught his attention was the General Motors’ vice president of car’s stainless steel construction. research, and the engineering staff The benefits of the stainless steel of Winton Engine Co., that led the rail car were obvious: the material project to a successful conclusion. was lightweight yet strong, and it In the late 1920s, Kettering began lasted almost forever. The problem work on the two-cycle diesel en- was nobody had been able to figure gine, which eventually would be- out a way to build stainless steel rail come an integral part of the cars in a practical shop operation. Pioneer Zephyr. His aim was to de- Fortunately, the Burlington pres- sign a lightweight power unit with ident’s timing was just right. The improved response and lower cost Budd Co. had just patented its per horsepower than the available engines. During the record-setting 1,000-mile dawn-to-dusk run from Denver to Chicago in A period of great productivity fol- May 1934, a select group of passengers lowed the 1930 merging of the relaxed in the Pioneer Zephyr’s rounded General Motors, Winton-Engine, solarium-lounge. One of the passengers and Electro-Motive companies. (third from left), was Edward G. Budd, president of the Budd Manufacturing Co. During that time, a number of sig- that built the all-steel train. nificant engineering contributions The Zephyr was a hit attraction at the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. The silver, streamlined The Pioneer Zephyr was the first streamlined train was responsible for reviving the public’s interest in rail passenger service at a time train to carry the U.S. mail. At station stops, when the passenger train seemed almost a thing of the past. passersby could deposit letters in a special mailbox built onto the side of the train. were made. The unit injector was No. 9900 made its grand debut with seats for 20 passengers. devised, incorporating the pump- a record-setting 1,000-mile dawn- Third and last was a 31-ft. com- ing and fuel metering functions to-dusk run from Denver to partment with seats for 40 persons, into a single device to avoid high Chicago in 13 hours. Appropriately and a solarium-lounge with chairs pressure lines. enough, the Zephyr was named for 12. Two other significant achieve- after the Greek god of the west Prior to the Pioneer Zephyr, the ments were the application of the winds. traveling public knew only ornate engine-driven positive displace- The train was powered by a Win- but gloomy railroad car interiors. ment blower for scavenging, and ton 8-201A 600-hp, two-cycle diesel All that changed with the high- the development of the welded engine (a revision of the model stepping Zephyr. Each individual steel crankcase, which enabled a Ralph Budd saw at the fair), de- compartment had a distinctive reduction in overall weight over signed to travel at speeds of ap- color harmony coordinating wall cast steel versions. proximately 110 mph. Not only was colors, window drapes, upholstery, A major turning point occurred the Pioneer Zephyr faster and and floor covering.
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