Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad 9903 at Saint Joseph, Missouri on an unknown day in June 1956, Kodachrome by Dick Rumbolz, Chuck Zeiler collection. Ordered in March 1935 and delivered in October, it was virtually a duplicate of the original Zephyr 9900, later renamed the Pioneer Zephyr. It was powered by a Winton eight cylinder in-line 600 horsepower Model 201A diesel power plant. It entered service on October 28, 1935 on the 442 mile daily round trip between Saint Louis, Missouri and Burlington, Iowa, the assignment for which it had been designed and built. The entire train was named after Mark Twain characters in keeping with the train's assignment location along the Mississippi River. The power unit, which also contained the RPO, was named "Injun Joe" , a homonym for "engine". Increased passenger loads added a fourth car, and the cars were named "Becky Thatcher", "Huck Finn" and "Tom Sawyer". This trainset, as the Mark Twain Zephyr and later as the Ozark State Zephyr and finally as the Mark Train Zephyr (again), spent its entire career in Missouri and Iowa, except one turn as the Advance Denver Zephyr on May 31, 1936. It was retired in May 1958, sold to Frank Dashner (to be used as a restaurant), who died, and his estate sold the train to Midwest Old Threshers Association. It was sold again to a Kansas City banker who planned to sell it to interests in Saudia Arabia, but the banker died and it was sold again. It continues to change hands as of this upload date, and remains unrestored and deteriorating. |