Pioneer Zephyr (CB&Q 9900): History, Consist & the Dawn-to-Dusk Dash

Last revised: August 21, 2026

On April 18, 1934, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy christened a three-car stainless-steel train at Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broad Street Station in Philadelphia. The railroad called it the Burlington Zephyr. The shop number on the power car was 9900. Two months earlier Union Pacific had taken delivery of America’s first lightweight streamliner, the aluminum M-10000. The Zephyr was second out of the shop. It was first in almost every other way that lasted: the first diesel-powered streamliner, the first stainless-steel one, the first into regular passenger service, and the one that still sits indoors in Chicago.

The train that people remember is not the 197-foot articulated set that rolled out of Budd. It is the Dawn-to-Dusk Dash of May 26, 1934—1,015.4 miles Denver to Chicago in 13 hours 5 minutes, average a shade under 78 mph, a peak of 112.5 mph—and the two million people who walked through the cars on tour. Burlington later renamed 9900 the Pioneer Zephyr so the original would not be lost in a fleet of Zephyrs. It earned money on a Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln local, survived a 1939 wreck that killed its engineer, and ran until March 20, 1960. Stainless steel does not melt for airplanes. That is why you can still board it today.

Chicago Burlington and Quincy Zephyr 9900 trainset soon after rollout from the Budd Company plant near Philadelphia April 1934

Zephyr 9900 soon after it rolled out of Budd’s plant near Philadelphia in April 1934. Three cars, fluted stainless, shovel nose. American-Rails.com collection.

At a Glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Power-car number	9900
Public names	Burlington Zephyr (1934–36); Pioneer Zephyr (from the second anniversary of the dash, May 26, 1936); nickname “Silver Streak”
Builder	Budd Company (carbody, Philadelphia); Winton Engine Company (prime mover); Electro-Motive Corporation (electrical equipment)
Ordered	June 17, 1933
Completed / first tests	April 9, 1934 (Reading Company tests the same day; speeds reported to 104 mph)
Christened	April 18, 1934, Broad Street Station, Philadelphia
Dawn-to-Dusk Dash	May 26, 1934, Denver–Chicago, 1,015.4 miles in 13 hours 5 minutes
Regular service	November 11, 1934 – March 20, 1960 (first assignment Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln, trains 21 / 20)
Fate	Donated May 26, 1960, to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry; indoors there since 1998

Why Ralph Budd Wanted a Diesel Tube of Stainless

Passenger traffic had been sliding since the mid-1920s. The Depression turned the slide into a collapse. Heavyweight Pullmans and steam locomotives were expensive to run on thin regional schedules. Ralph Budd, Burlington’s president (no relation to the carbuilder), wanted something light enough to make a local pay, fast enough to steal back the highway, and spectacular enough that newspapers would print it.

In 1932 he met Edward G. Budd of the Budd Company. Budd was showing stainless-steel Budd-Michelin rubber-tired railcars. The pneumatic wheels were a dead end in American service—they derailed—but the carbodies were the point. Stainless was lighter and stronger than carbon steel, and it did not need paint. Conventional welding ruined stainless at the heat-affected zone. Budd engineer Earl J. Ragsdale patented a timed spot-weld he called shotwelding (U.S. Patent 1,944,106, issued January 16, 1934). Each weld was too brief to cook the chromium out of the joint. That patent is why a 1934 train still looks like a 1934 train.

Articulation came from the same experiments. Adjacent cars shared Jacobs bogies, cutting trucks and deleting couplers. Walter B. Dean stretched that idea to a three-car, semi-permanently coupled set. You could not add a coach for a football Saturday, or drop a bad-order car without parking the whole train. The trade was weight and a ride that felt like one vehicle.

Propulsion was Ralph Budd’s other bet. He trusted diesels more than Union Pacific did. Winton, already a GM subsidiary after the 1930 EMC/Winton purchases, produced an inline eight small enough to bury behind a shovel nose: the 8-201-A two-stroke diesel. The ASME landmark plaque rates it 600 horsepower, direct-connected to a 600-volt D.C. generator. Contemporary railroad copy often said 660 hp. Either figure is a fraction of a passenger steam locomotive—and enough, on a 100-ton train, to run 100 mph.

The name came last. Ralph Budd wanted a Z-word, “the last word” in passenger service. Dictionary ends were useless. He was reading Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales opens with Zephyrus, the west wind. Zephyr it was.

Design: Shovel Nose, Fluting, Round End

Aeronautical engineer Albert Gardner Dean (Walter’s younger brother) drew the sloping nose and raked windshield. Architects Paul Philippe Cret and John Harbeson of Philadelphia turned the side sheets into the horizontal fluting that still reads as “streamliner” on Amfleet and Superliner cars. The tail was a true round-end observation—a finished look the M-10000’s galley tail never quite had.

The engineer sat in a small compartment in the nose, in front of the prime mover. Later EMC E-units put the cab high and behind a collision bulkhead. On 9900, a head-on blow hit the man at the throttle first. The 1939 wreck proved it.

As built the train was 197 feet 2 inches long, about 9 feet 1 inch wide at the body (roughly 9 feet 10 inches over handrails), and about 12 feet 1 inch high. Ready-to-run weight is given as 208,061 pounds—about 104 short tons, or one conventional heavyweight car’s mass for three cars of train. Wheel arrangement matched the UP set: B-(2+2)-2. Drive wheels were 36 inches; the unpowered wheels 30 inches.

Chicago Burlington and Quincy Zephyr trainset at rest in Lincoln Nebraska circa 1944

A Burlington Zephyr set at rest in Lincoln, Nebraska, circa 1944. Ralph Budd took the name from Chaucer’s Zephyrus, the west wind. Photographer unknown.

Original Consist

The three cars were numbered as a train, not as a locomotive plus coaches. You did not break 9900 in a yard and hang a heavyweight diner on the back.

Car	Length (as built)	Role
9900	~71 ft 5 in	Cab, engine room, 19-ft mail-storage compartment. Engineer and fireman sat beside the main generator, ahead of the diesel.
505	57 ft 8 in	Baggage / Railway Post Office / short buffet / 20-seat coach
570	63 ft 6 in	40-seat coach + 12-seat round-end observation parlor

Revenue seats as built: 72 (20 + 40 + 12). Baggage and mail capacity is variously cited around 25 long tons / 50,000 pounds. The interior was Art Deco, but this was a dayliner, not a coast sleeper. Cret and Harbeson kept it elegant and small. Union Pacific’s M-10000 seated 108. Older versions of this page said 44 fewer seats than the UP set; the arithmetic is 36.

Specifications

Specification	Pioneer Zephyr 9900
Builder (carbody)	Budd Company, Philadelphia
Prime mover	Winton 8-201-A two-stroke diesel, inline-8 (ASME: 600 hp; period publicity often 660 hp)
Transmission	Electric (generator and two traction motors on the leading truck)
Carbody	Shotwelded stainless steel, fluted sides, unibody
Articulation	Fully articulated; Jacobs bogies
Wheel arrangement	B-(2+2)-2
Length over set	197 ft 2 in
Weight	208,061 lb (~104 short tons)
Seats (as built)	72
Recorded maximum	112.5 mph (Dawn-to-Dusk Dash); ~104 mph on April 1934 Reading tests
Regular first assignment	Kansas City, Mo.–Omaha–Lincoln, Nebr.; Nos. 21 / 20

The original 201-A (often listed as serial 4510) was replaced in 1937 with another 201-A (serial 4686 in the old equipment notes). A Mars light was added in 1948. Pistons in the first-generation Winton 201-A were a maintenance item measured in tens of thousands of miles, not hundreds of thousands; even so, the diesel still beat a steam locomotive on cost per mile. That was the whole argument.

Christening, Tests, and the Two Tours

Budd finished the set on April 9, 1934. The same day it made its first test runs on the Reading, with speeds reported as high as 104 mph. Nine days later it stood in Broad Street Station and received the name Burlington Zephyr.

Then it barnstormed. The first circuit was a three-week Northeast and Midwest exhibition—Philadelphia, Rochester, New York, Dayton, then west toward Chicago, topping 100 mph on the Pennsylvania’s main line. One tally for that first loop is 46 cities and about 485,000 visitors. After the dash came the bigger tour Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh recorded in Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon: on the order of 30,000-plus miles, 222 cities, and more than two million people through the train, the figures ASME still uses on the landmark citation. Those two tours are easy to mash into one. They were not the same trip.

Period advertisement giving technical data for the Burlington Zephyr streamliner

Period advertisement that sold the public the Zephyr’s numbers as well as its looks. American-Rails.com collection.

The Dawn-to-Dusk Dash (May 26, 1934)

Burlington timed the run to the opening of the second season of Chicago’s Century of Progress. No locomotive had ever gone this far without stopping. The railroad spiked switches, parked every other train, posted flaggers at grade crossings, and put American Legion and Boy Scout details on stations. The scheduled steam time for Denver–Chicago was about 25 hours. Ralph Budd had promised 14 hours nonstop. The Zephyr beat even that.

It left Denver at dawn. Period clocks are easy to misread because Denver was on Mountain Time and Chicago on Central. The elapsed run is not in dispute: 13 hours 5 minutes (some stopwatches say 13 hours 4 minutes 58 seconds) for 1,015.4 miles. Written in local time, that is a 5:05 a.m. Mountain departure and a 7:10 p.m. Central finish—the way older American-Rails copy put it. Written on one clock (Central Daylight, as later summaries do), it is about 7:04 a.m. to 8:09 p.m. Either way the average is about 77.6 mph. The recorded maximum was 112.5 mph. The tape was at Halsted Street, 1.8 miles west of Union Station; the train then rolled to the fair for the “Wings of a Century” pageant.

On board were both Budds, EMC president Harold L. Hamilton, reporters—and Zeph, a burro from the Rocky Mountain News. The paper had called it a “Rocky Mountain canary.” The crew built a pen in the baggage section. Ralph Budd said one more jackass on the trip would not make a difference.

Union Pacific’s M-10000 was already at the same fair. After May 26 the stainless train owned the story. A Chicago–Twin Cities test soon afterward cut hours off Burlington’s fastest steam schedule and sold the board on two more trainsets.

The Silver Streak

Press copy coined “Silver Streak” before Hollywood did. RKO’s 1934 feature The Silver Streak, with Charles Starrett, used 9900 for the exteriors. Interiors were a soundstage. For the cameras the Burlington Route nameplate on the nose was swapped for “Silver Streak.” The plot raced an iron lung to Boulder Dam. The real train was still on its exhibition circuit, which is why older notes place the filming in the fall of 1934, before November 11 revenue service.

Revenue Service: Trains 21 and 20

9900 entered regular service on November 11, 1934, Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln: No. 21 northbound, No. 20 southbound. It replaced a pair of steam locomotives and about six heavyweight cars—up to eight times the Zephyr’s weight—and, unlike the steam locals, it made money. That was the shock. Burlington had ordered a billboard. It got a profitable regional.

Demand forced a fourth car. In June 1935 40-seat coach 525 went in (seating then about 112). It spent time on Twin Cities service, came back, and stayed until June 1938, when buffet-lounge 500 replaced it. At the same rebuild, combine 505 became a full baggage car and kept its windows. Older copy collapsed those two cars into one 1935 dinette. They were not the same car and not the same year.

On December 29, 1939, near Council Bluffs, Iowa, 9900 passed one million miles in regular service. By 1955 the assignment had shifted to Galesburg, Illinois–St. Joseph, Missouri. The fourth car came off in May 1950; the preserved train at MSI is the original three: 9900, 505, and 570.

Burlington Pioneer Zephyr trainset 9900 still in service Kansas City Omaha Lincoln circa 1959

Pioneer Zephyr 9900 late in its career on the Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln run, circa 1959. Retired the following March. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.

Public timetable (June 5, 1938)

The card below is the Kansas City–Lincoln listing long carried on this page. Confirm any given year against the public timetable or Official Guide then in force. F = flag stop.

Read down / leave (No. 21)	Milepost	Location	Read up / arrive (No. 20)
2:30 p.m. (Dp)	0.0	Kansas City, Mo. (Union Station)	12:55 p.m. (Ar)
2:58 p.m.	26	East Leavenworth, Mo.	12:20 p.m.
3:24 p.m.	46	Armour, Mo.	11:58 a.m.
3:47 p.m. (Ar)	64	St. Joseph, Mo. (Union Depot)	11:34 a.m. (Dp)
3:53 p.m. (Dp)	64	St. Joseph, Mo. (Union Depot)	11:28 a.m. (Ar)
—	103	Bigelow, Mo.	10:49 a.m.
—	110	Craig, Mo.	F 10:40 a.m.
—	116	Corning, Mo.	10:34 a.m.
4:50 p.m.	126	Langdon, Mo.	10:23 a.m.
5:10 p.m.	143	Hamburg, Iowa	10:05 a.m.
5:21 p.m.	150	Payne, Iowa	9:55 a.m.
6:03 p.m.	192	Council Bluffs, Iowa	9:14 a.m.
6:09 p.m.	193	Council Bluffs Transfer, Iowa	9:14 a.m.
6:20 p.m. (Ar)	196	Omaha, Nebr.	9:00 a.m. (Dp)
7:00 p.m. (Dp)	196	Omaha, Nebr.	8:25 a.m. (Ar)
7:55 p.m. (Ar)	251	Lincoln, Nebr.	7:30 a.m. (Dp)

The 1939 Wreck

In 1939 the Pioneer Zephyr hit a freight locomotive head-on after an open switch. The cab was destroyed. The engineer was killed. Five railway mail clerks were injured. Burlington rebuilt the nose and put 9900 back to work. The shovel-nose on display at the Museum of Science and Industry is therefore not the April 1934 original; it is a postwar reconstruction of a layout that had already been proven too far forward. EMC’s E-units, appearing the same year, put the crew above and behind a long hood for exactly this reason. Classic Trains later put the same lesson in one line: slope-noses look fast until they meet something that does not move.

9900 also stood in the Chicago Railroad Fair’s “Wheels A-Rolling” pageant in 1948–49, then went back to the timetable on October 2, 1949.

The Rest of the Shovel-Nose Fleet

Older summaries numbered the later sets 9001–9008. The power cars were 9901 through 9908. 9900 was renamed Pioneer Zephyr on the second anniversary of the dash so the original would have a name of its own.

Power car	Built / in service	First assignment (typical)	Notes
9900	1934	Pioneer Zephyr; KC–Lincoln	This train. MSI, Chicago.
9901, 9902	April 1935	Original three-car Twin Zephyrs (Chicago–Twin Cities)	Later Sam Houston Zephyr (9901) and Ozark State Zephyr (9902) after 7-car Twin Cities sets arrived. 9901 destroyed by fire 1944.
9903	Oct. 28, 1935	Mark Twain Zephyr	Survives; moved to Wisconsin Great Northern, Trego, Wis., for restoration.
9904, 9905	1936	Second-generation Twin Cities Zephyrs (Pegasus / Zephyrus)	Longer articulated sets. One later Nebraska Zephyr set operates at the Illinois Railway Museum.
9906, 9907	1936	Denver Zephyr (Chicago–Denver)	Advance Denver Zephyr service in May 1936 used 9900 and 9903 until these sets were ready.
9908	1939	General Pershing Zephyr	Last shovel-nose. Do not confuse with 9900.

Boston & Maine / Maine Central ordered a near-copy that entered Boston–Bangor service in February 1935 as the Flying Yankee—not a Burlington train. Later Zephyr names (California Zephyr, Nebraska Zephyr, Kansas City Zephyr, Texas Zephyr) were conventional diesel-and-car trains, many of them behind EMC E5s with matching stainless fluting. The brand outlived the articulation.

Burlington shovel-nose Zephyr trainset at Lincoln Nebraska

A Burlington shovel-nose Zephyr at Lincoln, Nebraska. Older captions on this page dated the view 1962 and called it the Pioneer running as the General Pershing Zephyr. 9900 was already at MSI by then—treat this as another set in the 9901–9908 family (D. Christensen / Doug Wornom).

Burlington Pioneer Zephyr original 9900 layover at Lincoln Nebraska circa 1959

Pioneer Zephyr, the original 9900, layover at Lincoln, Nebraska, circa 1959. Retired the next year and given to the Museum of Science and Industry. American-Rails.com collection.

Retirement and the Museum

Last revenue run: March 20, 1960, Lincoln to Kansas City, then on to Chicago. On May 26, 1960—the 26th anniversary of the dash—Burlington donated 9900, 505, and 570 to the Museum of Science and Industry. One accounting of the odometer is 3,222,898 miles; ASME rounds it to 3.2 million. Car 500 did not go with them. It followed Mark Twain Zephyr 9903 into a failed park-display scheme at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and later sat in storage.

MSI kept the Pioneer outdoors, unprotected, until 1994. Santa Fe 4-8-4 2903, which shared the lawn, went to the Illinois Railway Museum. The Zephyr went to Northern Rail Car in Milwaukee for a cosmetic rebuild, then into a new indoor pit in front of the museum in 1998. Visitors still walk the cars. ASME named it Landmark No. 58 in 1980: first U.S. diesel-powered, stainless-steel streamlined train.

M-10000, built of aircraft aluminum, was cut up at Omaha in April 1942. That is the shortest version of why 9900 is the 1934 streamliner the country actually kept.

What It Left Behind

Fluted stainless became the default American passenger-car look through Amtrak. Articulation came back as high-speed practice. The Winton 201-A was a rough engine; the idea of a compact high-speed diesel in a passenger carbody was not. EMC’s E-units kept the slope and moved the crew out of the nose. The word still occupies a timetable: Amtrak’s California Zephyr and Illinois Zephyr. Galesburg High School still calls its teams the Silver Streaks.

9900 was not the first streamliner to enter service. It was the first one that proved a diesel dayliner could pay, look like the future, and still be in one piece 90 years later. For the yellow aluminum rival it beat in the newspapers, see Union Pacific M-10000. For the railroad that ordered it, see Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.