My connection to the California Zephyr

I never rode the original California Zephyr, and I only rode Amtrak’s version of it once.  But I do have a connection to the train.  Several years ago the Austin Steam Train Association, where I volunteer, purchased a passenger car for use on their excursion train.  That car had previously been part of the original CZ.  I don’t know where it had been since it’s CZ days but all the markings on the outside that identified it with the CZ were gone.  I took on the job of restoring those markings.  In the process I did quite a bit of research on the car and on the train. 

Our particular type car had a bit of an unusual history.  It was built for the CZ as a 16 sectional sleeper. You won’t find a sectional sleeper on Amtrak. But recall some of those old movies where folks were sticking their heads out between curtains from an upper bunk. This was a sectional sleeper in the night time mode.  During the day there were two seats facing one another with walls between the sections. But only curtains protected you from the aisle at night. Each of the six California Zephyr consists had just one of this type of sleeper.  It was cheaper that a bedroom but more expensive than a coach seat. However they were not very popular I suppose and eventually they were all removed from service. During this time out of service, all the walls and bunks were removed, seats were added and they became just another coach, but with one difference.  At either end were large restrooms that were designed to serve overnight passengers. In the mens lounge area were small sinks for shaving and the ladies had dressing tables where they could sit down at a mirror and apply make-up.  Doing either one of those things on a moving train seems kind of risky to me but I guess it was useful. As well, each lounge had two adjoining annexes, the railroad name for a potty room. Our car was called the Silver Pine.

I was able to find the proper set of lettering to match the special design used on all the CZ cars.  Today we would call it a font but I doubt the term was in common use back when this car was originally painted. Perhaps printers used the term but not sign painters.  And I’m certainly not sign painter but I do know my way around a computer, a Macintosh at least. I found some pictures of the car from it’s earlier glory days when it had it's original lettering.  I could measure the car itself, scale a photo of the car to match that length then determine the width and height of the lettering by measuring it on the computer.  Easier to do than to describe. With that I was able to come up with a computer file that a local sign maker was able to use to cut vinyl letters to match the originals. The original metal sign boards were missing so we purchased new ones, cut to size by a local stainless steel supplier. Then I applied the vinyl letters to the sign boards in the comfort of my living room. It fell to someone else to climb up on a ladder and attach the signboards.

The Silver Pine on it's first trip to Burnet, TX