Pike sized passenger trains; Colorado & Southerns Zephyr Connection

The Zephyr Connection; Pike sized train

So here's an article that's been done just a few times by others over time. Pike sized passenger trains is a popular topic for people wanting to model passenger trains but don't have the space to run the long full length name trains. 

The name originates from an article written by Andy Sperandeo for Model Railroader in 1987, this topic has become a popular topic for modelers as there are quite a few smaller passenger trains out there that are just as interesting as their larger, more well known contemporaries.

While not seen in service on the Falcon branch, I bought a pre-done C&S passenger train from a friend along with my BLi #638, so I decided to pursue modeling this train. Later I would find out about the Pioneer Zephyr and a connection it had to the Falcon branch, so that was a given I'd have to do as well. 

The real Zephyr Connection

The prototype train known as the "Zephyr Connection" started out life as train #31-32, the Denver to Wendover, Wyoming train. In 1929, #31-32 became the Denver-Cheyenne Local. This train operated typically in a basic consist consisting of a baggage, RPO, and coach. In 1936, the CB&Q rebuilt a former SP&S solarium-lounge into a solarium-parlor car and placed it into service with the #31-32. Numbered #220, the solarium was named "Denver" on the right side and "Cheyenne" on the left side. This solarium continued in service until WWII, when it was converted to a chair car and returned to the Q. 

At some point in the 30's, the train received the name "Zephyr Connection" and in October of 1949, the famed Pioneer Zephyr took over the duties of the Denver-Cheyenne run. However this would be short lived as on April 29th, 1950, the Pioneer Zephyr collided with a water truck in Longmont and was heavily damaged. Fireman Dan Grinstead was seriously injured in the collision and never returned to work. The damaged zephyr was returned to the CB&Q shops in Aurora and rebuilt, never to return to the Zephyr Connection. 

Photo from the Longmontian

Afterwards, the train continued on as a standard locomotive hauled train, now using the Burlington's E7's in pool service out of Denver. It was discontinued outright on February 28th, 1951. 

Consists

Here is a small selection of basic consists I've been able to identify from photos

    

        1937, date unknown

        350 class pacific Unk number

        RPO-Baggage

        Steel Combine

        #220 Solarium-Parlor

        1936, date unknown, Otto Perry photo

        CB&Q Pacific #2911

        RPO-Baggage

        Steel Combine

        #220 Solarium-Parlor

    

        1942, date unknown, Otto Perry photo

        Colorado & Southern #350 4-6-2

        RPO-Baggage

        Coach

        Coach

        1941, date unknown, Otto Perry photo

        Colorado & Southern #350 4-6-2

        RPO-Baggage

        Coach

        1939, date unknown, Otto Perry photo

        Colorado & Southern #350 4-6-2

        RPO-Baggage

        Steel Combine

        Coach

        #220 Solarium Parlor

        

        1951, date unknown, Otto Perry photo 

        CB&Q E7 #9936-B

        Baggage

        RPO

        Coach

        1951, date unknown, Otto Perry photo 

        CB&Q E7 #9934-A

        Baggage

        RPO

        Coach

        

In general, it seems the train operated until WWII with an RPO-Baggage, Combine, and the Solarium Parlor. I see occasional photos where an extra coach or two is added, and sometimes even without the combine. 

Post WWII, the train has lost #220 and operates with two head end cars, and whatever coaches are needed. Some photos show the train down to just a baggage-rpo and coach. 

In the last year of operation with the E7, the consist seems pretty consistent from what I've seen, with the 2 head end cars and a coach.

Modeling the Zephyr Connection #31/32

This part is going to seem a little disappointing to those used to the normal passenger car specific listings and options usually associated with modeling passenger trains. To my knowledge, there is no book on Colorado & Southern passenger cars, nor did the CB&Q passenger book I looked at include any information on the fleet of passengers cars. Of course, the Texas Zephyr has quite a bit of information available, and the C&S narrow gauge is well documented. However unless somebody knows another source, I do not have detailed listings of the C&S standard gauge passenger cars, so this is going to be a generalization of what is available and what looks similar to photographs. One might be able to cross reference CB&Q passenger car roster photos to find cars of similar/identical construction. My train was already created by another modeler (Leighton) when I purchased it, but he has done a good job picking cars that are pretty accurate. 

Baggage Cars

For my model of the baggage car, I have a walthers ACF Baggage, which while not a dead on match for the photos I've seen, it is similar to a photo of C&S #220 (not the Solarium, a baggage car). This is the number I've chosen to use for the train (for comical effect too, wait for it)

C&S 220

RPO

My RPO is a model done by a friend of mine, Leighton. He had done up a walthers heavyweight RPO as C&S #254, the RPO preserved today at the Colorado Railroad Museum. I'm keeping this one as is, it's pretty close and has a local connection with the museum. 

C&S 254

Coach

The best match I've been able to find to the Burlington Coaches is the Atlas/Branchline single window coaches. I've seen some people also do a very nice job with the athearn bluebox shorties in dressing them up to be good stand ins!

Atlas/Branchline single window car, to be relettered to C&S

Athearn Bluebox cars done up very nicely.

Solarium

So this car is a LONG stretch to be modeled by the walthers solarium car, but it's about the only option unless you dig into brass or scratchbuilding. I bought the former trainset from Leighton (RPO, Baggage, coach) in March 2022 and was going to roll with just those cars until I found pictures of the solarium. I mean, why not, it's a very cool and unique car! I happened to mention to him again that I was contemplating finding a walthers solarium when he stated he not only had one, it was for sale. So in the end, all 4 passenger cars came from Leighton to start the Zephyr Connection. My end goal with this car is to modify the interior to be more a lounge than the sleeper accommodation it has now. I have a nice photo showing the drumhead on the car with the "zephyr connection" text, so creating the drumhead is on my list. This car will also carry the #220 number, same as the baggage car, just to see how many people notice. I have managed to determine what letters I need to steal from other car names on the decal sheet to do Denver and Cheyenne on each side as well. 

Solarium #220, to be relettered at this point

Motive Power

Motive power for the train is going to be a bit of a mixed bag of trying to find models. Primarily in the steam era, the C&S's Pacifics did most of the hauling of the train, I have one photo that seems to show one of the large ten wheelers (class C-3H?) on point. In the diesel era the E7's seemed to be the predominate power.

LMB Models S2 Pacific    

LMB models has done a model of a CB&Q S2 pacific that would be a good C&S 370 class pacific. These aren't expensive but are fairly rare to come across. One photo of #31/32 does show CB&Q #2911 on the point of the train, which is an actual S-2 class pacific. One caveat to kitbashing one of these from another pacific is the oddball high speed trucks under the tender, more at home in headend equipment than tenders!  

        

LMB models S-2 pacific, Brasstrains.com photo

Varney/Bowser Casey Jones ten wheeler

As mentioned in the above text, in one photo, it does look like one of the C&S's large ten wheelers (C-3H) was on point of the train, however I cannot confirm this. If one was wanting to make a C-3H in HO scale, a Varney/Bower ten wheeler would be a good starting point to build one of these larger ten wheelers. A new headlight, some tender tweaks, and it would be a good stand in. 

EMD E7

There are several options to do the E7 in HO scale. Broadway Limited, Proto 2000, Walthers, Bachmann (if you're really desperate), and several varieties of brass. My choice in this particular case would be one of the walthers proto 2000 models, they're decently detailed, available cheap and easily, and can be really good runners. The BLi is a good choice as well, the mechanism is quite nice, and while the electronics can be a real let down, that's a pretty easy fix. This particular choice in motive power technically eliminates the solarium from the options list. 

Proto 2000 E7

Pioneer Zephyr

Ok, this was the part everyone was waiting for. Con-cor has done an excellent Pioneer Zephyr in HO scale and N scale. The lights are nuclear out of the box and will need to be toned down, but you need to get in there to put figures in the coaches anyway! I installed a loksound select micro decoder in mine. For the time period the Pioneer Zephyr ran on the zephyr connection it had the dual headlight arrangement (anyone want to trade a dual headlight for a single headlight train?) with the gyralight up top. This one is probably the easiest C&S passenger train to create as you can really just take it out of the box and it's correct, the C&S did not reletter anything during it's time in service. The train did by that point have the 4th car added into the consist as well. 

My Pioneer Zephyr

Interesting side note here. While my modeling primarily focuses on the Falcon Branch, I did spur out a bit to do #31/32. However the Pioneer Zephyr does have a connection with the Falcon branch, sorta. When the Pioneer Zephyr was performing its tour of the US, it was run to Connors and displayed there in 1936 for the opening of Buchtel Blvd. So the Pioneer Zephyr does have a small connection to the Falcon Branch, however brief.