Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (AAR reporting mark: CBQ) was a railroad that operated in
the mid-western United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington, the railroad served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of
Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver.
The Burlington Zephyrs
The railroad operated a number of streamlined passenger trains known as the Zephyrs which were the most famous and largest fleet of streamliners in the United States. The Pioneer Zephyr's, America's first diesel-electric powered streamlined passenger train, made its famous "Dawn-to-Dusk" run from Denver, Colorado to Chicago, Illinois on May 26, 1934. On November 11, 1934 the train was put into regularly scheduled service between Lincoln, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri.
The Zephyr service included
the Pioneer Zephyr (Lincoln—Omaha—Kansas City),
the Twin Cities Zephyr (Chicago—Minneapolis-St. Paul),
the Mark Twain Zephyr (St. Louis—Burlington),
the Denver Zephyr (Chicago—Denver),
the Nebraska Zephyr (Chicago—Lincoln),
the Sam Houston Zephyr (Houston—Dallas-Ft. Worth),
the Ozark State Zephyr (Kansas City—St. Louis),
the General Pershing Zephyr (Kansas City—St. Louis),
the Silver Streak Zephyr (Kansas City—Omaha—Lincoln),
the Ak Sar Ben Zephyr (Kansas City—Omaha—Lincoln),
the Zephyr-Rocket (St. Louis—Minneapolis-St. Paul),
the Texas Zephyr (Denver—Dallas-Ft. Worth),
the American Royal Zephyr (Chicago—Kansas City),
the Kansas City Zephyr (Chicago—Kansas City),
and the California Zephyr (Chicago—Oakland).
Innovations
The Burlington was a leader in implementing technological innovation; among its firsts were use of the printing telegraph (1910), train radio communications (1915), diesel power (1934) and vista-dome coaches.
As the financial situation of American railroading continued to decline, the Burlington merged with the Great Northern,
Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroads on March 2, 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.
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