The Texas Zephyr, left, and the Sam Houston Zephyr in Dallas in 1955. Photo from Portal to Texas History
“Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, while proudly rising o’er the azure realm in gallant trim the gilded vessel goes. Youth on the prow, and pleasure at the helm.” Thomas Gray
Journeys
Zephyr is a wind from the west. It was also a train that blew past my grandmother’s home every day around noon.
I recalled it yesterday when I wrote about picking blackberries in an empty field on the outskirts of Dallas. Seems my journey into the past, much as my journey on the road today, is full of interesting detours.
While I never did get to ride a Zephyr, I did eventually ride on a train from Ogden, Utah, to Las Vegas through the Virgin River Gorge. Shown above is the Virgin River in Zion National Park before it enters the gorge. -- Photo by David Scarbrough
I always wanted to know where that silver bullet, as my grandmother called it, was going. Over half a century later, I finally know the answer – thanks to the ease of internet research.
There were more than one streamlined silver zephyrs operating out of Dallas. One, the Texas Zephyr, went between Dallas and Denver, stopping in Ogden, Utah, where I ended up living for 25 years. Ogden was a big railroad town, still is although today it’s mostly freight trains that pull through its Union Station terminal.
But it was here, some 30 years ago, that I boarded my first train – an Amtrak traveling from Ogden to Las Vegas through the awesome Virgin River Gorge between St. George, Utah, and Littlefield, Arizona. I’ve ridden a number of trains since, but I couldn’t have asked for a better initiation to riding the rails.
The second silver train operating out of Dallas, from 1936 to 1966, was the Sam Houston Zephyr that traveled back and forth daily between Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston. It was probably this train I watched for with my young impressionable eyes.
I suspect that speeding zephyr, as it roared past my grandmother’s home, might have nurtured my wanderlust as much as the travel adventure books I was addicted to reading as a child.
I was never cured of my travel-book reading addiction – and I also still get a little chill in my soul at the sound of a train whistle.
Detours, whether on the road or of the mind, may be the best part of a journey. How many wonderful discoveries have been made on the way to somewhere else.
AL
Ride with me and Lightnin’ on our Year on the Road at http://allevenson.wordpress.com/
Thanks for reminding me of my own past experience with trains. “The railroad runs through the middle of the house” almost describes the home I grew up in. And the town was surrounded by a triangle of railroads, one reason, it was said, that John Dillinger never tried to rob the local bank, because he was never sure that his escape route out of town might be blocked by a train. *G* The trains that ran past our house evolved from the big ol’ black coal burners to diesels, which pleased my mom, since those black cinders really messed up her clean wash on the line when the wind was just right. Sam
Trains in the UK are great so long as you don’t need to be somewhere on a tight deadline. I travelled by train when I was in the military, and since I had the whole day to get where I was going it was never a worry and I could indulge in relaxed people watching and seeing the changing landscape.
The poem by W H Auden, The Night Train. Love it for its train track, clackity clack as it rattles along. Read it here:
http://www.tynelives.org.uk/stephenson/poem.htm
Its the way when travelling by train you can really relax into the scenery – both human and Natural.
Jim
Going off the beaten bath is always wonderful, especially if you can manage it in you head and under your feet. I certainly wish I could have ridden the Zephyr and, you had better bet, I’ll be imagining what that must have been like.
Thanks, Pat.
Looking forward to taking the train when I go to Europe next month. In fact, I’m looking forward to that more than anything else I have planned.
Beautiful story.
Marcia
Very nice, Pat. You KNOW how I feel about the golden era of rail travel. When steam comes to Ogden, it is always the best of days for me. Thanks for a great read . . . . again!
Bee well!
Love trains. Taking my mother on a train trip from Chicago to Seattle this summer. She won’t fly.
My mother and I took the California Zepher from San Fransisco to Chicago, Nice trip but we went throught he Rockies after dark.
When we were stationed in Germany we took the “Duty Train” from Frankfurt to West Berlin a couple of times. It was an overnight trip. Once we were stopped in Potsdam and kept there for about 2 hours, just because they could, while we were guarded by East Germen soldiers and their dogs. Not to keep us on the train but to keep any of their compatriots from trying to get on.West Berlin was 120 miles into East Germany so the trip involved lots of paper work but it was an experience! It’s a relaxing way to travel.
Jinni