Rio Grande Zephyr Memories part 1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ย. 2024
- Stephen Harris was fascinated with the Zephyr. He visited Spanish Fork Canyon, Helper and Price and shot many reels of super 8 film of the Zephyr it its various configurations during the 70's. Most of the films were silent but he did eventually convert to a sound camera and got some excellent footage. This video is a compilation of the better scenes from 9 sound reels.
I remember standing in my Grandpa Hackwell yard and waving to people on the train. The yard also faced the house all the engines were. I loved it. Think was called the RoundHouse🌹
Nice to have those memories. I was a little boy in the early 40's and my Grandmother lived right next to the Union Pacific mainline. I could sit in her front yard and watch the big black steam power roar by.
Great stuff thanx for putting it together! I worked for the D&RGWRR. Our signal gang worked this section of track just before these films were taken in 1975. Our gang quarters were in Price while we worked the eastern side of Soldier Summit and were moved to Spanish Fork when we wemt over the top and worked the west side of Soldier Summit. We were there all summer of 75. We started rehabing and rewiring all the mainline signals starting in Price..then to the town of Helper Utah (which got its name because thats where the D&RG coupled on "helper" units to help push the trains over Soldier Summit..Helper Ut was also one of the crew change towns)...then we worked up thru the Castle Gates..thru the tunnels..up the east side of Soldier Summit and over the top ..down to the tiny town of Thistle (which was covered over years later in a massive landslide) down Spanish Fork canyon to Spanish Fork and on to Provo.
The winter of 75 turned out to be a nasty one. My car broke down late one Sunday night over in Price and I had to make it over to Provo for work on Monday. My supervisor called the Denver dispatchers and asked if I could hop a train over to Provo. They said the only westbounder that night was a coal train and it already had left Helper so if we wanted to catch it at the top of Soldier Summit they would hold him up on the siding but only for a minute or two. So we junped in his pickup and headed up to the top of Soldier Summit. It was a white out blizzard that night..not another car on the road..the snow was blowing sideways and drifting deep in spots but we made it to the top just before the train got there. I'll never forget seeing that black train thru the blinding snow in our headlights as it rolled and ground to a stop. I couldn't see the caboose but knew which direction to go. It was several car lengths back but I got on ok. The conductor and brakeman werent used to picking up a passenger but welcomed me aboard. They had a fire going in the pot belly stove in that caboose. The conductor gave the engineer the word I was on and they got a green light back on the mainline. I rode up in the crows nest for a while but because it was night and snowing hard you couldnt see a thing. The wind was blowing so hard it was blowing a mixture of coal dust and snow outside of that caboose. So we just sat around that stove and rode down to Provo. That train wasnt scheduled to stop in Provo but they slowed it down enough when they went thru the yard that I could jump off. Railroads don't allow things like that anymore..but the D&RG gave me some great memories and as a young guy it was pure adventure! Ha.
I really enjoyed seeing those films of the Zephyr. She was a beautiful train. I have a story about it too but maybe tell it another day. God bless and thanx for making these old films available!
MK
Wow, what a great story and memories. thanks. I really enjoyed reading it. My dad was a UP conductor from 1938 to 1974. Ran from Ogden to Green River. So I grew up with that heritage. I never worked for the railroad, I was a school teacher but I love trains to this day. I did ride the Zephyr once in the late 70's before they took it off. Loved it.
I rode the ZEPHYR in 1976. . . . . and the line was blocked by a rock slide. . . . so I returned to the US the next year, and rode that train all the way from Denver to Salt Lake City. A thrill a minute, ride!
My mother and I rode it around 1980 I think. Loved it.
As a regular patron of the current incarnation of California Zephyr (I’ve had the pleasure of riding the entire route a few times-though usually just from GJ to Denver and vice versa), I sure would love to go back in time and experience the RGZ-or better yet, the old California Zephyr! While the Amtrak version is always an amazing experience for me, I would love to one day sit in a proper vista dome car.
Love your videos!
I was lucky to have ridden the RGZ with my mother back in the 1970's about the same time these videos were made. Wish I had taken more photos of the train back then. A few years ago I was able to ride a private dome car on the back of Amtrak Zephyr from SLC to Denver and back. Nothing like dome cars. Amtrak's observation cars don't give quite the thrill of panoramic views.
I rode on the original CZ. I was a teenager. I remember sitting up one night in the front Vista Dome and playing "engineer", reading the signals, watching the passing tracks and the incredible scenery. It was a memorable experience that I remember to this day at age 82. From what I've read, the Rio Grande ran a first-class operation right to the end,
Awesome video TY for sharing
Thank you. It was a remnant of the golden age of train travel.
Wish Mr. Harris had been more fascinated with using a tripod. Gosh, such great scenes and light, so SHAKY.
Yes, he wasn't too skilled with the film camera. Hand held when zoomed in can really get shaky and with automatic exposure, when he tilts too high the exposure below sky level is too dark. It is frustrating but nothing can be done. Maybe a professional editor with specialized equipment could correct for some of it. I don't have that. If in the future the Union Station Museum can afford to pay someone to do it, the quality can improve. I'm just volunteering my time to do what I can with my iMac.
Lee, I should tell you, you have the gratitude of all of us for going through this historical material. At least now it is in a format where someone COULD manipulate it into what it should have been from the start. A million thank yous to you from me. But gosh......
@@daveskinner5131 Thanks for the kind words. I do what I can to share these historic films. It is a pleasure to have a project like this.
Great memories. Thanx for sharing them!
Thanks Mike, glad it brought you some joy.
rode this train in march 1979 best in the west it was
+james cashell Yea, that was about the time I had my one and only ride. Loved it.
Fun fact the last f7 from the drgw (5644 or 564D) is now sitting on a dead line as ELS 901
Those F9 locomotives proved themselves to be tough and fast-running. The yellow, silver and black scheme and the Budd Dome Liners made RGZ one of the most beautiful passenger trains to roam the rails. I wish I'd had a chance to ride it. I have, however, ridden the Southern Crescent when SR operated it. It was maybe the finest passenger train in the country during that time.
I rode it once a couple of years before it shut down from Salt Lake City to Denver and back.
Wow! I'd love to hear you, or someone that rode this train, describe that experience. I'm all ears.
My mother and I boarded the Zephyr in Salt Lake City in the morning. Very few people on board. We stayed in the dome most of the time. I took some snapshots. Didn't have a very good camera with me. We were able to get off to stretch our legs at Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs. I can't really remember what we ate. I think the diner was operating or maybe it was just a cafe car. That memory escapes me. Apparently it wasn't enough to impress me. We stayed with relatives for several days in Denver then back on the train one morning. Both directions make wonderful day trips. I've ridden the route on Amtrak a number of times but there's nothing like a dome car.
Fantastic stuff! I'm looking at Rio Grande Memories Pt. 1 again as I type this. Can't get enough of that scenery, those domes and those wonderful yellow and silver F9's.
5771 is at the CRRM. Seen it several times, got some nice pics of it
CRRM is a realy nice museum. 5771 is one of my favorite pieces of equipment. I have a model of that F7 Rio Grande but a different number.
I thought the crossing sequence horn "long long short long" was only mandated in the early 2000's.
Maybe it was mandated then but that has been the standard crossing approach signal from locomotives for decades.
that's 5771 the last remaining emd f9 operated by the rio grande
So Cool
Shared on Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad on Facebook
would have loved to have rode the Zephyr
Keith Bunner you can still ride Amtrak's California zephyr
Are these trains still around and if it was published 2015 why it looks old
The trains were filmed in the 1970's and it wasn't until the photographer died in 2010 were they made available by his widow to our museum. Then we had to raise money to have them digitized and more time for me to edit them for TH-cam in 2015.
The last passenger rail operated by private company
Are any of these scenes from 1983?
It is hard to say. Harris did not leave information regarding date on many of his films so its only guesswork.