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Recycled Streamliner
TranscriptForty-one years ago the sleek stainless steel streamliner, the Burlington Zephyr, rolled out of Chicago for its first run to Minneapolis. Three decades and tens of thousands of rail miles later the 100 mile an hour streamliner was retired. Many railroad buffs figured that this famous train, which set the style for luxurious rail travel in the late Thirties and the Forties (and was nicknamed "The Train of the Gods"), would end up on the scrap heap at worst, or in a railroad museum at best. It did gather dust for 10 years but this year it has been reborn, several thousand miles around the globe, in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Now it speeds across the desert from Dammam (DA-MOM), a Persian Gulf port, 350 miles to Riyadh (REE-AHD), Saudi Arabia's capital. The trip takes about seven hours (including several intermediate stops) and a ticket costs about $4.50. Despite the Zephyr's ability to go 100 miles an hour, the temperature extremes in the desert can cause the rails to bend, so the train is run at 60 miles an hour instead. Sandstorms are another hazard -- a far cry from the Zephyr's old haunts through the northern woods of the Middle West. American know-how put the Zephyr back in working condition. The rolling stock was modernized in Kansas City. The cars have up-to-date interiors and airline-style seating. Microwave ovens have replaced the ranges in the kitchen car. Altogether there are 21 Zephyr cars and they are made up into three trains, shuttling back and forth. They include coaches, sleepers, a baggage car which includes a generator to keep the lights and air conditioning going, and the elegant dinner- observation car -- the same ones that made their debut by the Great Lakes in December, 1936 -- at the tail end of the train. The reborn Burlington Zephyr is powered by American-built 1500-horsepower diesel-electric units specially adapted for desert travel. The crew's cab is air conditioned and sand filters keep the power units clean. Arabians are proud of their new streamlined railroad -- the only one in the vast desert kingdom. (Lawrence of Arabia blew up the last one in his desert guerilla war against the Turks back in World War I.) The railway itself was built for the late King Saud by Aramco -- the Arabian American Oil Company -- and now carries some 170,000 passengers a year. So, it seems, a proud old train "found a need and filled it" long after most people had thought of it as only a memory of a type of travel long gone. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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