Nostalgia & History > Last Amtrak SFZ through Wyoming

After posting a photo on a previous thread about Green River, Wyoming, I decided to scan a few of the photos that I took while riding the last San Francisco Zephyr through Wyoming.

It was just dumb luck, really. My Grandmother took me for a train trip out to Wyoming (from Martinez, Ca.) to visit old neighbors of hers and check out Yellowstone. This was in July of '83. I had no idea that the train back would be the last SFZ through Wyoming.

Rio Grande had recently wrapped up the Zephyr, and the SFZ - soon to be renamed the California Zephyr (how dare they?) was to be rerouted on the DRGW south of the UP Overland route.

There was a huge crowd at the depot in Rawlins. Local media was there and lots of people dressed up in various costumes and a good share of protesters. I don't know the exact date, but it was sometime in July 1983.

First photo shows the crowd and the arrival of the train at Rawlins...

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One of the signs on the side of the depot at Rawlins...

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That's so 80's!

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Judging by the guy wearing a radio station T-shirt and huge cans on his head (looks like a typical Chief Engineer), I think they were doing a live radio broadcast from there. There were plenty of TV cameras there to record it as well...

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A friend of my Granmothers' recently retired from UP - took me for a walk around the shops at Rawlins. This was shortly before the train arrived...

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One more...

Since I posted one from Green River in a previous thread, I won't bother here. Here is Evanston and the crowd there. This was a typical scene at all the stations throughout Wyoming. I jumped off the train to snap some crowd shots.

-Dan

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I wish there still was service up in WY. Least those WY towns had better service under Amtrak than North Platte or Grand Island. Even during this summer use of the SFZ detour route no local tickets were sold, which would have been neat. Couple of years ago they ran 2 #5's from Denver running on ea other blocks, meeting #6 east of Hanna which is this most passenger equipment I ever saw in WY. UP is alot more bottlenecked today, making it harder to ever reinstate service. Thanks for your pics? I thought it wasn't possible to ride after the RGZ switchover was planned, no local stops. Did chase the last Pioneer out of WY into CO. Someone said the half the local ridership in WY were pass riders.

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Hey Dan,

GREAT photo essay! The San Francisco Zephyr you rode was most likely on July 15, 1983. The first California Zephyr Amtrak trains via the Rio Grande ran on July 16, 1983.

James

Glad somebody else was out then. I chased this last run, and have a nice shot of it at the "Divide of the Continent" sign at Creston, WY, cresting the Continental Divide for the last time, closing out scheduled passenger service on the Overland Route. I was the only one there. Fittingly, there was a UP leader, GP40X 9003. I did not see any others chasing it, and I sent in this fine, prophetic and almost haunting photograph to TRAINS Magazine, and to my surprise, even THEY were not interested in using it! They just did an editorial piece later, on how the passing was done without anyone shedding a tear! Obviously I did! Then there was the long drive back to Denver to catch the first run over DRGW, at Union Station with the banner. Someday I will get that Minolta dimage to post some scans here, but spending money on the kids comes first!- - JLH JLH JLH JLH JLH JLH JLH JLH

very cool intro pic with the UP GP40X on point and all...

intersting historic thread. Thanks for sharing it. I rode the SFZ across Wyoming several times as a kid, and have two distinct memories of the trips:

1. Lunch in the dining car in 1977 or so on a late #5 while clocking the mileposts at 101 MPH! Needless to say the engineer was making up time. I remember watchng the milk dance around in my glass but not spilling. Was the speed limit 90 MPH out there?

2. Rode a pullman on #6 to Denver in 1980, and got off to stretch our legs in Rawlins. Met John Madden on the platform - turns out he was riding in the bedroom next to ours, heading back east for a football game in the early part of his TV commentator career, before the "Madden Cruiser".

Loved to see the "Fast 40" series of UP SD40-2's added to the point of Amtrak - to me the SD40-2 is what UP is/was all about.

Finally, no wonder "Amtrack" pulled out of Evanston - after all those years they still couldn't get the spelling right!

SW1200

I had no idea they got so up in arms...but let's face it, WY doesn't have alot of trasportation options...

Not much else to do in Wyoming!!! - - - - - JLH

 I sent in
> this fine, prophetic and almost haunting
> photograph to TRAINS Magazine, and to my surprise,
> even THEY were not interested in using it! They
> just did an editorial piece later, on how the
> passing was done without anyone shedding a tear!
> Obviously I did!

This is typical Kalmbach editorializing nonsense. Plenty of peiople shed tears overv Amtrak leaving Wyoming. Amtrak could exploit connecting busses to Yellowstone, Jackson, Billings, Casper, etc. Plenty of unmet needs.

What does "Put the MX on Amtrak" mean??

Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

Missle? missle system of the period  during this period they were contemplating a rail based nuke system, that was scrapped


a mobile ICBM having up to 10 independently targeted nuclear warheads