If the glory years of the Burlington Railroad began in 1934, with the Burlington Zephyr's phenomenal Dawn-to-Dusk run, surely they culminated in 1949, with the arrival of the California Zephyr.

A train unlike anything ever seen on rails pulled out of Denver's Union Station at dawn on May 26, 1934, and raced eastward. The stylish, curved prow and the fluted silver sides of this passenger ...