Kansas City Zephyr - Written First Person Account

Written First Person Account

As a child, my mother and I would take the Kansas City Zephyr from Union Station in Chicago to Bushnell, IL. The Kansas City Zephyr would run to Galesburg and then would stop in Bushnell in the late 50's. Later, the train was on the back of the Denver Zephyr, and was disconnected at Galesburg. It was also later in the day when it would arrive. The original KCZ would leave Chicago at 11AM, but when the two trains ran together it left at 5PM. We found out that it had changed after we got to Union Station.

I would hang out at the station almost constantly, which was on the northeast side of the "diamonds" where the CB&Q and TP&W crossed. They would send a local to switch Vaughan & Bushnell and several other industries, and there were a couple of sidings and I believe a "team track" in Bushnell. I remember that Bushnell was a flag stop at the time, and when they we not going to stop, the stationmaster rigging the mail pickup arms. The would come flying through town, grab the bag and throw off the Bushnell mail. A letter from Bushness to Chicago was delivered the next day. They sometimes had to stop to drop off parcels that were too fragile to toss off.

I remember the Dining Car and the Vista Domes quite well. The food on the train, the waiters and the linens and china all stick in my mind 50 years later. It was a great experience for a young boy from Chicago.

My mother was from Bushnell, and my one uncle ran a clothing store on the west side of the tracks next to the Bushnell Hotel; another uncle was a watchman at Vaughn and Bushnell, and another was a Doctor in Peoria, Illinois. My aunt lived in Glenview, IL, and a sister died at 18 months of age.

Submitted by Paul Glowiak