by David Zeman/photos by the author
For many railfan photographers, a large part of the motivation for taking photos of trains is documenting a subject before it is gone forever and lost to history. However, when the stars align, it is possible to bring history back to reality. Bringing back to life the late 1950s and early 1960s on Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad was the main objective for myself, Ralph Durham, James Keats Jr., and the Illinois Railway Museum Diesel Department, when we hosted the “Nebraska Zephyr Night Photo Shoot” in October 2025.
For the last handful of years, Ralph and I, plus a handful of other dedicated IRM volunteers, have coordinated several special night photo shoots with a variety of equipment, having mostly focused on highlighting the museum’s steam locomotive, Frisco 2-10-0 1630. This year, as 1630 undergoes a mandatory 1472-day inspection, we shifted our focus ahead to the diesel era with the 1935-built Nebraska Zephyr for an all-CB&Q evening featuring other miscellaneous pieces of Burlington Route equipment. Our main goal for the event was to take our guest photographers back to the golden age of passenger rail travel on one of America’s most famous streamlined trains by incorporating actors and crew members in period dress plus appropriately placed memorabilia items and props into our photo setups.
Because I started visiting IRM when I was young, I have always been mesmerized by anything related to CB&Q, the railroad referred to by us diehard Burlington fans as “God’s railroad.” Seeing the Zephyr and EMD E5 9911A pull out of Barn 9 in the morning and rushing to the museum’s East Union depot for a ride in observation car Juno was always top priority on any day the train was running. SD24 504 was also a favorite locomotive in its vibrant “Chinese Red” paint scheme, and SW7 9255 is a treat to see operate as well. As I started to do my own research about the Burlington, I learned that the railroad’s employees had an unparalleled amount of pride in the company. IRM has kept this tradition alive with its group of dedicated Zephyr crew members, all sharply dressed in their blue suits and stovepipe-style hats each day the train operates. I am proud to have joined this crew in the last few years and help carry on the Burlington Route tradition for future generations to enjoy.
After leading several successful past photo shoots with the IRM Steam and Electric Car departments, fellow museum volunteers and I had high hopes of putting together an exclusive Nebraska Zephyr or all-CB&Q night shoot for a long time. In the middle of the summer, a group of us put our heads together and talked loosely about what we wanted to do and which pieces we wanted to incorporate. We concluded that the main focus of the event would be the Zephyr itself, and any other CB&Q equipment would be considered an added bonus. It was mutually agreed that we wanted to have as many era-dressed models as possible, plus plenty of appropriately placed Burlington memorabilia items for smaller setups, and a few “large” scenes featuring multiple trains and/or locomotives.
Bringing It Together
Once we had solidified our date for the event, we pursued inviting models to act as Zephyr passengers. Over the years, Ralph has built a significant network of actors who have agreed to be on our call list in case of events like this. Some of the models are regular IRM visitors, and some became acquaintances through other social avenues, but all simply enjoy dressing up and posing for photographers for special events. Luckily, I was able to twist a couple of my friends’ arms as well, and convinced them to dress for the part. We were absolutely thrilled to have recruited a total of 12 wonderful models for the event.
In addition to passengers, we needed to align a sufficient crew dressed properly for the Nebraska Zephyr. Thankfully, many of us IRM volunteers are collectors of all types of CB&Q memorabilia, and several of us have been lucky enough to acquire Zephyr uniforms, hats, badges, and appropriate jewelry. Not all the Zephyr crew members own uniforms with all the matching badges and buttons, so it was a team effort to mix and match bits of our own collections to ensure our crew of Nebraska Zephyr trainmen and conductors wore the prototypically correct paraphernalia. It would have been difficult for me to lead the event, pose for Zephyr crew photos, and take my own photos at the same time, so I lent my conductor’s outfit to one of our other IRM conductors. All in all, the train crew consisted of three conductors (identifiable with gold buttons and hat badges) plus four trainmen (silver buttons and hat badges).
In addition to all of the necessary uniform paraphernalia, we CB&Q enthusiasts dug deep through our drawers and closets to find anything relevant to the Burlington, or specifically the Nebraska Zephyr, to help add an extra layer of authenticity to the photographs. In observation car Juno, era-appropriate timetables, matchbooks, playing cards, ticket books, seat checks, ashtrays, coffee cups, and other assorted pieces were carefully distributed as both subject pieces and background items to accompany our well-dressed models. On a table in the dining car Ceres, an assortment of surplus Burlington Route artifacts was set for an additional small photo opportunity as well…
