Preservation and Surviving Equipment
The high quality Budd built cars of the "California Zephyr" have proven to be popular with private car owners. Today, several former CZ cars operate in private charter service on Amtrak, including dome-observation car "Silver Solarium", dome-coach "Silver Lariat", sleepers "Silver Rapids" and "Silver Quail" and a dome lounge now known as the "Sierra Hotel".
Six museums currently hold equipment once used on the CZ. The Illinois Railway Museum owns several Burlington locomotives that were used to pull the train on occasion. The Colorado Railroad Museum has two Rio Grande locomotives that also saw CZ and later Rio Grande Zephyr service.
The Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Florida owns two former Western Pacific Railroad CZ cars: baggage car "Silver Stag" and dome-observation car "Silver Crescent".
The Avon Park Depot Museum in Florida owns one former Western Pacific Railroad CZ car: Silver Palm originally a sleeper car, it is now a buffet dining car that the museum uses for dinner parties. The car was converted to its buffet car state by Auto-Train when they bought the car.
The Austin Steam Train Association, which operates the Austin & Texas Central Railroad in the Hill Country between Cedar Park and Burnet, has completed its restoration of the CZ Silver Pine car. Originally a 16-section sleeper manufactured in 1948 by the Budd Company, the coach car re-entered revenue service in 2011 - for the first time since it's Denver & Rio Grande Western days.
The largest collection of preserved equipment can be found in Portola, California at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum. One locomotive and four cars are currently preserved there as part of the museum's Zephyr Project restoration program. Western Pacific 805-A is the last intact locomotive built specifically for the CZ. The cars are dome-lounge "Silver Hostel", dome-coaches "Silver Lodge" and "Silver Rifle" (on long term loan from the Golden Gate Railroad Museum) and the "Silver Plate", which is the last intact dining car left from the train's fleet.
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