"Exposition Flyer" (Train): Consist, Timetable, History

Last revised: October 20, 2026

The Exposition Flyer was the Chicago–Oakland train of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, and the Western Pacific. Service began on June 10, 1939, for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. The train started with heavyweight Pullmans, a tourist sleeper, chair cars, a diner, and an observation lounge. Cab diesels were assigned in the mountain districts by the middle of the 1940s, and a vista-dome was riding in the consist by January 1949. The California Zephyr replaced it on March 20, 1949, on the same three railroads and the same route.

Denver and Rio Grande Western FT 550 leading an A-B-B-A set and heavyweight cars on the Exposition Flyer, 1.5 miles east of Moffat Tunnel

Denver & Rio Grande Western 550, an FT, with an A-B-B-A set on the Exposition Flyer, 1.5 miles east of the Moffat Tunnel, after the Second World War. The cars behind the diesels are heavyweights.

On this page: At a glance · June 10, 1939 · Three railroads · What the sheets offered · Steam, then diesels · A car from New York · Naperville · March 20, 1949

At a glance

Item	Detail
What it was	Daily Chicago–Oakland through train, heavyweight cars at the start, timed for the 1939 fair and kept until March 1949
Railroads	Burlington, Chicago to Denver. Rio Grande, Denver to Salt Lake City, via the Moffat Tunnel and the Dotsero Cut-off. Western Pacific, Salt Lake City to Oakland
Inaugurated	June 10, 1939. The Western Pacific public sheet in hand is dated the next day, June 11
Numbers	39 west and 40 east on the Burlington and the Western Pacific. 5 west and 6 east on the Rio Grande
Sample day	Leave Chicago 12:35 p.m. Sunday. Denver 8:20 a.m. Monday. Salt Lake City 11:59 p.m. Monday. San Francisco 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Eastbound leaves San Francisco 9:00 p.m. Sunday and reaches Chicago 11:55 a.m. Wednesday
Miles on the sheets	Chicago to Omaha, 496, on the Burlington’s February 1940 table. Denver to Salt Lake City, 570.0, on the Rio Grande’s January 1940 Moffat table
Aboard, at the start	Standard Pullman, 16-section tourist sleeper, reclining chair car, diner for every meal, observation lounge, hostess-nurse, air-conditioning, no extra fare. A St. Louis sleeper came west on the General Pershing Zephyr as far as Lincoln
Replaced	March 20, 1949, by the California Zephyr. The dedication in San Francisco was the day before

June 10, 1939

The Golden Gate International Exposition opened on Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, on February 18, 1939, and ran through October 29. It marked the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The three railroads put on a through train for the fair and named it for the exposition. The Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society calls it the first through train on this Burlington–Rio Grande–Western Pacific route, using the Dotsero Cut-off, and credits that cutoff with saving about 150 miles against the line through the Royal Gorge.

The fair closed for the winter. San Francisco opened it again from May 25 to September 29, 1940, and the railroads kept the train through the gap. It was still on the timetable when the gates closed the second time. Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh, in Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon, set the heavyweight schedule about twenty hours slower than the City of San Francisco, the extra-fare streamliner of the Chicago & North Western, the Union Pacific, and the Southern Pacific on the Overland Route. The Flyer stayed because the Moffat Tunnel, the Colorado River, and the Feather River Canyon were the trip.

Three railroads

On the Burlington the train was No. 39 westbound and No. 40 eastbound, over the Chicago–Denver main that also carried the Denver Zephyr. The February 1940 public table, Table 1, shows No. 39 leaving Chicago at 12:35 p.m. Central time. Omaha is mile 496. The continued page shows No. 39 leaving Omaha at 11:15 p.m. No. 40 arrives Chicago at 11:55 a.m.

Burlington Lines public table, February 1940, Chicago, Omaha, Lincoln, and Denver, with Exposition Flyer trains 39 and 40

Burlington Lines, Table 1, February 1940. Chicago, Omaha, Lincoln, and Denver. Train 39 leaves Chicago at 12:35 p.m. Train 40 arrives at 11:55 a.m. Author’s collection.

Burlington Lines public table continued, February 1940, Omaha toward Denver, train 39 leaving Omaha at 11:15 p.m.

The same table, continued. February 1940. Train 39 leaves Omaha at 11:15 p.m. Central time. Author’s collection.

The Rio Grande’s numbers were 5 and 6, “via Moffat Tunnel Route.” Table 1a for January 1940 is the Moffat Tunnel route by the Dotsero Cut-off. No. 5 leaves Denver at 8:44 a.m. Mountain time, passes the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel at mile 49.6, and arrives at Salt Lake City at 11:59 p.m. The table’s mile at Salt Lake City is 570.0. No. 6 leaves Salt Lake City at 9:30 p.m. and arrives at Denver at 12:55 p.m. Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction are on that card. Between Denver and Bond, Nos. 5 and 6 ran through the local stations. From June 1 through September 30 they stopped at Granby for the Estes Park detour.

Rio Grande public table, January 1940, Denver to Salt Lake City via the Moffat Tunnel and the Dotsero Cut-off, trains 5 and 6

Rio Grande Table 1a, January 1940. Moffat Tunnel Route via the Dotsero Cut-off. Trains 5 and 6. Salt Lake City is mile 570.0. Author’s collection.

The Western Pacific sheet of June 11, 1939, the day after the inaugural, is issued in the names of trustees T. M. Schumacher and Sidney M. Ehrman. It prints San Francisco as the public terminal and shows the rail stations at Oakland Pier and at 3rd and Washington. Westbound, No. 39 reaches Oakland’s 3rd and Washington station at 9:40 p.m. Pacific time and San Francisco at 10:30 p.m. Eastbound, No. 40 leaves San Francisco at 9:00 p.m. The same card puts the westbound train at Portola at 11:40 a.m. and Oroville at 3:35 p.m., so the Feather River Canyon was a daylight ride going west. The eastbound train left the bay at night.

Western Pacific public timetable dated June 11, 1939, with Exposition Flyer trains 39 and 40, San Francisco, Oakland, and the Feather River Canyon

Western Pacific public timetable, June 11, 1939. Trains 39 and 40. San Francisco, Oakland Pier, Oakland at 3rd and Washington, and the line through the Feather River Canyon. Author’s collection.

A Burlington brochure, The Scenic Way to California, prints one day as the example and the same terminal times. Leave Chicago at 12:35 p.m. Sunday, arrive Denver at 8:20 a.m. Monday, Salt Lake City at 11:59 p.m. Monday, and San Francisco at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Eastbound leaves San Francisco at 9:00 p.m. Sunday and arrives at Chicago at 11:55 a.m. Wednesday. A St. Louis column leaves at 2:15 p.m. Sunday, and Kansas City at 7:30 p.m.

Burlington Route brochure, The Scenic Way to California, describing the Exposition Flyer and a sample Chicago to San Francisco schedule

Burlington Route brochure, The Scenic Way to California. The Exposition Flyer as a through train, with the sample day from Chicago at 12:35 p.m. Sunday to San Francisco at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Author’s collection.

What the sheets offered

The Western Pacific’s condensed card calls the train Nos. 39 and 40, via the Moffat Tunnel, and prints two lines at the top of the equipment box: all cars air-conditioned, and no extra fare. The box lists an observation lounge between Chicago and San Francisco, standard sleepers with drawing rooms, compartments, and sections, a tourist sleeper, reclining chair cars, a diner serving every meal, and coaches. A second standard sleeper ran between St. Louis and San Francisco.

Condensed through schedule for the Exposition Flyer via the Moffat Tunnel, with the equipment box for trains 39 and 40, air-conditioned cars and no extra fare

Condensed through schedule, Moffat Tunnel and Royal Gorge columns, and the equipment box for trains 39 and 40. All cars air-conditioned. No extra fare. Author’s collection.

The Rio Grande’s equipment strip is more precise, and it names a hostess-nurse on both Nos. 5 and 6. The daily line was a lounge observation car, Chicago to San Francisco, a standard sleeper of 10 sections, 2 compartments, and 1 drawing room, a tourist sleeper of 16 sections, a diner serving every meal à la carte and table d’hôte, and a chair car. The St. Louis sleeper was 10 sections, 1 compartment, and 1 drawing room. West of Lincoln it ran in No. 39. East of Lincoln it rode the General Pershing Zephyr.

Rio Grande equipment list for Exposition Flyer trains 5 and 6 via the Moffat Tunnel, including a hostess-nurse, sleepers, diner, and chair car

Rio Grande equipment for trains 5 and 6, the Exposition Flyer via the Moffat Tunnel. Hostess-nurse, lounge observation, two standard sleepers, a 16-section tourist sleeper, diner, and chair car. Author’s collection.

The Burlington’s condensed sheet matches that car line and adds the small print. Cars marked “A C” were the ones regularly assigned as air-conditioned. Coach passengers overnight were offered free pillows. The tourist sleeper between Chicago and San Francisco carried a note for a 15-hour daylight stop-over in Salt Lake City. The brochure’s promise on meals was specific: as low as 90 cents a day for chair-car and tourist-car passengers, with hostess-nurse service and free pillows. The lounge, in that brochure’s words, was for sleeping-car passengers. A parlor car ran between Omaha and Kansas City and between Kansas City and St. Louis. The same advertisement offered through standard and tourist Pullmans between Chicago and San Francisco by way of the Royal Gorge, a second Rio Grande route beside the Moffat train.

Burlington condensed schedules and equipment to and from California, with the Exposition Flyer via the Moffat Tunnel and equipment notes

Burlington condensed schedules and equipment to and from California. Train 39 leaves Chicago at 12:35 p.m. The equipment notes list air-conditioned Pullmans, the diner, chair cars, free pillows, and hostess-nurse service. Author’s collection.

Steam, then diesels

The first season was steam on each railroad’s own engines. A photograph by R. H. Kindig, published with the Rio Grande society’s notes, shows 4-8-4 No. 1804 on the Chicago–Oakland train at Ralston, Colorado, in 1940. By the middle of the decade the mountain railroads were assigning cab units. The color photograph at the top of this page is Rio Grande FT 550, east of the Moffat Tunnel, with heavyweight cars still on the drawbar.

Denver and Rio Grande Western F3 554 leading the Exposition Flyer near Denver on January 5, 1947

Rio Grande F3 554, about a year old, with the Exposition Flyer near Denver on January 5, 1947. In March 1949 the California Zephyr took this schedule. Photographer unknown.

Western Pacific publicity photograph of F3s with westbound Exposition Flyer train 39 on Rock Creek Trestle in the Feather River Canyon, circa 1947

Western Pacific publicity photograph. F3s on Rock Creek Trestle in the Feather River Canyon, westbound train 39, the Exposition Flyer, about 1947.

During the war the train ran far above a single consist. Mileposts, the Western Pacific’s magazine, later recalled the baggage desk in the years when the Exposition Flyer was running as many as eight sections a day, with troop trains besides. The Rio Grande society’s notes say lightweight cars were included almost from the start, and that by the end the train carried some of the modern cars that went to the California Zephyr.

A car from New York

In the spring of 1946 the three railroads added a through sleeper between the Pacific and New York. Richard C. Overton, in Burlington Route, records it as the Burlington’s first handling of a coast-to-coast sleeper. The eastbound car left Oakland on March 31, 1946, billed to New York. The westbound car left Chicago Union Station on April 4. East of Chicago the car alternated, one day on the New York Central’s Commodore Vanderbilt and the next on the Pennsylvania’s General.

Rio Grande F3s In Glenwood Canyon With The Exposition Flyer In 1948

A handsome set of new Rio Grande F3's lead the late-era "Exposition Flyer" westbound through Colorado's Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River on June 14, 1948. Otto Roach photo.

Naperville

On the afternoon of April 25, 1946, No. 39 left Chicago Union Station at 12:35 p.m., the same minute as No. 11, the Advance Flyer, a Burlington train for Omaha and Lincoln. The New York Times the next morning described both as diesel-powered. At Naperville, on Loomis Street, the Advance Flyer had stopped. The Interstate Commerce Commission, in investigation 2988, found that No. 39 was approaching at about 80 miles an hour, and gave the cause as a failure to operate the following train in accordance with the signal indications. The Commission’s count was 45 killed and 69 injured. The wreck is the one cited for the later rule that set 79 miles an hour as the limit for a passenger train, with a higher allowance for a train that carried automatic train stop, cab signals, or automatic train control.

March 20, 1949

The three railroads had agreed in Denver on October 16, 1945, to replace the Flyer with a new train using the vista-dome. Delivery of the Budd cars ran late. By the last winter a dome was already out on the old schedule. Mileposts for December 1958 identifies the cover photograph as the Exposition Flyer at Sloat, California, in January 1949, taken by fireman A. D. Vogel, and notes the vista-dome midway in that train. The car went into California Zephyr service the following March.

The Western Pacific club magazine The Headlight, in January 1949, told employees that California Zephyr service would go on Sunday, March 20. The fixed consist it listed ran to eleven cars: a baggage car; three 46-seat vista-dome coaches, the forward half of the first set aside for women and children; a vista-dome buffet-lounge; two 10-roomette 6-double-bedroom sleepers; a 48-seat diner; a 16-section sleeper; a 10-roomette 6-double-bedroom sleeper alternating between New York Central and Pennsylvania lines through to San Francisco; and a vista-dome observation-lounge with three double bedrooms, a drawing room, and a cocktail lounge. The 24 dome seats were unreserved. Coach seats were reserved. Hostess service on the new train was the Zephyrettes. The dedication was held in San Francisco on March 19, the day before that first departure, with actress Eleanor Parker and Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight. The Exposition Flyer came off the timetable with the new train.

Sources

Western Pacific public timetable, June 11, 1939, issued under trustees T. M. Schumacher and Sidney M. Ehrman. Trains 39 and 40. San Francisco 9:00 p.m. eastbound and 10:30 p.m. westbound. Oakland at 3rd and Washington, 9:40 p.m. on the westbound arrival. Westbound times through the Feather River Canyon include Portola at 11:40 a.m. and Oroville at 3:35 p.m.
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Table 1, February 1940, “Chicago, Omaha, Lincoln and Denver,” and the continued page. Train 39 leaves Chicago at 12:35 p.m. Central time and Omaha at 11:15 p.m. Omaha is mile 496. Train 40 arrives at Chicago at 11:55 a.m.
Denver & Rio Grande Western, Table 1a, January 1940, “Moffat Tunnel Route Via Dotsero Cut-off.” Train 5 leaves Denver at 8:44 a.m. Mountain time and arrives at Salt Lake City at 11:59 p.m. The mile at Salt Lake City is 570.0. Train 6 leaves Salt Lake City at 9:30 p.m. and arrives at Denver at 12:55 p.m.
Rio Grande equipment strip for trains 5 and 6, the Exposition Flyer via the Moffat Tunnel, with a hostess-nurse. Lounge observation, Chicago–San Francisco. Standard sleeper, 10 sections, 2 compartments, 1 drawing room. St. Louis sleeper, 10 sections, 1 compartment, 1 drawing room, on the General Pershing Zephyr as far as Lincoln. Tourist sleeper, 16 sections. Diner, à la carte and table d’hôte, all meals. Chair car.
Condensed through schedule and the Western Pacific equipment box for Nos. 39 and 40. All cars air-conditioned. No extra fare. Via the Moffat Tunnel. Observation lounge, standard sleepers, tourist sleepers, reclining chair cars, diner, and coaches. Burlington condensed sheet of schedules and equipment to and from California, with the same 12:35 p.m. departure, air-conditioned cars, free pillows, and hostess-nurse service. The tourist line notes a 15-hour daylight stop-over in Salt Lake City.
Burlington Route brochure, The Scenic Way to California. Sample day, Chicago 12:35 p.m. Sunday to San Francisco 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the eastbound return. Meals as low as 90 cents a day for chair and tourist passengers. Hostess-nurse service. Free pillows. Lounge car for sleeping-car passengers. Through cars also advertised via the Royal Gorge.
Rio Grande Modeling & Historical Society, “Exposition Flyer.” First through train on the Burlington–Rio Grande–Western Pacific route by the Dotsero Cutoff, credited with saving about 150 miles against the Royal Gorge. The train kept through the winter of 1939–40. It started as a heavyweight train, with lightweight cars included almost from the start, and by the end it carried some of the modern cars that went to the California Zephyr. April 1946 through sleeper east of Chicago on the New York Central’s Commodore Vanderbilt and the Pennsylvania’s General, on alternate days. R. H. Kindig photograph of 4-8-4 No. 1804 at Ralston, Colorado, in 1940.
Richard C. Overton, Burlington Route: A History of the Burlington Lines (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965). The Burlington’s first coast-to-coast through sleepers: the eastbound car left Oakland on March 31, 1946, and the westbound car left Chicago on April 4, 1946.
Interstate Commerce Commission, investigation 2988, accident at Naperville, Illinois, April 25, 1946. Train 39, the Exposition Flyer, struck train 11, the Advance Flyer. Approaching speed about 80 miles an hour. 45 killed and 69 injured. Cause: failure to operate the following train in accordance with signal indications. New York Times, April 26, 1946: both trains left Chicago at 12:35 p.m., and both were diesel-powered.
Western Pacific, The Headlight, January 1949. “California Zephyr Service Will Go March 20.” Eleven-car consist, vista-domes, reserved coach seats, Zephyrettes. Mileposts, December 1958: the January 1949 photograph at Sloat by A. D. Vogel, with a vista-dome in the Exposition Flyer. Mileposts, March 1957: as many as eight sections a day during the war.
Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh, Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon (St. Paul: MBI Publishing, 2003). The heavyweight schedule set about twenty hours slower than the City of San Francisco. Agreement among the three railroads at Denver on October 16, 1945, for the vista-dome train that became the California Zephyr.

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