On Thanksgiving morning, 1965, the Denver Zephyr hustles past Cudahy siding near the Denver stockyards, running a little late for its scheduled 8:30 a.m. arrival at Union Station. Today’s train is packed with holiday travelers, mail and express, and the regular consist -- baggage car, two regular coaches, dome coach, dome-lounge-dormitory, diner, two Slumbercoaches, three sleepers and dome parlor lounge – has been almost doubled with extra cars. Thus E8A 9940B is leading four units instead of the usual two. Three of the cars will continue beyond Denver to Colorado Springs this morning on Rio Grande’s Royal Gorge, returning on the same train in the afternoon for departure on the eastbound DZ. This is still, in the mid-1960s, the most popular Denver train and it will remain a class operation until Amtrak takes over in May, 1971. The 9940B will survive as Amtrak 332.
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