Twice a year, Christmastime and summertime, I ride across country by train. I savor the full day on board between Chicago or New Orleans and the West Coast. Whether I’m going over Raton Pass, New Mexico or looking out the window as the train stops at Alpine, Texas, the ‘mountain town’ on the Sunset Route, or crossing the heart of the Colorado Rockies or riding along the southern boarder of Glacier National Park, Montana, riding through mountains in the summer is a part of what makes summer ‘summer’ for me.

Visible in this view of the Zephyr, on Rio Grande rail here, are the dome buffet lounge car and, ahead of it, three dome coaches. Behind the buffet lounge is the diner, a string of sleepers (usually four until the consist was lengthened in the later years) and the dome observation lounge.