Dining Cars

Next door to Engine-Ears Toys are two more railroad cars for the California Zephyr pulled into the station at Sunshine Plaza. These form the entrance to Baker's Field bakery and Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream (plays on words, of course, referencing Southern California cities Bakersfield and Burbank, home to the Walt Disney Studios).

The inside of each looks like a dining car on a train, complete with small tables along the windows, a slight curve to the ceiling and connecting passages between the cars. The walls are decorated with photos of the original California Zephyr, as well as a large shadowbox displaying a real antique place setting, original menus and other paraphernalia from the Zephyr's heyday.

Of course the train car entrances are just facades, examples of "California Crazy" architecture. The full spaces which make up Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream and Baker's Field take their design inspiration from Union Station, which opened in Los Angeles in 1939. Designed by architect Donald B. Parkinson, the Union Passenger Terminal combines Spanish Mission and Moderne styles, with a touch of Arts and Crafts influence as well.

The light fixtures, flooring and style of the murals recall Union Station. Look for the time zone clocks on the wall at Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream. Over at Baker's Field, you'll find a custom touch: graphic representations of steaming cups of coffee, subtly worked into the Moderne ironwork around the room.

The mural on the back wall of the bakery presents a dramatic scene of a Western Pacific railroad train, coming through the mountains bound for California. The engine nose depicted in the mural is actually the same one that can be found outside at the front of the Zephyr.

While most of the train from Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream to Engine-Ears Toys is just a facade, this engine is real. It's a 1954 EMD F-9 train engine (EMD was the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors), found by the Imagineers in Moline, Illinois, and relocated to the park. It's the same kind of locomotive once used to pull the California Zephyr, a passenger train that operated from 1949 to 1970, servicing a route from Chicago to Oakland, California (passing through Denver and Salt Lake City along the way).

The California Zephyr, also called the Silver Lady because of its stainless steel cars, brought millions of people to California over the decades. The train was especially known for its Vista Dome cars, affording incredible views of what was considered America's most scenic rail route. Almost all of the Zephyr's 77 cars remain in existence today. Some are even still in use, although modifications over the years have rendered them nearly unrecognizable.