California Zephyr car open Saturday for tours

The Maricopa Historical Society will offer free tours Saturday of Maricopa’s Silver Horizon dome car, a passenger train car on Amtrak’s historical California Zephyr passenger train.

Tours will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Amtrak station on the corner of southeast corner of John Wayne Parkway and the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.

In operation between 1949 and 1970, Amtrak’s California Zephyr, also known as the “Silver Lady,” was a passenger train that carried people from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay area and ran on a line considered to be one of the most scenic train routes in the country at the time.

The passenger car has been in Maricopa since 2000 and was used as the ticket office for Maricopa’s Amtrak station until a modern ticket office replaced it.

The Silver Horizon now is opened to the public twice a year and visitors will be able to tour both the lower coach area and the upper observation deck of the 85-feet-long, 16-foot-tall train car.

Brent Murphee of Maricopa’s Historical Society said visitors also will be able to view a display of artifacts and archival photos from the history of Maricopa, as well as a display of the history of Maricopa High School between 1959 and 1979,