A member of the site's Facebook page had a question about an overnight trip he had taken from San Antonio to Denver back in 1960 upon his completion of Air Force basic training. He didn't remember the details of the trip, only that it was a "nice train", he had a lower berth, and the meals in the dining car were very good. When he arrived in Denver in the evening, a bus picked him and the others up and transported him to Lowry Air Force Base.

By the beginning of the 1960s you basically had one choice between San Antonio and Denver by rail, and that was to take the remnant of the Texas Special (all-Katy by that time, between San Antonio and Kansas City) from San Antonio to Dallas and then change there to Burlington's service from Dallas to Denver. At first I thought this would be on the premium Texas Zephyr (which by this time had been re-equipped with the hand-me-down cars from the 1936 Denver Zephyrs), but after checking the timetables I realized that for a one-night trip his connection had to be to the unnamed Train No. 8, Burlington's secondary service on the route. Still, with his pleasant memories of the trip it would appear that Burlington was still offering good service in this secondary train along the route. Of course, as a veteran myself I can testify that just about any trip leaving basic training will leave you with good memories....

Uncle Sam would foot the bill for a lower berth for those traveling overnight under his orders...but that was all. For this reason, those roads which still had a substantial military and governmental passenger traffic often maintained section sleeper service long after most other railroads had retired the old-fashioned and unpopular open sections. When faced with an overnight rail trip on a road which offered roomettes and bedrooms only, a serviceman might have to pay the extra for a roomette charge out of his own pocket...but I understand that in many cases the conductor would "bump" him into a roomette as a free upgrade, especially since in the face of declining patronage it was likely that roomette would otherwise go empty anyway.