Zephyr

The 1938 Zephyr pinball machine (model 204), released by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in February 1938, is a flipperless single-player EM machine with a railroad theme. Its backglass depicts the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000 streamliner train, though the game's train-themed name evokes the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's famous 1934 Pioneer Zephyr, one of the first stainless-steel "streamliner" trains, which set a speed record between Denver and Chicago and was nicknamed the "Silver Streak."

Gameplay on Zephyr, as a flipperless machine, centers on skillful plunging and playfield tilt to route the ball toward scoring lanes and bumpers rather than flipper-based shot-making. IPDB documentation notes that three different playfield variants exist for this game — one wood-surfaced with painted artwork, and two metal-surfaced versions without artwork.

The train theme, common in this era, contributes to the machine's nostalgic charm, evoking the golden age of American railroading. No specific information is available regarding Zephyr's designer, leaving it as an intriguing but only partially documented piece of pinball history.