To the crews that operated and serviced locomotives, the Greek and Roman mythological names adopted by the Burlington seemed quite a mouthful, particularly the names of some of the Twin Cities cars like Psyche, Minerva, and Ceres. But when the first of the steamlined Hudsons was christened AEOLUS in the Spring of 1937, it was just too much. Almost immediately, the crews modified the masculine Greek AEOLUS into the much simplier feminine English ALICE. The name stuck with the common man and was quickly expanded upon.

Back in 1934 a strange apparition had been added to the extremely popular Popeye comic strip: Alice The Goon. As originally drawn, the Goon was an unclothed, hairy monster which uttered utterly incomprehensible noises and was very successful at terrifiying small children. Consequently, Alice The Goon was withdrawn from the strip after a period of public outcry about the character's frightening nature - but not before the term Goon had caught on. Parents admonished their children, 'Be good, or the Goon will get you!' Alice, though frightening to childern, had become quite popular, and she was soon returned to the comic strip in a more acceptable form, clothed in a polka dot blouse and skirt and wearing a hat with a perky flower. Her utterings were still incomprehensible, but she was now much less frightening - so much so that she assumed the role of little Swee' Pea's babysitter. The nickname 'Alice The Goon' and 'Big Alice The Goon' seemed somehow appropriate for the two streamlined locomotives, and for the rest of their shrouded careers they were most commonly known by either of those two monikers, or simply as Alice.

On the evening of February 25, 1938, Aeolus 4000 departed Chicago Union Station with Train No. 1, the Denver Zephyr. Nearly 1,000 miles west, railfan Joe Schick learned that 'Alice' was coming his way from his hometown depot agent/operator in Keenesburg, Colorado on the mainline some 37 miles north-east of Denver. Early the next morning, Schick called fellow railfans Dick Kindig and Otto Perry in Denver to alert them, then headed out west of Keenseburg to capture the 4000 speeding by at 85 mph. By the time Kindig could get down to Denver Union Station on his way to work, No. 1 had already arrived, and Dick captured this view of the locomotive easing off its train and down Track 1 before backing over to the Q's 23rd Street roundhouse for servicing.