# Before the Southwest Chief



## KmH (Jan 5, 2017)

_*Note*_: Click on each *Public Domain* link to see each relevant photo. 

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF, or just Santa Fe) was chartered on February 11, 1859.

Passenger train service between Chicago and LA was inaugurated November 27, 1892 with the first running of the AT&SF’s *California Limited - *train Nos. 3 & 4.
The train had no coach cars, just Pullman sleeping cars, until 1938.

The _California Limited_ was inaugurated in part as a means to "signify completion of the basic Santa Fe system." according to company president Allen Manvel.
Manvel felt the AT&SF would attract business and enhance the prestige of the railroad with daily first-class service from Chicago to the West Coast. The _California Limited_ was billed as the "Finest Train West of Chicago".
Dining cars were added in 1893.

The _California Limited_ took 83 hours and 50 minutes to go each way between Chicago and LA and they had to change locomotives 15 times each way too. 
When demand was high in summer they had to run more than 1 section (train) each day. Reportedly 23 _California Limited_ sections once operated from Chicago on a single day. 

The _California Limited_ ran last on June 15, 1954 giving it the longest tenure, 62 years, of any train on the Chicago-Los Angeles run. A variety of steam and diesel locomotives pulled the _California Limited_.

The photo is in the Public Domain. The _California Limited_ pauses at the summit of Cajon Pass in 1908. 
The reproduction is in the Public Domain. 1910 magazine advertisement for the _California Limited_. 
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The *Santa Fe de Luxe* was the first extra-fare Chicago to LA train on the Santa Fe Railway.
The _de Luxe_ (meaning something luxurious or elegant) started on December 12, 1911 on a seasonal weekly schedule between Chicago and Los Angeles.
Each way the trip took 63 hours and the sixty passengers the train could accommodate paid a surcharge of $25 each way.

The photo is in the Public Domain. Postcard promotion for the train in 1916. Among the amenities it offered were maid and barber service. 

On arrival at Summit in Cajon Pass in California eastbound female passengers were presented with orchid corsages and engraved pigskin wallets were given to the men on the train. On the westbound run, ladies received a bouquet of flowers and a basket of California oranges, while the men got the usual, an engraved pigskin wallet.

The cars used for the _Santa Fe De Luxe_ were lavishly furnished and had electric lighting. Drawing room passengers slept in brass beds instead of the usual berths. The dining cars featured the first attempt at air conditioning on rail passenger cars - the dining room was cooled in the summer with large blocks of ice.

The _Santa Fe_ _de Luxe_ was not essential to the war effort (WWI) and was discontinued on May 1, 1917.
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The all-Pullman sleeper berth *Chief *began its first scheduled 63 hour run from both ends of the line simultaneously on November 14, 1926, five hours faster Chicago – LA than the _California Limited_.
June of 1929 the schedule both ways drops to 58 hours. In 1945 the train receives new cars and the schedule is reduced to 45 hours. In January of 1954 the 45-hour schedule is cut to 39 hours, 45 minutes eastbound and 39 hours, 30 minutes westbound. The westbound _Chief _spends only one night in transit, leaving Chicago in the morning and arriving in Los Angeles late evening of the following day.
Coach cars (chair cars) are added to the _Chief _in 1954.

To ride the faster _Chief_ passengers had to pay a $10 surcharge for an end-to-end trip.
The _Chief_ was advertised as "_Extra Fast-Extra Fine-Extra Fare_" and it didn’t reduce traffic on the _California Limited_.
The _Chief_ became famous as a "rolling boudoir" for film stars and Hollywood executives.

May 15, 1968 the _Chief_ ceased operations.
For the summer of 1972 Amtrak revived the _Chief_ for three months using train Nos. 19 & 20, along with the _Chief_'s morning departure from Chicago.
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June 29, 1929 Chicago to Los Angeles service, scheduled 66 hours each way, begins via the *Grand Canyon Limited*_; _train Nos. 23 & 24, which becomes a celebrated vacation train. The Grand Canyon Limited was used by passengers to catch the AT&SF _Grand Canyon Railway_, running between Williams, Arizona, and the South Rim of Grand Canyon.

The westward train (#23) split at Barstow, one section running to San Francisco (Oakland-Richmond) via the Tehachapi Loop while the other section continued to Los Angeles.

May 2, 1971: The final train #24 that left Los Angeles on April 30 arrives at Dearborn Station in Chicago, ending Santa Fe revenue passenger service. Amtrak had taken over rail passenger service the day before May 1, 1971.
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The *Super Chief*, train Nos. 17 and 18, was the first Diesel-powered, all-Pullman sleeping car train in America. The _Super Chief_ eclipsed the _Chief_ as Santa Fe's standard bearer. The extra-fare ($10) _Super Chief_ left Dearborn Station in Chicago for its first trip on May 12, 1936.

Before starting scheduled service in May 1937, the lightweight version of the _Super Chief_ ran 2,227 miles (3,584 km) from Los Angeles over recently upgraded tracks in 36 hours and 49 minutes, averaging 60 mph (97 km/h) overall and reaching 100 mph (160 km/h).

With just one set of equipment the train initially could only operate once a week from both Chicago and Los Angeles. After more cars had been delivered the _Super Chief_ ran twice weekly beginning in 1938, and daily after 1948.

Photo is in the Public Domain. The Santa Fe's first 2 diesels, and the first diesels intended for passenger train service, General Motors Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) Nos. 1 and 1A, pulled the Super Super Chief - August 31, 1935. 

The convenience of traveling "_Santa Fe All The Way_" was superior to anything that the competing jointly operated railroads could provide on their routes to the west coast.
The Santa Fe touted the _Super Chief_ as the latest in a long line of luxury Chicago–Los Angeles trains that used the latest in railroad technology.

The legendary Hollywood dancer, Eleanor Powel, christened the _Super Chief_ "The Train of the Stars.”
In the mid-1940s, company president Fred G. Gurley had gone to great lengths to solicit business from California's motion picture industry. A passenger agent was located in Hollywood specifically for the purpose of maintaining close contact with the movie studios. The train stopped at Pasadena to allow celebrities to board away from the "hustle and bustle" of Los Angeles' Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT). When the Santa Fe was notified that a particular celebrity was going to be traveling on the _Super Chief_, a press release was issued to allow the media to interview and photograph the star.

During the pre-war years the _Super Chief_ didn’t allow passengers to board or disembark between Kansas City and Barstow. Stops between Kansas City and Barstow were operating stops only - to change crews or to service the train.

The _Super Chief_ quickly became "the" train to ride between Chicago and Los Angeles, with its modern air conditioned cars, private sleeper berths, high amenity levels, smooth ride, Mimbreño china, and continental cuisine that often rivaled that served in many five-star restaurants.

The 35-year run of the _Super Chief_ on the Santa Fe ended when Amtrak took over operation of the nation's passenger service on May 1, 1971. In 1974 Santa Fe withdrew permission to use the _Super Chief_ name. Amtrak renamed the train the _Southwest Limited_. In 1984 Santa Fe allowed Amtrak to call the train the _Southwest Chief_.

The photo is in the Public Domain. The combined _Super Chief / El Capitan_ led by EMD F7 locomotive #44C sporting Santa Fe's classic _Warbonnet_ paint scheme on Track 10 at Los Angeles' Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT) September 24, 1966. 

Photo is in the Public Domain. Print ad for the Santa Fe Railway's _Super Chief_ - Mar 15, 1948 issue of _Life_ magazine. 
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The *El Capitan* operated from 1938 to 1971, and Amtrak retained the name from 1971 to 1973.

The photo is in the Public Domain. Postcard photo of the Santa Fe train _El Capitan_ as it passes through Shoemaker Canyon, New Mexico after receiving its Hi-Level cars sometime in the 1950s.

The _El Capitan_ was the only all-coach or "chair car" to operate on the Santa Fe main line between Chicago and Los Angeles on the same fast schedule as the railroad's premier all sleeper berth _Super Chief_. The _El Capitan_ was also the first train to receive the pioneering Hi-Level equipment with which it would become synonymous.

The _El Capitan_ debuted on February 22, 1938 on a twice-weekly schedule, using two five-car sets of streamlined equipment built by the Budd Company. Being all chair car or coach cars the El Capitan was a "low-cost passage with high-speed convenience" train for the less well heeled. Fare for the high-speed service from Chicago to Los Angeles was $5.00 above the $39.50 regular coach fare in 1938.

On September 29, 1946 the _El Capitan_ began running every other day, departing Los Angeles and Chicago on odd-numbered days (except the 31st). With the _Super Chief_ departing on even-numbered days, the two trains formed what the Santa Fe billed as "the first and only daily 39 3/4 hour service between Chicago and California."

The photo is in the Public Domain. Postcard photo of a Hi-Level car on the Santa Fe Railway's _El Capitan_ streamliner. The Hi-Level cars were developed by Budd and the railroad in 1954–1956. 

With additional equipment arriving in in 1948 the _Super Chief_ and _El Capitan_ started operating daily. The new schedules went into effect on February 29.
To compete with other railroads the extra-fare charges were dropped from both _El Capitan_ and the _Chief_ on December 14, 1953.

The Sante Fe combined the _Super Chief_ and _El Capitan_ on January 12, 1958. The combined train used the _Super Chief'_s numbers, 17 and 18, but the Santa Fe continued to use both names - _Super Chief_/_El Capitan_ designation.

Amtrak continued the combined _Super Chief_/_El Capitan_ designation until April 29, 1973, when it dropped the _El Capitan_ portion of the name. Today the route of the Super Chief/_El Capitan_ is served by Amtrak's *Southwest Chief*.
Many of Amtrak western trains used a combination of refurbished former Santa Fe Hi-Level cars with newer Superliner railcars until the early 2000s.

The photo is in the Public Domain. _El Capitan_ was one of the first Santa Fe trains to use the Budd-built "Big Dome"- Lounge cars – 1954 photo.


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## StanJazz (Jan 6, 2017)

The 2nd to last photo is actually a Hi-Level lounge car, not a chair car.


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## KmH (Jan 6, 2017)

Thank you for that info.

I edited the caption.


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## neroden (Jan 7, 2017)

Hmmm. With Amtrak scheduled at 43 hrs 5 minutes or 43 hrs 15 minutes (depending on direction), I wonder what it would take to get it back down to 39 1/2 hours. (The Super Chief benefitted from not making intermediate stops, which is unwise these days, but the Chief had intermediate stops... should be able to get those times...)


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## me_little_me (Jan 7, 2017)

If my memory holds correctly, when Amtrak took over, they used the name Santa Fe Chief with the permission of SFRR. Conductor on board then told me that SF had mystery riders to verify that Amtrak kept up the standards of the Chief and when Amtrak failed to do so, they pulled the name rights from Amtrak and it became the Southwest Chief.


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## CCC1007 (Jan 7, 2017)

me_little_me said:


> If my memory holds correctly, when Amtrak took over, they used the name Santa Fe Chief with the permission of SFRR. Conductor on board then told me that SF had mystery riders to verify that Amtrak kept up the standards of the Chief and when Amtrak failed to do so, they pulled the name rights from Amtrak and it became the Southwest Chief.


The name was "Super Chief", changed to "Southwest Limited", as the word "Chief" was in dispute, and eventually ATSF allowed the word "Chief" to be used again.


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## railiner (Jan 7, 2017)

Great capsule history of the route...thanks for posting it!

I think most of us know that the Hi-Level lounge cars depicted are now Amtrak's Pacific Parlor Cars....while they live on...

Santa Fe called them "The Top Of The Cap", with the lower level known as the "Kachina Coffee Shop"....

As for reducing Amtrak's current running time....the train would have to go back to its historic routing between Kansas City and Emporia via Ottawa, instead of its current routing thru Topeka, the state capital. And the routing from San Bernardino to Los Angeles via Pasadena, I don't believe exists any longer, hence the longer routing via Fullerton.The new routing over the former BN between Chicago and Galesburg is already an improvement over the original ATSF routing via Streator....


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## KmH (Jan 19, 2017)

CCC1007 said:


> me_little_me said:
> 
> 
> > If my memory holds correctly, when Amtrak took over, they used the name Santa Fe Chief with the permission of SFRR. Conductor on board then told me that SF had mystery riders to verify that Amtrak kept up the standards of the Chief and when Amtrak failed to do so, they pulled the name rights from Amtrak and it became the Southwest Chief.
> ...


Yep. Once Amtrak got the train back up to standards sufficient for ATSF.


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