The Santa Fe Railroad And Its Famous Passenger Trains

By: JP

The Santa Fe was possibly America's most famous railroad and
definitely one of the most successful. Freight and passengers
rode over the Santa Fe rails form the 1860s until 1995 when the
AT and SF merged with Burlington Northern to form the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe railroad.

The Santa Fe became one of the strongest rail carriers in North
America, it served as a distribution system for imports,
exports, food products and manufactured goods produced in the
United States. For all it's successes as a freight carrier, the
Santa Fe was most remembered for its fleet of stylish passenger
trains, several of which ran until 1971. The railroads first
passenger train was the 1892 inauguration of the California
Limited, which was the premier train on the road's Chicago-Los
Angeles route. This was followed by the 1911 debut of the
extra-fare De Luxe between Chicago and Los Angeles, then, on
November 14, 1926, a legend was born, the Chief, another
extra-fare Chicago-Los Angeles Train. All three of these lines
were pulled by steam locomotives.

Santa Fe was intrigued by the prospect of dieselization and
thought diesel-electric power was a good way to cut costs on its
desert operations, where water for steam locomotives was at a
premium. On May 12, 1936, the railroad introduced the
all-sleeping-car Super Chief, yet another entry in the
Chicago-Los Angeles market, and the first to be
non-steam-powered, being pulled by a pair of diesel locomotives
built by General Motors-owned Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC).
Santa Fe's EMC boxcabs, where popularly known as The Twins and
are generally considered the first commercially built high-speed
passenger diesels. With diesel power the train was able to make
the 2,000 mile trip in just 39 hours and 45 minutes, 15 hours
faster than the best steam-powered run.

A year later in May of 1937, the Super Chief received all new
equipment, emerging as Santa Fe's first lightweight streamliner.
Its new streamlined EMC diesels debuted what was destined to
become one of the most famous railroad paint schemes in the
world, the red, silver, black and yellow, "war bonnet". This
scheme was designed by EMC designer Leland A. knickerbocker, and
was specifically intended for the stylish streamlined E1
locomotive. It was applied to numerous other locomotives over
the years and remains among the most recognizable of railroad
paint schemes. For the next 40 plus years, these colors would
appear on all locomotives regularly assigned to Santa Fe
passenger trains.

In 1938, the all-coach streamliner El Capitan was launched as
the Super Chief's companion train - the two ran only a few
minutes apart- serving economy travelers who wanted a fast trip
over the main line. As the years went by, more Chiefs joined the
fleet. 1948 saw the addition of the Texas Chief that ran on the
Chicago-fort Worth-Houston line, and 1954's San Francisco Chief
that ran on the Chicago-Kansas City-Amarillo-San Francisco line.
During this period the Super Chief was upgraded and now sported
new sleeping cars, diner car, and its famous Pleasure Dome
Lounge.

The Pleasure Dome car featured a classy lounge on its main
level, while the upstairs dome section contained a raft of
individual, fully rotating seats for viewing. Unique to the
Pleasure Dome car was the Turquoise Room dining area beneath the
dome section, which was a private dining room that could be
reserved for groups and served from the adjacent diner's kitchen.

Through consistent service and periodic upgrading and
innovation, the Santa Fe gained a reputation of operating the
finest passenger trains in North America. This was a reputation
held until Amtrak assumed operation of selected Santa Fe
passenger trains on May 01, 1971. Throughout history, Santa Fe's
Super Chief was often cited as the world's best and most famous
passenger train.

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