Super Chief Consists

[Anonymous]

Would anyone happen to know what the AT&SF's Super Chief Consists was in 1954-1955. I am a bit confused because I am finding info that says 9 cars and other that says 12 cars. Anyone have the facts?

Thanks in advance.

Coyote

[Trainnut484]

Coyote,

There is an out-of-print book that's available on CD called "A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists" by Fred W. Frailey. It's based on 19 passenger train consists, including the Super Chief, from 1946 to 1971 for the use of its officials. You can purchase one at:

http://www.atsfrr.com/store/book1.htm

Take care,

Russell

[Anonymous]

There is another thread in this post that has lots of information concerning Super Chief consists. Look for the "Super Chief" thread started by petermccue. Sorry ... I couldn't get the link to the thread to work.

[passengerfan]

My information for the summer of 1954 shows the following for one westbound Super Chief consist.
A-B-B-A EMD F7 diesels 1,500 hp each total 6,000 hp.
83 60' Railway Post Office Car (La- Junta - Los Angeles)
3650 Baggage Car (Chicago - Loa Angeles)
REGAL ARMS 2-Drawing Room 4-Compartment 4-Double Bedroom (New York - Los Angeles PRR)
PINE PASS 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom (New York - Los Angeles NYC)
REGAL ISLE 2-Drawing Room 4-Compartment 4-Double Bedroom (New York - Los Angeles NYC)
PINE ARROYO 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom (Washington - Los Angeles B&O)
501 Pleasure Dome Turquoise Room Lounge Car (Chicago - Los Angeles)
600 36-Seat Dining Car (Chicago - Los Angeles)
1340 Crew Dormitory Club Lounge Car (Chicago - Los Angeles)
REGAL GULF 2-Drawing Room 4-Compartment 4-Double Bedroom (Chicago - Los Angeles)
PALM VIEW 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom (Chicago - Los Angeles)
PALM STAR 10-Roomette 6- Double Bedroom (Kansas City - Los Angeles)
VISTA CLUB 4-Drawing Room 1-Double Bedroom Lounge Observation (Chicago - Los Angeles)

All cars were Santa Fe owned even the through cars as the Santa Fe did not operate off line cars in the Super Chief. If the summer consists expanded beyond thirteen cars something that happened quite often in those time then the Santa Fe added a fifth F7 unit to the train. Very rare was a Super Chief consist more than fifteen cars in length. The train for time keeping purposes was limited to fifteen cars if possible. The longest Super Chief consist I have been able to document was eighteen cars. This had to be rare indeed because a single 36 seat dining car even using the Turquoise room giving ten additional seats would have meant four sittings for lunch and dinner, and this was something the Santa Fe would have avoided if at all possible.
600

[csmith9474]

I don't know if you are wanting this for modeling info, but I am in the process of modeling the '59 El Cap/Super Chief and have found some nice resources for the cars in that consist. The above consist is good to go. I need to check dates, but I think that occasionally you would still get some "foreign" cars from New York (two tone). Please school me on this if someone knows better.

[passengerfan]

In the Santa Fe CHIEF off line cars such as NYC, PRR or B&O were common. But the Santa Fe when the through cars were switched to the SUPER CHIEF provided all through cars. No off line cars were handled in the SUPER CHIEF. And the Santa Fe went one step futher in that all through New York and Washington cars were postwar stainless steel cars that were operated in the SUPER CHIEF. The Santa Fe had enough 10-6 Pine and Palm series and 4-4-2 Regal series cars to supply all of the necessary through cars. The reason Santa Fe gave for this was the postwar sleeping cars were all equipped with bathroom annexes and prewar streamlined sleeping cars were not.

[csmith9474]

"#17/18, Super Chief, was a crack sleeper train interchanging sleepers with other roads in the 50s. Coast to coast sleeping cars on this train were protected by Santa Fe's stainless steel cars. Only rarely (Frailey says once or twice a month) would sleepers from eastern connections be seen in place of Regal or Pine cars. These sleeper pools were:

(Pine Leaf, Gem, Creek, Pass, Ring, Beach) B&O 10-6 from Washington (Capital Ltd.) via Chicago to San Diego.
(Pine Arroyo, Brook, Dale, Island, Cove, Fern) NYC 10-6 from New York (20th Century Ltd.) via Chicago to LA.
(Regal Gate, Gulf, Arms, Creek, Town, Court) NYC 4-4-2 from New York (20th Century Ltd.) via Chicago to LA.
(Regal Ruby, River, Spa, City, Inn, Ring) PRR 4-4-2 from New York (Broadway Ltd.) via Chicago to LA."


The reason I mentioned about foreign cars on the Super is that I had once seen a photo of some NYC cars on the end of the train and did some investigation that led me to the above information on the SFRH&MS website. I will try to track down the picture and post it. I thought it was a really cool shot. I hope this helps out.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all! Great info! !00% informative and helpfull.

I was also able to find this.. which comes from the suggested book above in the thread...

http://www.garymgreen.com/super_chief_consists.htm


Peace.

Coyote