Does anyone out there have photos of the formal delivery at Chicago Union Station on June 27, 1973 of Amtrak's first SDP-40F #503? (Maybe it was #504.) Were there any newspaper or magazine photos of the event? I was there as a teenager, having stumbled onto the event accidentally. Unknown to me at the time my camera was broken and the pictures I thought I was taking never made it onto the film. I know official photos were taken, since it was a company photographer who told us what was happening, but numerous inquiries to the Amtrak archives and elsewhere have been fruitless. The event figures tangentially into a story I'm writing, and I would like to include a photo if one can be found. Can anyone help out?
Trains ran a picture that August of the 505, 504, and 503 powering a Santa Fe train from Chicago to Kansas City on June 10th, followed by a return trip. It was for break-in purposes. Was this before they were handed over to Amtrak?
No pictures of your event. But Trains did run a news photo taken of the Super Chief on Raton Pass with three SDP40F's in the lead (The same three units?), the day after they departed from Chicago on their first revenue trip on June 22nd.
While not relevant to the original request, my first visit to the USA was in January 1974. I flew from London to LAX and next day went to Union Station where I photographed the Super Chief arriving.
The three SDP40Fs were gleaming in red and silver, and I recall that they were from the first batch of units with low numbers and the pointed nose that was left off later units. I was pretty impressed at the time.
But it may be possible to get a later photo of 503 and/or 504 on the Super Chief that would serve the purpose.
I recall that on a later visit (maybe 1977) the locomotives on the Super Chief had been repainted in the "phase II" colours but were still the original low numbered units with pointed noses.
M636C
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