1994 Profile of the Santa Fe Railway

Mileage: 7800

Locomotives: 1696

Freight cars: 17,392

Company Service Cars: 933

Major Terminals: Chicago(Corwith),Kansas City (Argentine),

Dallas,Fort Worth, Lubbock, Clovis, Barstow, Los Angeles(Hobart), Oakland.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company was noted as much for its freight service innovations as it was for its fast fleet of fine transcontinental passenger trains. Who could possibly forget such trains as the Super Chief, The Chief, The San Francisco Chief, Texas Chief, and El Capitan to name a few. This famous fleet of fast passenger trains was quite a tribe whose fine service other railroads found difficult if not impossible to match. No other railroad, save for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, ran through line passenger trains made up entirely of high or bilevel equipment as well as single level equipment. Moreover, Santa Fe used more EMD F units in passenger service than most other railroads did. Of the hundreds of F units rostered by the Santa Fe, many of them were dual service units that were equally at home in freight service as they were in high speed passenger service, though many were used exclusively in passenger service even with this dual service capability. Besides the F3 and F7 units, Santa Fe had all its E1 diesels rebuilt into 2000 hp E8Ms using the E8A carbodys, some with F unit type number boxes and deployed them primarily on lines serving Texas. Then there were the 3600 hp EMD FP45s, which arrived in late 1967 and were broken in on the Super C piggyback train, before being assigned to the Super Chief, El Capitan which would be these locomotives' primary assignments. Some of the freight F45s came with steam and signal lines so they could be used in passenger service in tandem with the FP45s. Here, we will take a look at the freight and passenger operations of the Atchison,Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company both as operated for the railroad's own account and, in the case of the passenger service, operated for Amtrak's account.

PASSENGER OPERATIONS
Right up to the time Amtrak began operations, the Santa Fe's primary passenger routes were Chicago to Los Angeles,Chicago to Fort Worth,TX, Los Angeles to San Diego,and Barstow to Oakland/San Francisco. Of the trains that Amtrak assumed operation, the Super Chief/El Capitan,Texas Chief, and the San Diegans were the trains that came to form the core of Amtrak's western operations.What follows are several sample consists of several of these trains from the 1960s:
1.EL CAPITAN CONSIST(1960s)
ATSF331 F7A
ATSF 19ABC,F3As
3440 Baggage-Express
3453 Baggage-Express
3480 Transition Baggage-Dorm
528 Hi Level Step Down
700 Hi Level Chair Cars (2)
650 Hi Level Diner (1)
575 Hi Level Lounge (1)
700 Hi Level Chair Cars(3)
528 Hi Level Stepdown Chair Car
Super Chief Consists 1962-64.
3rd Section (Mon.,Thurs.)
RPO
Storage Mail
Baggage-Dorm
Hi Level Coach-68 Seat
Hi Level Coach-72 Seat M-Th-Fr
Hi Level Coach-72 Seat
Hi Level Coach-72 Seat
Hi Level Coach-72 Seat
Hi Level Diner
Hi Level Lounge
Hi Level Coach 72 Seat
Hi Level Coach 72 Seat
Hi Level Coach 72 Seat
Hi Level Coach 68 Seat
1st Section (Except Monday and Thursday)
Baggage
Coach 48 Seat
Coach 44 Seat (3 cars)
Lounge-Cafe-Diner 1550 series
Pine Palm 10-6 Sleeper
Regal Sleeper,4-4-2
Dome Bar-Lounge
36 Seat Diner
Regal Sleeper, 4-4-2
Pine/Palm Sleeper, 10-6 (2 cars)
Super Chief-Second Section
RPO
Storage Mail
Storage Mail
Baggage-Dorm 3477-82
Hi Level Coach, 68 Seat
Hi Level Coach, 72 Seat, MTHF
Hi Level Coach 72 Seat, 3 cars
Hi Level Diner
Hi Level Lounge
Hi Level Coach (3 cars)
Hi Level Coach-68 seat
For many years, the Super Chief and El Capitan operated as separate sections under the Nos. 17 and 18 and both trains usually left Chicago and Los Angeles a few minutes apart. In the final years of railroad sponsored operation, both trains were combined and ran behind the same locomotive, be it a 4 to 6 unit F7 set or a pair of the powereful FP45 cowl diesels just received in late 1967. Even up to the last days before Amtrak, the railroad kept the service standards high and today's Amtrak Southwest Chief is a proud survivor of that tradition.

In this section will be found condensed passenger schedules predating Amtrak, diesel roster information, sample freight schedules and other such information as may be of interest to the Santa Fe enthusiast and historian. The following condensed schedules are taken from the Santa Fe passenger timetable of July 1,1970, which was the last Santa Fe issue before Amtrak.











Table 1. Chicago-Kansas City-Los Angeles



23 17 Stations 24 18

0900.....1830...Lv Chicago,IL..Ar..2100.....1330

1740.....0155...Ar Kansas City.Lv..1230.....0550

1800.....0205...Lv Kansas City.Ar..1215.....0535

0345.....0900...Ar LaJunta,CO..Lv..0100.....2025

0400.....0920...LV LaJunta,CO..Ar..0040.....2015

0950.....1540...Ar Lamy,NM.....LV..1825.....1425

0950.....1540...Lv Lamy,NM.....Ar..1825.....1425

1100.....1750...Ar Albuquerque.Lv..1710.....1320

1110.....1710...Lv Albuquerque.Ar..1700.....1310

1745.....2245...Ar Flagstaff,AZ Lv.1115.....0733

1745.....2245...Lv Flagstaff,AZ Ar.1115.....0733

2340.....0500...Ar Barstow,CA...Lv.0200.....2320

0100.....0510...Lv Barstow,CA...Ar.0110.....2310

0600.....0900...Ar Los Angeles..Lv.2100.....1930





Nos.23 and 24 THE GRAND CANYON.Nos.17 and 18 SUPERCHIEF/EL CAPITAN.



Table2.Chicago-San Francisco THE SAN FRANCISCO CHIEF



.....1........Stations........2.........

...1000...Lv Chicago.....Ar 2000.......

...1750...Ar Kansas City.Lv.1215.......

...1820...Lv Kansas City.Ar.1145.......

...2300...Lv Wellington..Lv.0610.......

...0530...Lv Amarillo,TX.Lv.0025......

...0745...Lv.Clovis,NM...Lv.2215.....

...1140...Ar Belen.......Lv.1605.....

...1159...Lv Belen.......Ar.1545.....

...1735...Ar Flagstaff...Lv.0955.....

...1735...Lv Flagstaff...Ar.0955.....

...2335...Ar Barstow,CA..Lv.0145.....

...2355...Lv Barstow,CA..Lv.0130.....

...0340...Lv Bakersfield.Lv.2205.....

...0545...Lv Fresno......Lv.2005.....

...1040...Ar San Francisco L1545.....
Note:Via bus connection between San Francisco and Oakland.
Table 3. Chicago-Texas THE TEXAS CHIEF
..15.....Stations.......16
1700 Lv Chicago...Ar..1000
0040 Ar Kansas City Lv0205
0100 Lv Kansas City Ar0140
0225 Lv Topeka,KS...Lv0015
0330 Lv Emporia,KS..Lv2300
0815 Lv Guthrie,OK..Lv1810
0910 Lv Oklahoma CityL1740
0940 Lv Norman,OK...Lv1700
1134 Lv Ardmore,OK..Lv1515
1222 AR Gainesville Lv1430
1222 Lv Gainesville Ar1430
1340 Ar Fort Worth,TX 1225
1410 Lv Fort Worth,TX 1253
1442 Lv Cleburne,TX Lv1223
1620 Ar Temple,TX...Lv1045
1640 Lv Temple,TX...Ar1040
2030 Ar Houston,TX..Lv0720



Of the trains in these three tables, the Super Chief/El Capitan and Texas Chief survived into the Amtrak service, while the San Francisco Chief,Grand Canyon, and Tulsan all ran off their final miles on the eve of Amtrak before these trains entered the history books.
SANTA FE FREIGHT OPERATIONS
As famous as its tribe of Chief passenger trains made the railroad, the Santa Fe Railway became just as famous for its fashions and innovations in freight services as well as the sample freight schedules and listing of equipment owned will show. Santa Fe also participated in a number of run through train services, of which the joint Santa Fe-Erie Lackawanna Excellerator, whose schedules are shown below, is a prime example.