Second lightweight Santa Fe Super Chief, 1938-1947

Fred Klein, 2015

The first all-lightweight streamlined train to operate on the Santa Fe was the Super Chief, which began Chicago to Los Angeles service in May 1937.  The second lightweight Super Chief had different car designs, and was added in 1938 making twice weekly service available.  The Super Chief was unique among railroads and was very posh with exotic woods and interiors. By 1947 enough other Super Chief trains were built to enable daily service.  In 1951 the trains were completely re-equipped with new cars and new power.   The Super Chief was all-Pullman (no coaches) and extra fare. 

 

The second lightweight Super Chief entered service in February 1938 with the Budd food and lounge cars, and 6 Pullmans borrowed from the Chief pool.  In July 1938, Pullman delivered the 6 sleepers ordered for the second lightweight Super Chief and they replaced the borrowed Pullmans.  After an initial baggage-lounge car, the consist had three different Pullman types, a central dormitory-lounge and diner, two more Pullmans, and a sleeper-lounge-observation.  None of the cars were identical to those on the 1937 Super Chief.

 

The second Super Chief of 1938 westbound in Pasadena probably in late 1940. The locomotive is an E3 number 13 with an A and B unit. Stan Kistler photo from The Superchief; Train of the Stars, by Stan Repp.

 

The Super Chief at Edelstein Hill on July 2, 1942. The locomotive is Santa Fe’s only DL109 number 50. At this time the train carries a baggage or storage mail car and an RPO. It is a wartime photo because of the hood around the headlight to narrow the beam in case of air attack near the coast.

 

Unlike most other trains on this web site, these cars are brass and were made as a prototypical train. Passenger cars are from a brass set made by Oriental Limited. I do not have an E1 model locomotive for this train as it initially ran, but E3 diesels made by EMD were delivered in early 1940 and substituted for the E1s after that date. The Life-like model is an E6, which is visually identical to the E3, and the road number 12 is that of an E3. All the car models are prototypical. Santa Fe had one Alco DL109 A and B unit, bought in 1941, and numbered 50 and 50A. The DL109s were from the same era, were used in mainline service and could have occasionally hauled the Super Chief. I have the basic 7-car brass passenger set, but do not have the additional two Pullmans to make a complete 9-car train. I included a photo of the missing cars from the web.

 

 

 

Diesel power and lead cars

 

The Electromotive Corporation furnished newly designed E1 diesels for the Super Chief, the first of a long line of E passenger diesels.  The locomotives for this second Santa Fe streamliner rated road number 3, number 1 having gone to the box cab units that powered the 1936 heavyweight Super Chief, and number 2 to the 1937 lightweight Super Chief.  Later in 1940 Santa Fe bought some E3 diesels, and some found their way to the second (1938) super chief.  The head end car is Budd’s baggage-dormitory-buffet-lounge #1387 “San Acacia”.    I have not seen any RPO or mail cars used in the early Super Chiefs, probably because of the desire to keep the schedules fast.

 

Alternate power

 

Santa Fe had one Alco DL109 A and B unit, bought in 1941, and numbered 50 and 50A. The DL109s were used in mainline service and could have occasionally hauled the Super Chief. The DL109A unit is made by Concor-Kato. I kitbashed a DL110 B unit by joining the ends of two dummy A units together. It does not exactly match the prototype but gives the impression of a B unit.

 

 

Pullmans, lounge and diner

 

The Pullman sleeper car names in the pre-1940 Super Chiefs were given unique Indian names of tribes and places in Arizona and New Mexico.  The first Pullman is the 17-roomette car “Chimayo” (plan 4068F), followed by the 8-section/ 2-compartment/ 2-double bedroom “Talwiwi” (plan 4058B).  The curtained sections (4 to a side) are the 4 adjacent windows with the small upper-berth windows.  The next car is the 4-compartment/ 2-drawing room/ 4-double bedroom “Tchirege” (plan 4069B).  The two pairs of closely spaced windows in the center of the car are the drawing rooms.  Budd built the food and lounge cars of the second lightweight SC in 1938.  You can easily spot the Budd cars with the corrugated roofs.  In mid-train is “Agathla” #1377, the dormitory-club lounge car with a barbershop. The food section continues with the 36-seat dining car “Awatobi” #1485.  The famous “Mimbreno” china was designed for the Super Chief. 

 

More Pullmans

 

 

Next is another 4/2/4 Pullman, “Tsankawi” followed by another 8/2/2 “Tyounyi”. I do not yet have the Tsankawi and Tyounyi cars, but I found a photo of the cars at the North American passenger car web site http://www.spookshow.net/passenger/passenger.php. The last car is “Puye”, a 4-drawing room/ 1-double bedroom/ lounge-observation Pullman.

 

    

 

REFERENCES

 

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

Repp, Stan, The Superchief; Train of the Stars, Golden West Books, 1980.

Wayner, Robert, Car Names, Numbers and Consists, Wayner Publications, 1972.

Zimmermann, Karl, Santa Fe Streamliners; the Chief and their Tribesmen, Quadrant Press, 1987.

 

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