Amtrak’s Southwest Limited, 1974-1981

Fred Klein, 2016

Amtrak at first ran and gradually repainted the “heritage” cars inherited from individual railroads in variations of the phase I paint scheme. Santa Fe’s Super Chief (first class, all sleeper) and El Capitan (all coach) generally ran as one train in the later years before the Amtrak takeover in 1971. This was a popular train and Amtrak took it over and continued to run it as the Super Chief. In March 1974, Santa Fe prevented Amtrak from using the name “Chief” so Amtrak renamed the train Southwest Limited. It held that name until October 1984 when Amtrak renamed it the Southwest Chief. The new train names kept the same train number (3 and 4) and the Chicago to Los Angeles routing. The high-level coaches ran on the Southwest Chief until the whole train was replaced with superliners about 1981.

 

The high-level coach cars of the El Capitan were kept together as a unit because they could only be used with standard single-level cars by coupling one of the transition cars (step-down coaches) between the sections. The high level cars were successful, held more passengers than single level cars, and were the pattern for the fleet of superliner cars that were the standard for western railroads after their delivery in 1979-80. The rest of Amtrak’s sleeper cars in 1971 were chosen from the best and newest among various railroads, were shared all over the county as they were repainted, and thus only a few sleepers were carried over from Santa Fe’s Super Chief. The preferred sleeper types were the 11-bedroom and 10-roomette 6-double bedroom types to simplify booking and car substitutions. The sleeper car types were mostly used on the Southwest Limited until they were replaced by the superliners.

 

The Amtrak paint scheme initially used on the Super Chief and Southwest Limited came to be known as phase I. Some of the high level cars got experimental schemes with only narrow red and blue bands in the window sections. The wider bands with the Amtrak “arrow” within the band on each side of the car were also used. Later the arrow disappeared from some cars (making a phase II scheme), and the phase III scheme with equal-width red, white and blue bands was used for re-paintings and new deliveries in the early 1980s.

 

Power for the Amtrak Super Chief was initially either the same F7’s or the newer FP45’s (in red warbonnet paint) that had powered the Santa Fe owned train. In 1973-74 Amtrak took delivery of SDP40F diesels from EMD painted in Amtrak phase I paint, and the SDP40Fs displaced the yellow-bonnet F7s. The SDP40F was the first locomotive type that Amtrak bought new for itself for long distance non-electric trains. Later, in 1976-77, F40PH locomotives arrived to become Amtrak’s standard power on most trains. The SDP40F’s frequently derailed at high speeds on curves, and this led to speed restrictions on many Amtrak routes and prompted their replacement with the more reliable F40PH. Derailments were less a problem on the Southwest Limited and the train kept the SDP40Fs longer than on other routes.

 

The model train is assembled from a consist for train #4 at Raton Colorado on March 6, 1974. In 2013, Kato released the El Capitan passenger set in Amtrak phase I paint. Instantly, half of the 1971 Super Chief had an off-the-shelf model. The paint variation used by Kato had wide color stripes on the high level cars, but high level cars with narrow stripes on just the windows was also common. In 2016, Kato released the second half of the train (the sleepers, dome and diner mostly from the Santa Fe Super Chief) as a new set, allowing the entire train to modeled right out of the boxed sets. The SDP40Fs locomotives were also released in 2016 in phase I paint completing a whole prototypical train. Modeling a train does not get much easier.

 

 

Amtrak’s southwest limited in the mid 1970s. Photo from the Brooklyn Locomotive Works website page for Kato’s southwest limited.

 

A meet of the Southwest Limited’s trains #3 and #4 at Rowe New Mexico on February 22, 1974. Note Amtrak’s phase I paint. Photos by Jon Carr.

 

The same meet of the Southwest Limited’s trains #3 and #4 at Rowe New Mexico on February 22, 1974.

 

The rear, first class end of the Super Chief /Southwest Chief in Chicago in July 1973.

 

 

 

The consist table that I use is for Amtrak train #4 at Raton, Colorado on March 6, 1974, at which time the train was called the Southwest Limited, and was on page 7 of an on-line publication of Amtrak consists. The entire model train is by Kato and is prototypical. By this date, Amtrak SDP40F locomotives were common. The model train is exactly the two Kato train sets, which adds three high level coaches to the prototype train, which would be typical of higher summertime travel than the published consist.  I added a baggage car at the end, which together with the last 10-6 sleeper, would be switched off at Kansas City to add to train #30. In the 1970s, there were variations in locomotive power, variations of passenger car painting through various experimental phase I schemes, until the Superliners arrived in 1980-81.

 

SDP40F power and head-end cars

 

The diesel power is a pair of SDP40F units in the phase I Amtrak arrow scheme. The two baggage cars are a Budd-built car from the Amtrak-El Capitan set and an ACF-built car from the Southwest Limited-Super Chief set. The Budd car is the one with corrugated roof. The baggage dorm car is single level with a shroud to match the high level cars that follow.

 

High level coach section, first part

 

The first cars in the Amtrak Southwest Limited consist were the original Budd cars that Santa Fe bought for the El Capitan in 1956. The transition (step-down) coach has a stairway at the end to mate with the baggage-dorm car ahead. The two high level coaches and the high-level diner are all in phase I paint with the Amtrak arrow. The models are from the Kato Amtrak-El Capitan set.

 

Lounge and more coaches

 

The next car is the coach lounge with its dome windows. It is followed by three coaches, the last of which is a step-down car for access to the first class cars behind. I added an extra coach to the published consist. The models are from the Kato Amtrak-El Capitan set.

 

Sleepers, first section

 

The first sleeper in the published consist is an ex-Santa Fe 11 double bedroom car in the Indian series. This was the 1964 re-build of the original 24 duplex roomette Indian series cars. The next car is a 10-6 ex-Santa Fe car in the Pine Series. These two cars were newly tooled for this Kato set and were not in the early 1950s Santa Fe Super Chief.. The next prototype sleeper is a 4 compartment-4 double bedroom-2 drawing room ex-Santa Fe car in the Regal series. The next car (always in the middle of the sleeper section) was the ex-Santa Fe dome lounge. This is a prototypical model of the signature car of the Super Chief. The short section of this car has a special lounge (the former Santa Fe turquoise room) that faces the kitchen section in the following diner.

 

Sleepers, second section

 

The diner for first class passengers was behind the dome lounge car. The prototype car for this train was a corrugated PS ex-ATSF diner. Two more 10-6 sleepers followed the diner. The prototype cars for this consist are an ex-ATSF 10-6 in the Pine series and an ex-ATSF Pacific series 10-6, both made by Budd. The last car is a baggage/express car at the end because it was switched out en-route.

 

 

REFERENCES

Solomon, Brian, Amtrak, MBI Publishing, 2004.

Stout, Greg, Santa Fe through passenger service, Morning Sun, 2009.

Warner, David and Elbert Simon, Amtrak by the numbers, A comprehensive passenger car and motive power roster 1971-2011, White River Productions, 2011.

 

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