Santa Fe’s Texas Chief, 1950-1960s

 

Fred Klein, 2010, 2016

In 1948, Santa Fe expanded its Chief family into Texas. The new Texas Chief replaced the "Fast Fifteen", a service operated by Santa Fe's Texas affiliate G. C. & S. F. between Oklahoma and Galveston. The Texas Chief ran from Chicago to Galveston on a new faster schedule. The Texas Chief ran daily southbound as train #15 and northbound as train #16. The chair cars ran from Chicago to Galveston, but sleepers were destined for connections in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Wichita with only two continuing to Fort Worth, Houston and Galveston. In 1950, new sleeper cars replaced older ones in the consist, hence the start date of this train. In the mid to late 1960’s, high-level passenger cars similar to those used on the El Capitan were introduced.

 

The Texas Chief in Oklahoma in 1950.

 

The northbound Texas Chief train number 16 in Illinois in the 1950s.

 

The consist on which I base this August 4, 1952 train is from Wayner’s Passenger Train Consists 1923-1973, page 59, at Temple, Texas. The train's consist would be a mixture of equipment from three different builders: Budd, ACF, and Pullman-Standard, with some of the cars being hand-me-downs from earlier Chiefs. Some of the sleepers in this train were built in 1950. Unlike the 1951 Super Chief, I do not think the Texas Chief had a stable consist through the years, so some adjustments probably occurred from 1948 until this 1952 consist and afterwards. The diner, however, was specially decorated for the Texas Chief with copper murals and a “lone star” theme and was assigned to this train.

 

 

Power

 

Three or four F7 diesels powered the Texas Chief. These are factory painted Kato models.

 

Head end cars

 

One or more baggage cars were in the head end section. The first car is a Kato model of a 72’ Budd 1942 baggage car. This consist also calls for a baggage-RPO car (ATSF 3600, ACF, 1951). I do not have a baggage-RPO model, so I do what the railroads probably did in case of equipment failure: substitute a baggage and an RPO car, This is a Walthers model of a 72’ 1950s PS or ACF baggage car (incorrect number), and an Arnold model of a 60’ Budd RPO.

 

Coach section

 

The Texas Chief had a collection of coaches of various types, some as hand-me-downs. I tried to approximate a prototype set of 4 coaches, keeping in mind that numbers on model cars, even re-decaled ones, are often not correct. The first two are Budd coaches. The first model is by Kato of a 1937 60-seat coach, the second by Concor of a 56-seat 1941 coach. The third coach is a Walthers model of a PS c1950 coach, and the fourth is a JNJ brass sides model of a 44-seat PS 1947 coach.

Dining & lounge section

 

The Texas Chief used a hand-me-down Budd diner from the 1938 Super Chief, the ATSF 1485 Awatobi. The Kato model of the Budd 1937 diner pictured above is very, very similar to the Awatobi. The train also used another hand-me-down, a club-lounge-dormitory made by Budd for the Chief in 1937. This lounge will be replaced by a full dome lounge in 1968. I don’t have a model of this car, but the dormitory-lounge made by Kato of the 1950 PS car made for the 1951 Super Chief is an acceptable stand-in, even though the car is made by PS not Budd. After all, if your train is full of hand-me-downs, compromises are perfectly normal.

Sleeper section

 

The three sleepers in this train are all different, and not old hand-me-down cars. The first is a 4 compartment-4 double bedroom-2 drawing room car in the Regal series made by PS in 1950. I use one made from a Des Plaines Hobbies kit (also available as a metal side from M&R or a finished car from Kato from their Super Chief set). The 10 roomette-6 double bedroom sleeper in the Pine series (Budd 1950) is available as a prototypical finished model from Kato. The 24 duplex roomette car, made by PS in 1948 in the Indian series, is more unusual. There is no off-the-shelf model, but my car is made from metal sides from JnJ.

 

 

References

Frailey, Fred. A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists, RPC Publications, 1974.

Schafer, Mike and Joe Welsh. Classic American Stramliners, Motorbooks International, 1997.

 

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