Santa Fe’s high-level El Capitan, 1956-1960s

 

Fred Klein, 2010, 2016

The El Capitan was the coach equivalent to the famous first class Super Chief running between Chicago and Los Angeles as trains #21 and #22. The two trains ran on the same fast schedule, and in later years when ridership began to decline after 1958, they were combined into the same train during the winter to save money. This high level edition of the El Capitan started in 1956, and during the summer when it ran separately from the Super Chief, continued into the late 1960s. The high level cars were revolutionary, allowing large windows with good views for 72 passengers on the entire upper level, and baggage storage, rest rooms and air conditioning equipment below. High level cars will only run on western and Midwestern railroads where tunnel clearances allow for the 15-16’ height.

 

Both the El Capitan and Super Chief were extra fare, which Santa Fe charged because it claimed to offer superior service to the standards of other railroads. The El Capitan had leg rest, reclining chairs that Santa Fe hoped were comfortable enough to spend three days in.

 

The El Capitan was a streamliner created in 1938. It The El Capitan went through four major versions: 1938 with twice-weekly service; 1946 every second-day service featuring Budd 60-seat chair cars in the 3151 series, with additional 44-seat coaches added in 1947 (Budd, 2861 series) and 1950 (PS, 2912 series); 1953 refurbished with Budd 48-seat chair cars in the 2816 series; and 1956 replacement with Budd hi-level cars and later seasonal combination with the super chief in 1958. More information, links and references can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan_(train). The 1956 El Capitan is easy to model because Kato makes the entire set to run right out of the box.

 

A 10-car El Capitan departing the Los Angeles Union Terminal (Santa Fe photo).

 

The high level El Capitan in Shoemaker Canyon, New Mexico, in the late 1950s. Photo from a colorized postcard.

 

The consist on which I base this 1956 train is the full train set available from Kato. It is also the consist in Fred Frailey’s A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists, page 118. This is exactly the standard #21 westbound train used from 1956-1958. The #22 eastbound train was identical, except there was no storage mail car and an RPO would be cut in (at least on weekdays) after the locomotives between La Junta and Chicago. This hi-level train was so successful that it was the prototype for the Superliners in Amtrak’s fleet of the 1980s and later.

 

 

Power and head end cars

 

The power units were an ABBA set of F7 diesels painted in the warbonnet scheme, with an F3 substituting when necessary. I modeled them with factory painted Kato F7s. Two 1942 Budd baggage cars follow, the first generally used for mail storage.

 

Dormitory and first coach section

 

The first passenger car was an older baggage-dormitory car fitted with a decorative transition roof at one end to smoothly taper the roofline along the train. The new higher roofline did not have a stairway in it but was only for looks. The first (and last) coaches were a “step down” design with a stairway at the end and a low-level passage door to join with conventional level passenger cars. The other end of the step down coach and all other high level cars (like the third car pictured above) had passageway doors at the upper level. The normal coaches sat 72 passengers, but the step down coaches sat 68 passengers to allow for the extra stairway.

 

Coach, dining & lounge section

 

Next came two more hi-level coaches. The diner sat 80 passengers above and the kitchen was below. The lounge car had overhead windows like the popular full dome cars of the previous El Capitans and Chief trains. The lounge sat 80 passengers above and had a newsstand and refreshment bar below.

 

Final coach section

 

Four coaches followed the lounge car, the last of which was a step-down with low-level door, drumhead and marker light.

 

 

References

Dorin, Patrick. Super Chief and El Capitan 1936-1971, TLC Publishing, 2005.

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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