Widely respected as the most luxurious train of the streamlined era, the cars of Santa Fe's 1937
Super Chief were virtually hand built. Each sleeping compartment was individually decorated with
unique wood paneling and trim, a feature no other streamline train could boast.
The eight cars of the consist (a mail-express car would have made nine, but it was never used)
were built by the Edward G Budd company, of Red Lion Road, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This caused a controversy in the case of the five sleeping cars. Most railroads, including Santa
Fe, contracted with the Pullman Company to provide services aboard the sleeping cars in their
trains. Pullman was reluctant to provide those services on cars not built by it's affiliated
Pullman Car and Manufacturing Co. Eventually, Pullman and Santa Fe agreed that Pullman would
staff the Super Chief, but any subsequent sleepers would be built by PC&M.
The Super Chief made it's 2200 mile trip in 39h 45m, compared to the time of it's predecessor,
the steam powered "Chief", which took 63 hours to cover the same distance. The Super quickly
became the favorite train of celebrities traveling from New York to Los Angeles. Those special
passengers earned it the nickname "Train of the Stars"
To download the cars and complete consists of the 1937 Super Chief, just go to the bottom of
this section.
Notes on sleeping car accommodations:
During the heavyweight era, there were
three popular types of sleeping car spaces available to passengers. The most basic was the section
(Sec), which could sleep 2 to 4 people, in a minimal space. Sections were configured as open space
during the day, with two pairs of facing seats. At night, the seats formed the lower berth, and
an upper berth dropped from the ceiling. The '37 Super Chief had a total of 16 sections.
A compartment (Cpt) slept two, in an enclosed
space. Unlike sections, compartments took up the full usable with of the car (not including the
aisle) because they included a washstand and toilet, in the space. There were 11 compartents available
on the "Super".
The most luxurious
accommodation available was the drawing room (DR) which could carry three passengers. Here, the
toilet was moved into a separate annex. In the heavyweight era, the annex was located along the
outside wall of the car. The cars of the Super Chief used this same design, and the annexes are
identifiable by the small frosted windows in the car side. Later streamlined equipment placed the
near the aisle of the car, giving the drawing room passengers a better view. The Super had eight
drawing rooms.
The fourth type of space available on the Super Chief was the double bedroom
(DB). These were a relativly new development. Bedrooms were smaller than compartments, without
some of their facilities, but could carry two
passengers, day or night. Double bedrooms would become one of the most popular types of
accommodation in the lightweight era. The Super Chief had 14 double bedrooms.
Complete Trains
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{LocoStart}FILE=...\SuperChiefWestbound.dib;LABEL=ATSF E-1 + "The Super Chief";GT=V;EPOCHE=2;ULAND=USA;OL=N;RICHTUNG=L;VMAX=6;VMIN=3;EXEMPLARE=1;ZG=63;SELECTED=1;{LocoEnd}
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