I am new (again) to this (had an N-gauge train when I was a kid but it went bye-bye a long time ago) and have an idea to model the El Capitan (Super Chief) route from Chicago to LA. I’m planning on making it a modular layout as I can work on one section at a time.
I have an Amtrak guide that shows the ‘stops’ and the general route, but was wondering if anyone knows of a book, video, etc that takes one from Chicago to LA (or vice-cersa) so I can see the actual scenery and route?
I’m looking to do this in N-gauge due to space limitations expected.
May I suggest, “you are in the right Church, but the wrong pew”. The information you are looking for would probably be more easily attained in the “Trains” portion of the Forum, rather than this - Model Railroader. Good Luck!
Better yet, post this question on the Classic Trains forum, you will get more info than you bargained for. Those guys are great with this kind of stuff.
I don’t know what those others are talking about. There are plenty of us right here that are great with that “kind of stuff”. In fact since this is Santa Fe oriented you might even get a reply from Andy Sperandeo or one of the other members of the SFRH&MS who frequent the forums. Don’t understand how any modeler could not be.
Well you know that covers a whole lot of territory. When I was In junior high I designed a full basement size layout that did just the Raton Pass from Trindad CO to Raton NM. A tiny portion of the route.
Most of the Santa Fe transcontinental passenger trains took the northern main. On that you would get the mid-west corn and dariy farm stuff of IOWA, the Missouri valley deciduous forests, the Kansas flint hills, Kansas wheat land, eastern Colorado semi-arid grasslands, New Mexico “mountains” and semi-desert following Route 66, the real deserts of Arizona, and of course the California coast. Are those the “scenic” sections you are thinking about? One could easily do major layouts in each one. There is a video hosted by Michael Gross called “Super Chief - Speed Style Service” that might meet your needs. I don’t know how much it focuses on the scenery mostly the train itself.
If you want to run your models at speed, I would suggest you model a section of the racetrack between La Junta Colorado and Dodge City Kansas. La Junta was the only place the Super Chief switched head end cars (adding/removing the mail car to/from LA). The
You Tube has videos on the Santa Fe and Super Chief. I seem to recall one with a boy about 12 going out west and one with a young woman. Yahoo has a Santa Fe discussion group. Don’t Forget the Santa Fe Historical Society web site.
Don’t forget the ATSF also ran through Illinois along the river near Chicago, paralleling the GM&O through Joliet,across the Illinois River, winding up Edelstein Hill, past many cornfields, and through many small towns until it crossed the Mississippi at Fort Madison, Iowa. At one time there was even a round house in North Chillicothe, near the gravel pits the ATSF used for as a source for ballast. The Santa Fe also went through the minor rail hubs of Streator and Galesburg in Illinois. Ok guess, in what state did I grow up?!
Good luck with your project, it is very ambitious. If you have the space, maybe different modules, with selected scenes, from the different places the Super Chief went might work.
There is loads of information available on the Santa Fe railway. I could go on and on and overload you with info so I’ll just mention some must haves that cover Chicago to Los Angeles.
Books
For your specific question, Chicago to Los Angeles, there is a three book series (with a fourth extra book) by Morning Sun with color pictures ranging in date from 1940 to 1971 and the books cover major spots from Chicago to Los Angeles. This series is one of my favorites in our Santa Fe book collection and is an almost must have for the Santa Fe modeler.
Santa Fe 1940-1971 In Color Volume 1: Chicago - Kansas City
Santa Fe 1940-1971 In Color Volume 2: Kansas City - Albuquerque
Santa Fe 1940-1971 In Color Volume 3: Albuquerque - Los Angeles
Here’s a link to these Morning Sun Santa Fe books:
As far as video/DVDs go, well one of the best is the Santa Fe Odyssey by Green Frog. There are three volumes, but volume 1 covers the passenger era of the Santa Fe. And although it doesn’t cover the entire route from Chicago to Los Angeles, it gets pretty close and the all color footage can’t be beat.
