On its 37-hour run between Chicago and Los Angeles, what were the enroute fueling stops for the Super Chief and El Capitan? Albuquerque was one, and I believe Kansas City was another.
Most likely La Junta and Barstow
More,
http://www.shorpy.com/node/83?size=_original#caption
Headlight shroud. Bell by Horns, and more, much more.
Thank You
Wow, look at those old cars and trucks next to the tank cars.
Dave,
I consulted an AT&SF 1963-64 Winter Schedule. It appears the trains traveled about 500 miles before requiring refueling. Based on w/b published arrival and departure times, I believe the following to be the refueling stops:
Kansas City, MO
La Junta, CO
Albuquerque, NM
Barstow, CA
Between Kansas City, MO, and Barstow, CA, the w/b San Francisco Chief appears to have made refueling stops at:
Amarillo, TX
Belen, NM
The trains’ windows were certainly washed at Albuquerque, although I doubt a wash was done at Kansas City or La Junta and probably not at Barstow. I seem to recall a washer at Belen for the SF Chief.
FWIW, Chicago to Los Angeles, the total distance covered was 2,222.2 miles. For the San Francisco Chief, total distance was 2557.2 miles.
Guess this pretty much wraps up this thread.
Don’t be too hasty… [;)]
Since the AT&SF used steam ejector A/C, and considering that the A/C could consume 400lb/hr per car of steam (50 gal/hr of water), the fueling stops almost certainly involved watering as well.
- Erik
Looks like they are injecting compressed air into the top of those tank cars (red hoses) to push the fuel out the bottom valves. I think that is interesting.
Two hoses each loco. 1= fuel 1= water. An indication of how often water needed for diesels may be found from :: The N&W / SOU RR trains used to add water in Monroe, Va , Bristol, Va, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham.
Being unable to trace the origin of the hoses - I suspect 1 tank car supplies fuel and the other supplies water.
Is the man in the engineer’s cap by the corner of 100563 smoking a cigarette during refueling? And, is the headlight shrouded to comply with wartime blackout rules?
rjemery, et.al
I still have the Santa Fe timetable for Spring Summer 1967 which gives the following stops for the Super Chief - El Capitan. The two trains ran on the same schedule with the Chief being all Pullman sleeping cars and the El Capitain all coach. Both trains were “extra fare” travel.
Departure - Chicago on Central Time was -------------- 6:30 PM - day 1
Arrival - Kansas City, MO - 449 miles was -------------- 1:55 AM - day 2
Departure - Kansas City, MO ---------------------------- 2:05 AM - day 2
Arrival - Dodge City, KAS - 787 miles - Central time – 7:15 AM - day 2
Departure - Dodge City, KAS - Mountain time --------- 6:18 AM - day 2
Arrival - La Junta, CO - 990 miles ---------------------- 9:00 AM - day 2
Departure - La Junta, CO ------------------------------- 9:20 AM - day 2
Arrival - Albuquerque, NM - 1335 miles --------------- 5:00 PM - day 2
Leave - Albuquerque, NM ------------------------------- 5:10 PM - day 2
Arrival - Needles, CA - 1914 miles - Pacific Time ---- 2:00 AM - day 3
Leave - Needles, CA - Pacific Time -------------------- 2:05 AM - day 3
Arrival - Barstow, CA - 2081 miles -------------------- 5:00 AM - day 3
Departure - Barstow, CA ------------------------------- 5:10 AM - day 3
Arrival - Los Angeles - 2222 miles -------------------- 9:00 AM - day 3
Reviewing this trip - Six stops to the west coast were scheduled. Chicago departure was in the 6:30 PM in the evening with 450 miles until the first layover at Kansas City, MO which was 10 minutes.
The tr
I complained about that in the Army once and the guy smoking on the back of the Diesel fuel truck dropped his lit cigarette into the tanker holding Diesel Fuel just to be a jerk but to demonstrate that Diesel has a high ignition point and a lit cigarette typically will not ignite it.
Using the 1938 “Super Chief” timetable for distances it looks like fuel stops were made about every 400 miles. This is reasonable considering the relatively tiny 1200 gallon tanks the Super Chief’s diesels carried. Translating the distance into refueling stops gets:
Kansas City 451.1
La Junta 991.7 (440.6)
Albuquerque 1338.1 (346.4 - with Raton and Glorieta Pass)
Winslow 1627.1 (299.0)
Barstow 2086.4 (459.3)
Los Angeles 2227.3 (140.9)
None of them are long stops, averaging about 7 minutes. All of them were regular crew change points.
Your 1938 TT and Doc’s 1967 TT seem quite different in terms of stops.
sclimm, Fueling stops would have diminished as newer model front end power should have had higher fuel tank capacities as well as better mileage. As an aside, Santa Fe usually added to the point an extra power unit, typically a B, in case one of the diesels broke down en route, the better to maintain the on time schedule.
[quote user=“Dr D”]
rjemery, et.al
I still have the Santa Fe timetable for Spring Summer 1967 which gives the following stops for the Super Chief - El Capitan. The two trains ran on the same schedule with the Chief being all Pullman sleeping cars and the El Capitain all coach. Both trains were “extra fare” travel.
Departure - Chicago on Central Time was -------------- 6:30 PM - day 1
Arrival - Kansas City, MO - 449 miles was -------------- 1:55 AM - day 2
Departure - Kansas City, MO ---------------------------- 2:05 AM - day 2
Arrival - Dodge City, KAS - 787 miles - Central time – 7:15 AM - day 2
Departure - Dodge City, KAS - Mountain time --------- 6:18 AM - day 2
Arrival - La Junta, CO - 990 miles ---------------------- 9:00 AM - day 2
Departure - La Junta, CO ------------------------------- 9:20 AM - day 2
Arrival - Albuquerque, NM - 1335 miles --------------- 5:00 PM - day 2
Leave - Albuquerque, NM ------------------------------- 5:10 PM - day 2
Arrival - Williams, Jct, AZ - 1711 miles ---------------- 11:30 PM - day 2
Leave - Williams, Jct, AZ ------------------------------- 11:35 PM - day 2
Arrival - Los Angeles - 2222 miles - Pacific Time ----- 9:00 AM - day 3
Reviewing this trip - Five stops to the west coast were scheduled. Chicago departure was in the 6:30 PM in the evening with 450 miles until the first layover at Kansas City, MO which was 10 minutes.
The trip to Dodge City, KAS was 239 miles and the second layover at Dodge City was 3 minutes with time zone change from Central to Mountain moving watches ahead one hour.
The trip to
This is interesting. Someone needs to look at the diagram for one of these Es to see which fills correspond to which hoses.
I think both tank cars are fuel only (and are in parallel, one per locomotive). They are pressurized just like NASCAR stops to give the necessary speed (you can rapidly see that gravity feed from a tank car to the fill point on the E unit would not give the indicated “5 minute” service time without considerable power assist, and machine pumps would require cost over what would be required for compressed air.)
I note that the ‘sheen’ under the “water” fill on the lead engine is similar to the spill under the two diesel hoses, and that the rearmost hoses on both units come from square boxes rather than something like a standpipe (the one to the forward engine is largely hidden by the surroundings, but I think you can make it out). I’d be inclined to think these are lube oil rather than water.
I do concur that water service would almost have to be involved at some of these stops, and it would be interesting to see how the necessary flow was arranged for (with pressure connections at the locomotives).
Another interesting element of the picture - the lead engine has footboards attached to the pilot. One normally only sees footboards on yard engines in my experience.
Close examination of the hoses appear that the hose at the rear of first unit is larger. It is also connected at the rear of unit where steam generator is located. eccept for high hood road switchers. Believe water hoses were larger than fuel hoses.
Also careful examination show only the 1st and fourth hoses connected to the tank cars. Water hoses appear to terminate just off side of platform. That was usual for SOU RR. However it used fuel trucks not tank cars. Since there is only an approximae date of the picture it may be AT&SF had problems getting the large amounts of fuel from a vender hence the tank cars of diesel.
Water probably no problem as steam trains had a fountain close by unless city water used.
From front to back on the two E1s are water, fuel, water, fuel. The E1A had the water tank below the cab. The B unit had the tank at the end opposite the S/G.