Can anyone out there tell me what the basic consist of the Super Chief of the late 1940s and early 50s was. I know it started with an F-7 A unit, B unit, B unit, F-7 A unit, corrugated cars including a baggage car, a number of coach/sleepers, a dining car and dome lounge. Am I leaving anything out, and was there a certain arrangement to the consist ?.
Any info would be greatly appreciated…
trainluver1
Videos I have seen of the Super Chief seem to indicate that the consist changed as the number of passengers varied from trip to trip. It seems that cars may have been dropped off or added as it crossed the country, too, to accommodate the passenger load.
A good source of information would be to purchase a video tape or DVD about the Super Chief from Charles Smiley (http://www.trainmovies.com), Pentrex (http://www.pentrex.com) or Historic Rail (http://www.historicrail.com)
The Super Chief did not carry coaches, it was a first class train at that time. Also, it did not have the pleasure dome car until 1950. In the mid to late 50’s the Super Chief was combined with the high level El Capitan into a single train(at least in off season).
Walthers offered an HO mid 50’s Super Chief in the past year:
63’ RPO
73’ Bagg
10-6 Sleepers
4-4-2 Sleepers
Pleasure Dome
Dorm-Lounge
Diner
Obs-Lounge
I am not sure of how many sleeprs ran in a typical day, but I would suspect 5 or 6 would be a minumum.
Jim Bernier
The Super Chief’s consist changed considerably during 1946-50. There is a lengthy discussion of the 1950’s consists over on the Classic Trains Forum.
Late 40’ / Early 50’s ‘Super’
EMD F-3’s or F-7’s ABBA, RPO, Baggage, X , Dorm-Lounge, ‘Pleasure Dome’, Diner, X, (opt. )Obsv. X = no. of Sleeper’s added to complete the train - depending on season and sales. Time Chicago - LA 39.5 hrs. Top speed between Dodge City - La Junta 95mph - 100mph, although I personally clocked it. over 100 using a stopwatch and milepost’s.
the ‘Pleasure Dome’ became so popular they built a 'Full length Dome car for the ‘Chief’, and ‘all High Level’ cars for the El Capitan.
A while back, someone wrote a lengthy reply to more or less the same topic, but at the time, my interests were elsewhere. Now I’m wishing I’d paid closer attention and taken some notes. Oh well. Live and learn-the hard way…
Thanks for your help on this guys-and girls if any.