The Chief was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The Chief was inaugurated as an all-Pullman limited train to supplement the road's California Limited, with a surcharge of USD $10.00 for an end-to-end trip. The heavyweight began its first run from both ends of the line, simultaneously, on November 14, 1926, scheduled 63 hours each way between Chicago and Los Angeles, five hours faster than the California Limited. The Chief was a success, dubbed "Extra Fast-Extra Fine-Extra Fare" though it failed to relieve traffic on the California Limited. The Chief became famous as a "rolling boudoir" for film stars and Hollywood executives. In 1954 the Chief reduced its schedule to equal its cousins, the Super Chief and El Capitan, and would ultimately drop the extra fare requirement as well. The Chief would have been the "crown jewel" of most railroads' passenger fleets. But it did not survive the national decline in passenger demand and its last run was on May 15, 1968.
History
Timeline
1926: to supplement the California Limited Santa Fe inaugurates the all-Pullman, extra-fare Chief, running between Chicago and Los Angeles.
November 14, 1926: The Chief makes its first departure from both ends of the line simultaneously.
March 1928: Eastward schedule drops to 61-1/4 hours
June 1929: schedule both ways drops to 58 hours
1937: The Santa Fe announces that the Chief will receive streamlined cars to replace the heavyweights and will run on a 50¾-hour schedule.
February 22, 1938: 10 new streamlined cars are placed into service.
1942: Consist expands to 13 cars, and each averages 743 daily miles.
1945: The train receives new cars and the schedule is reduced to 45 hours.
March 27, 1947: sleeping car service direct to San Diego starts.
January 10, 1954: The 45-hour schedule is cut to 39 hours, 45 minutes eastbound and 39 hours, 30 minutes westbound, with a morning departure from Chicago. The westbound train spends only one night in transit, leaving Chicago in the morning and arriving in Los Angeles late evening of the following day. The fare surcharge is dropped after the Union Pacific introduces its Challenger train.
1954: Coaches are added to the Chief; observation cars are removed for the first time since the train's inauguration. The cars are blunt-ended at Pullman's Richmond, California facility and returned to service in the new San Francisco Chief's consists as Pullman lounges.
January 1954: Santa Fe transfers transcontinental sleeping car service to the Super Chief.
September 5, 1956: A Santa Fe fireman from the waiting eastward Fast Mail Express throws a switch in front of the speeding Chief near Springer, New Mexico, causing it to enter the siding occupied by the Fast Mail Express and collide head-on. Both engine crews are killed; a total of 20 train crew and Chief dining car employees are killed in the collision. Thirty-five passengers and crew members are injured.
1960: eastward Chief begins running via Topeka.
1963-64: westward train does likewise.
May 15, 1968: The Chief ceases operations; Santa Fe will resurrect the name for a high-speed intermodal freight train.
Summer 1972: Amtrak revives the Chief for three months using Nos. 19 & 20 and the Chiefs morning departure from Chicago.
Competing trains
In summer 1926 the fastest schedules between Chicago and San Francisco/Los Angeles were 68 hours. That November four extra-fare all-Pullman trains started running on 63-hour schedules: the Chief, the Los Angeles Limited via Salt Lake, the Golden State Limited via El Paso, and the Overland Limited to San Francisco. In 1928 the four eastward trains dropped to 61 hours 15 minutes to improve connections at Chicago. In June 1929 the Chief and Overland Limited schedules dropped to 58 hours each way, leaving Chicago at 11:15 AM/11:50 AM and Los Angeles/San Francisco at 9:45 PM/9:40 PM. The standard-fare schedule then became 63 hours westward and 61-1/4 eastward on seven routes from Chicago to the Coast. The Los Angeles Limited and Golden State Limited retained their 1928 schedules and so dropped their extra fares. In 1931 the Overland Limited dropped its extra fare and combined with the 63-hour train on its route; the Chief was the only extra fare transcon train thereafter, until the streamliners. In February 1936 it was scheduled 53 hours 45 minutes to Los Angeles, compared to 61 hours for the Los Angeles Limited, Golden State Ltd, and California Ltd. In May 1936Union Pacific opened high speed Chicago - Los Angeles service with its City of Los Angeles Diesel streamliner. In December 1937 the original City of Los Angeles train was replaced by a full-sized 14 car train. The schedule was doubled to 10 times monthly in July 1938.
Equipment used
A typical heavyweight Chief consist in Winter, 1937:
Transcontinental Sleeping Car Service was inaugurated in Spring 1946, and the Chief began regularly carrying three such cars in its consist: two originating in New York City, and the other in Washington, DC. The following is a typical all-lightweight Chief consist as of late 1947:
