In addition to ads featuring the interior of the train, the Santa Fe ran a long series of brown- or turquoise-colored ads featuring Southwest Indian art. One reason may have been that two-color printing cost less than four-colors, but another … Continue reading
Category Archives: Super Chief
The Santa Fe ran two distinctly different series of ads for the Super Chief and its other trains. One series featured four-color illustrations of scenes on board the train–mostly of some part of the Pleasure Dome. The other series, which … Continue reading
Santa Fe publicity promoted the Turquoise Room as “the only private dining room on rails.” After 1954, when Union Pacific included a private dining room in the dome-diners of the City of Los Angeles and City of Portland, this changed … Continue reading
This photo of Pleasure Dome 501 was taken on January 29, 1951, the day the Pleasure Domes were first introduced to regular service on the Super Chief. Click image for a larger view. With the delivery of new Pullman-built sleepers … Continue reading
From 1948 through 1954, the Santa Fe offered an incredible five daily trains between Chicago and Los Angeles, compared with just two each on the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific routes. The Super Chief and El Capitan, of course, were … Continue reading
A consulting firm named Coverdale and Colpitts (now part of URS) once did a variety of economic analyses for the rail industry. In 1935, the firm published a report on the Burlington Zephyrs, followed by reports in 1938, 1939, 1941, … Continue reading
While the Union Pacific and Burlington were certainly pioneers in the streamliner movement, other railroads introduced their own versions of streamlined trains. Some, such as Boston & Maine’s/Maine Central’s Flying Yankee, were imitations of the Zephyrs. Others, such as Illinois … Continue reading