This timetable is for May 14 to October 28, and the big news during that time period was the introduction of the hi-level El Capitan on July 15. Although this is noted in the listings of equipment on page 7, there are no advertisements or pictures of the new equipment, which was the most important advance in long-distance passenger-car technology since the development of the dome car.
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Instead, the full-page ad on the back cover is an updated version of the list of trains with dining car services that first appeared in the 1948 timetable (or possibly one the year before). This ad also lists Fred Harvey restaurants and hotels and was probably placed more as a courtesy to Fred Harvey than to inform passengers about dining car services.
Also worth noting is the replacement of the Chico covers with a blue-and-white cover emphasizing the Santa Fe logo. To distinguish them from the “traveler’s editions,” these are labeled the “ticket agent editions.” While I previously noted that the Chico covers, while colorful, were less evocative of Southwest scenery than the previous covers showing the Grand Canyon, these blue-and-white logo colors are evocative of practically nothing, but the railway probably didn’t feel that was important for ticket agents.
Look at how those trains were equipped. The Chief was equipped comparably with SP’s Sunset, and in fact would have been the flagship of just about any other railroad.
Interesting to note that the Chief’s eastbound departure from L.A. was moved from 4:00 PM in 1954 to 10:00 PM in 1956. I wonder if this was done to provide a daytime schedule between Kansas City and Chicago.