On December 12, 1911, just one week after the Southern Pacific reinaugurated the Sunset Limited, Santa Fe threw down the gauntlet in the Chicago-Los Angeles market by introducing a train that may have been the poshest, most exclusive passenger train ever operated by any major American railroad. Named the de-Luxe (sometimes with a hyphen, sometimes with a space, but never “deluxe”), the once-a-week, winter-only train had as many non-revenue seats as the California Limited, but according to this brochure at the Kansas Historical Society, the train was limited to just 60 passengers. This led Lucius Beebe to describe the train as “unbelievably opulent.”

This photograph of the de-Luxe was taken by a Detroit Publishing photographer, quite possibly William Henry Jackson. Aside from the more modern locomotive, the train outwardly has the same consist as the original California Limited: a baggage-buffet-smoker-library car, a diner, and four sleeping cars, the last of which was also an observation car. The locomotive is a 4-6-2 Pacific built in 1909. Despite not being fitted with superheaters until 1920, well after this photo was taken, the loco produced a respectable 37,810 pounds of tractive effort. Click image for a much larger (2.5-MB) view.

Part of the train’s opulence was in the configuration of its sleeping cars. Where 60 out of the 93 beds of the California Limited were in open sections, three out of four of the beds in the 1912 de-Luxe were in rooms. According to this 1912 brochure, the first two sleeping cars consisted of seven drawing rooms for 21 potential beds each, followed by a third all-room car with seven compartments and two drawing rooms for 20 potential beds. Open sections were found only in the observation car, which like that of the California Limited had 10 sections or 20 beds. Continue reading →