There is no mention of the Scout in this timetable. It isn’t mentioned in the January 1, 1954 timetable either, but is listed in the January 1953 timetable, when it was the same Newton-Albuquerque fragment of its former self described here yesterday. So the name Scout must have been finally discontinued in late 1953. Starting June 6, 1954, the Scout‘s numbers, 1 & 2, were assigned to the San Francisco Chief.
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The California Limited was in the January 1954 timetable, but that name is gone from this one (in fact, it made its last run in June 1954 and was gone from the June 1954 timetable). Today’s timetable still shows trains 3 & 4, which were once the numbers of the California Limited, but as coach-only trains between Kansas City and Carlsbad via the Amarillo route. With the California Limited gone, trains 5 & 6 to Fort Worth were now combined with trains 9 & 10, the Kansas City Chief.
It’s always been assumed that when Santa Fe added chair cars to the Chief that the tradeoff was (a) a reduction in schedule from 45 to 39-1/2 hours and (b) the addition of one of the “Big Dome” lounge cars. But it looks like as of January 1955 only the scheduling had been improved.
Also interesting to note is the departure time from Los Angeles, 4 PM. During the streamliner era, the Chief sometimes departed L.A. as late as 10 PM (two hours later than #18), while at other times it left L.A. at around noon. I think it was returned to the mid-day departure permanently when Santa Fe management decided that the Super Chief and El Capitan would be combined in 1958. I am sure the reasoning was that it gave chair car passengers especially a more convenient schedule between intermediate points.
As the Chief’s career was coming to an end, the traditional 12:30 PM L.A. departure became 11:30 and then 10:30 AM.