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The ''Super Chief'' was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It claimed to be "The Train of the Stars" because of the celebrities it carried between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. The ''Super Chief'' (Nos. 17 & 18) was the first Diesel-powered, all-Pullman sleeping car train in America, and it eclipsed the ''Chief'' as Santa Fe's standard bearer. The extra-fare ($10) ''Super Chief'' left Dearborn Station in Chicago for its first trip on May 12, 1936. Before starting scheduled service in May 1937, the lightweight version of the ''Super Chief'' ran from Los Angeles over recently upgraded tracks in 36 hours and 49 minutes, averaging overall and reaching . With one set of equipment, the train initially operated once a week from both Chicago and Los Angeles. After more cars had been delivered the ''Super Chief'' ran twice weekly beginning in 1938 and daily after 1948. Adding to the train's mystique were its gourmet meals and Hollywood clientele. Competitors to the ''Super Chief'' were the ''City of Los Angeles'' on the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad, and (to a lesser extent) the ''Golden State'' on the Rock Island and Southern Pacific. The Santa Fe ''Super Chief'' was one of the last passenger trains in the United States to carry an all-Pullman consist; only the Pennsylvania Railroad's ''Broadway Limited'' and the Illinois Central's ''Panama Limited'' survived longer. The train maintained its high level of service until the end of Santa Fe passenger operations on May 1, 1971. When Amtrak took over operation of the nation's passenger service on May 1, 1971, the 35-year run of the ''Super Chief'' on the Santa Fe ended, though Amtrak used the name on the same route for three years. In 1974 the Santa Fe withdrew permission to use the name due to a perceived decline in service, so Amtrak renamed it ''Southwest Limited''. Following the delivery of new Superliner equipment, the Santa Fe allowed Amtrak to call it the ''Southwest Chief'' in 1984. ==Route== Santa Fe's marketing advantage for the ''Super Chief'' lay in the geography of the route as well as its ownership. The Santa Fe began as a rail line along the old Santa Fe and Spanish Trails, from the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers (at Atchison and Topeka, Kansas) to the Pecos River and Rio Grande in New Mexico. This initial route was eventually extended to Los Angeles. The convenience of traveling "Santa Fe All The Way" was superior to anything that the competing jointly operated railroads could provide on their routes to the west coast. A single traffic and operating department ruled all the divisions and districts of the Santa Fe route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Dining cars, the commissary supply chains, the on-board service crews and their management; all worked together from Chicago to Los Angeles. The ''Super Chief'' ran through Kansas City, Missouri; Newton, Kansas; Dodge City, Kansas; La Junta, Colorado; Raton, New Mexico; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Gallup, New Mexico; Winslow, Arizona; Seligman, Arizona; Needles, California; Barstow, California; San Bernardino, California; and Pasadena, California. During the pre-war years the ''Super Chief'' did not allow passengers to board or disembark at any point between Kansas City and Barstow; intermediate stops were operating stops only, to change crews or to service the train. During the war the rules were relaxed to carry passengers to and from Albuquerque and La Junta, but only when unsold space was available at train time. Not until the postwar era could passengers travel to intermediate stations on the ''Super Chief''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Super Chief」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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