Santa Fe’s El Capitan, 1946-c1953

 

Fred Klein, 2010, 2016

The El Capitan was the coach equivalent to the famous first class Super Chief running between Chicago and Los Angeles. The two trains ran on the same fast schedule, and in later years when ridership began to decline after 1958, they were combined into the same train during the winter to save money. Both the El Capitan and Super Chief were extra fare, which Santa Fe charged because it claimed to offer superior service to the standards of other railroads. Santa Fe ran other coach trains on the Chicago to Los Angeles run, but they ran slower, made more stops and used older equipment. The El Capitan had leg rest, reclining chairs that Santa Fe hoped were comfortable enough to spend three days in.

 

The El Capitan was a streamliner created in 1938. It eventually replaced the Scout heavyweight chair-car coach train that ended service in 1948, at which time the El Capitan started daily service. The El Capitan went through four major versions: 1938 with twice-weekly service; 1946 every second-day service featuring Budd 60-seat chair cars in the 3151 series, with additional 44-seat coaches added in 1947 (Budd, 2861 series) and 1950 (PS, 2912 series); 1953 refurbished with Budd 48-seat chair cars in the 2816 series; and 1956 replacement with Budd hi-level cars and later seasonal combination with the super chief in 1958. In early 1954, the big dome lounge car replaced the mid-train lounge in the El Capitan. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan_(train).

 

An unidentified Santa Fe train at El Cajon, California, in 1950, probably the El Capitan.

 

The new El Capitan observation car from a 1940 Santa Fe brochure.

 

The consist on which I model this 1946 train was based on the one in Wayner’s Passenger Train Consists 1923-1973, page 35 (July 12, 1946), the same as Fred Frailey’s A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists, page 117. This represents a full summer consist. Note that there are never more than two or three coaches between lounge or dining cars. All the passenger cars were made by Budd between 1939 and 1947. Either exact or similar cars are available in N scale. The FT diesels are available from Microtrains and Intermountain. The 52-seat coach-chair car (Budd 1941 and 1946) is similar to the prototype for Concor’s Budd coach and is available. The remaining food and service cars were all Budd cars for which exact N scale models do not exist, but models of similar cars owned by the Santa Fe make reasonable substitutes.

 

 

Power

 

The power units were an ABBA set of either FT or F3 diesels painted in the warbonnet scheme. I modeled them with factory painted Microtrains FTs.

 

Head end and first coach section

 

The head end cars of the El Capitan typically included one or more storage mail (baggage) cars. I used a Walthers model of a PS car but other baggage car or cars could be used. I don’t have a model of the 1938 Budd baggage-dormitory car typically used on the El Capitan in this era. The baggage-dormitory model is of the 1947 Pullman Standard car ATSF 3477. Next are three 52-seat coaches built by Budd in 1941 (3137-3150) or 1946 (3151-3166). New 44-seat coaches built by Pullman Standard were added in 1947 (2861-2911).

 

Dining and second coach section

 

The next car is a lunch counter-diner. Instead of a 1941 Budd car, I have a stand-in PS car of 1950 made with metal sides from M&R sides mounted on a Concor car. Two more 52-seat Budd coaches follow. The next car in the prototype consist is a Budd buffet-lounge car represented by a similar Concor parlor car from the same era as the Santa Fe car.

 

Third coach and lounge section

 

Three more 1941-46 Budd coaches follow the buffet-lounge car. Because the train is so long, another lunch-counter-diner car is needed near the rear of the train. Here, a diner built for the Chief (ATSF 1481, Budd, 1937) stands in for the El Capitan lunch car (ATSF 1505, Budd, 1938). The last car is a Budd coach-observation car with a rounded end. The model is the Concor Budd observation car whose end matches the El Capitan but whose side windows are for a different car. I applied the El Capitan tail-sign drum-head to the car.

 

 

References

Dorin, Patrick. Super Chief and El Capitan 1936-1971, TLC Publishing, 2005.

Frailey, Fred. A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists.

Schafer, Mike & Joe Welsh. Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon, MBI Publishing Company, 2002.

Stagner, Lloyd. Santa Fe 1940-1971 volume 4: Texas-El Capitan by , Morning Sun Books, 1994.

 

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