Looks like the train station in KC in the opening shots. Took that Super Chief a few times when I was in my pre-teens.
Posted on 08/19/2017 2:57:24 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
Travelogue style profile of the "Super Chief", a magnificent Streamlined passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
During 1950 & 1951 the Super Chief is re-equipped with new streamlined sleeping cars built by the Budd Company and the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF), and dining cars from Pullman-Standard. Santa Fe also added the Pullman-built "Pleasure Dome Lounge Car", one of the most luxurious ever made for any train, to its Super Chief consists, billing it as the "...only dome car between Chicago and Los Angeles.". A speedometer in the front of the car showed the train's velocity.
The film details different features of the train, such as the observation lounge and 100% private rooms including a roomette for one, the new type bedroom, and the new Super Chief compartment. Drawing rooms are also offered. The Super Chief’s kitchen and dining car are shown. We are then introduced to the main lounge of the new "Pleasure Dome" car. Here, one can play cards, use a writing desk, or even go to the barber for a haircut! The lower lounge is shown where you can have a cocktail. This is followed by the turquoise room, the first and only private dining room on rails.
Went from Amarillo to Chicago on the Chief on our way to visit family in Flint Michigan, back when it was part of the US.
When my son was little my mother sent us train tickets every summer to go to Massachusetts from Florida to visit her. She spoiled us and we had the “roomette”. This was maybe 30 year ago. It was Amtrak but...the food was great, we had real china and silverware, fresh flowers and it was heaven! We played card games and read, napped and mostly watched the world go by. He treasures the memories as “top five” of childhood.
I love this YouTube. .thanks for posting it.
One of the many things I noticed was the woman ...was actually feminine, and the fella, was a regular guy.
Almost made me weep.
Does anyone recall the cost of a ticket on one of these and the total cost to ride from Chicago to Los Angles?
One of the best, if not most memorable, steaks I ever had was on the train bound for Los Angles when I was a kid.
The reduction in smoking is one thing that has been an improvement from the 50’s and 60’s and even 70’s. The blue-gray haze was everywhere. So many people smoked everywhere and at all hours. It could not have been good for us. They were stained and the walls were stained with nicotine. Ashtrays were everywhere and they of course smelled terrible. People who smoked had downright yellow teeth and fingers.
Bump
Wikipedia to the rescue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrain_(GM)
The Rock Island paint job on the picture threw me, but it appears that some ended up in service with Rock Island in commuter service after the major rail lines gave up on them.
The picture at the Wikipedia link more clearly shows the 1950s style bus windows and the doors at what would have been the front of the bus.
Bookmarked
http://streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track5/superchief195607.html
The Super Chief was a very deluxe loss leader. The Concorde of its day.
The passengers smoking like a freight train.
Our chaperones should have gotten combat pay.
Back in the day I rode the IC (and the train might well have been “The City of New Orleans”) from Chicago to Springfield Illinois as part of our grammar school’s 8th grade graduation trip. A wonderful experience I still remember fondly to this day - we mostly played cards and cut up on our way downstate (mostly slept on our way back), but two-plus hours of nothing but corn-fields was quite a revelation to us city kids.
During the first meal on the car, someone noticed that the silverware and the china were all custom made and had the word "Fairlane" on them. The car turned out to be Henry Ford's personal car in the days before airline travel. It was returned to the railroad after he stopped using it.
The porter was fantastic. He was up before anyone else to make custom breakfasts for each of us, and the last to turn in. That was after he checked the two sided door shoe lockers in each berth and polished any shoes in them. Each berth had toilet rooms that directly flushed onto the tracks.
That is it. Little Colorado town I was in school was not a stop, we just saw it sail by.
If riding on Amtrak was even half as luxurious as that I would ride the rails instead of taking the flying bus. It’s a shame the railroads couldn’t stay afloat and offer services like this.
The “young lady” was a doll. Got me to thinking, what did they call “the mile high club” when you were on a train close to sea level?
I rode the SantaFe’s El Capitan in 1958 from San Diego to Chicgo and back again. I didn’t eat in the dining car; instead, I bought ham sandwiches from the porter for 0.50c each.
That was a great way to travel. I don’t ever remember anyone suffering from ‘train-lag’.
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