Jim, congratulations on capturing a very rare bird, indeed! In the summer of 1972, Amtrak briefly tried to revive the "Chief" as a second daily Chicago-LA service. In this pre-"Desert Wind" era, No. 20 here was the only passenger service to crest Cajon Pass in daylight. That third Hi-Level Chair car is a rarity, too-- one of the original 1954 "experimentals" purchased two full years before the debut of the Hi-Level "El Capitan". Thanks for posting this excellent shot.
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now that is a great shot of the super chief going through sullivan's curve, very great shot Jim
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| Posted by on November 12, 2010 | |
Having ridden on the Amtrak Chief in the summer of '72, this is one of my favorite shots. Also remember they picked up cars from the National Limited at Kansas City. My westbound was severely delayed about 3 hours at KC, and they made up all by 20 minutes of it by LAUPT. We were hitting 97 mph by stopwatch going across western Kansas behind the ABAB F7's, baggage, two hilevels, a Burlington dome, UP diner, Amtrak ex-ATSF "Pine _' sleeper, a UP sleeper, and a coach and another sleeper tacked on at KC. The old girls still had it in 'em - what a ride!
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