Nostalgia & History > A day late, but it is the thought that counts

May 1, 1971 was the beginning of Amtrak.

Here are a pair of shots of the final Santa Fe Train #18 and Train #17 on May 1, 1971.  Both trains departed Chicago and LA on the evening of April 30.

Train #18 is crossing the Spider Bridge at the west end of Apache Canyon, while half an hour later #17 comes drifting west past Canoncito approaching the west end of the canyon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/25 09:27 by Super_C.

---

---

Here you go, Chico !

Gracias John, great shots of a sad but historic day!
Bryan

The history is staggering! Wow...

Lance

Thanks for these views and reminder of that wonderful train.  Amtrak day completely fell off my radar.  I must be truly getting old and/or super distracted with other things.  Yet, May 01 has always been Amtrak day for me and I just completely forgot about it.

Beautiful photos on a sad day!

Correct me if I am wrong, but if these are the last Santa Fe trains, wouldn’t this have to have been taken on May1? On May 2 these trains would be running there last miles into LA and Chicago.

Posted from iPhone

Terrific pair of images!

JG

REALLY nice Santa Fe images!

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Amazing historic images . Thanks for sharing. 

Super_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> czephyr17 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Beautiful photos on a sad day!
> >
> > Correct me if I am wrong, but if these are the
> > last Santa Fe trains, wouldn’t this have to
> have
> > been taken on May1? On May 2 these trains would
> > be running there last miles into LA and
> Chicago.
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> While not having a 1971 timetable handy, I believe
> both #17 and #18 departed Chicago and Los Angeles
> in the evening, therefor putting them in New
> Mexico on May 2.

You are correct about leaving from Chicago and LA in the evening. The last Santa Fe trains left their origin points the evening of April 30. That put them in New Mexico the next day, May 1. They arrived at their destinations on May 2. I think the first Amtrak train leaving on May 1 was basically the same consist and schedule as Santa Fe’s Super/El Cap, so the casual observer probably wouldn’t notice a difference right away.

czephyr17 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> You are correct about leaving from Chicago and LA
> in the evening. The last Santa Fe trains left
> their origin points the evening of April 30. That
> put them in New Mexico the next day, May 1. They
> arrived at their destinations on May 2. I think
> the first Amtrak train leaving on May 1 was
> basically the same consist and schedule as Santa
> Fe’s Super/El Cap, so the casual observer
> probably wouldn’t notice a difference right
> away.

You are correct!  Both slides are dated May 1 (my writing) and they were indeed taken May 1, not May 2.  At lease the thread subject line is correct!

If these are the last Santa Fe depaartures, then the Santa Fe had already prepared to remove their FP-45s and F-45s and repalce them with the F units that would become the standard for these trains under Amtrak, until the 500s arrived.  Another tid-bit of information!  Number 18 of April 30th at La Junta, CO, still had the big engines if I recall correctly.

RR

I'm wondering if having 5 1500hp F units offered a timekeeping advantage over 2 4200ph P42's due to more powered axles offering greater acceleration. 

Greater acceleration from 0 to 10 mph, but
0 to 70 mph I'll bet on the GEs. (probably
even if the F's were new -- after all, the F's
are accelerating their own 300+ extra tons).

I rode the Amtrak Chief in July of '72 Chicago to Pasadena, just as a kid.  

We got held up at Kansas City waiting for te National Limited connection to arrive, it was a couple hours late.

But west of that?  Hang on to your hat.   F7A, F7B, F7A, F7B, baggage, two hi levels, ex-CB&Q dome lounge, ex-UP diner, two 10-6 pullmans, one National Limited connection pullman, and a C&O coach from the National bringing up the rear.

And west of Dodge City, I was astounded how fast we were going, so I started stopwatching mileposts from the dome.

38 second miles, mile after mile.  94.7 mph.   Four old F-units, and as Monte Python said, 'but I'm not dead yet!"

I've heard that as of the end of '72 they were becoming unreliable, FP45's and F45's started leading F7B units for steam heat again as the FP45's had had the generators already pulled, and the SDP40F's didn't arrive until June or so.   Or maybe the F7A's lease ran out, I've heard that too, but I'll say that on my train, it was very impressive.  I remember they were less than an hour down by Pasadena.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/25 13:27 by randgust.

> You are correct about leaving from Chicago and LA
> in the evening. The last Santa Fe trains left
> their origin points the evening of April 30. That
> put them in New Mexico the next day, May 1. They
> arrived at their destinations on May 2. I think
> the first Amtrak train leaving on May 1 was
> basically the same consist and schedule as Santa
> Fe’s Super/El Cap, so the casual observer
> probably wouldn’t notice a difference right
> away.

In Chicago at least, this got a bit technical. IIRC, the eastbound Super Chief and Texas Chief (trains 18 and 16), which were being continued under Amtrak, went into Union Station on May 1 and 2. Santa Fe's other trains went to Dearborn, with the Grand Canyon on May 2 being the last intercity train ever to arrive at Dearborn. Corrections certainly welcome.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/25 15:26 by SensiblySarcastic.

It's nice to be reminded by these photos that even in the final months leading up to Amtrak most of the railroads in the West and South (sorry SP) continued to operate their flagship trains in a proper manner.
Gordon  

>In Chicago at least, this got a bit technical.<

I didn’t know, and frankly never gave much consideration to, how Amtrak handled the Chicago situation during the cutover. With the trains from the Santa Fe it was fairly simple divert them to Union Station at the end of their runs. I wonder how the BN Empire Builders were handled between the Twin Cities and Chicago, for example. I assume the last two ran on the BN on May 1 and 2, and maybe some sort of makeup train was run on the Milwaukee the first two days? Sounds like atopic for a new thread!

Posted from iPhone

Absolutely stunning images!
Bob

Truly legendary photos!