super chief

 The deservedly-acclaimed Otto Perry captured Train #18, the eastbound Super Chief, kicking up dust at Albuquerque on Saturday, December 4, 1937. She was still Santa Fe's only streamliner, and this was the only "Warbonnet" in the world. In later decades Albuquerque would become a welcome chance for passengers to stretch their legs and maybe purchase curios from local trainside vendors. And it may have been so on this day, for patrons of lesser trains. But for the Super Chief in 1937, Albuquerque was a five-minute crew-change and servicing stop, and no passengers entrained or detrained.

In fact, the 1937 timetable carried this admonition-- "On Trains 17 and 18, The Super Chief, no tickets will be honored except between Chicago and Kansas City, or between Chicago or Kansas City and Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Bernardino, or Barstow. Time shown at intermediate stations is for information only." The train did stop briefly at crew-change points, but the times shown in the timetable were merely to answer the question, "Why are we stopping?"

Pasadena, San Bernardino, and Barstow were strictly "flag stops," to receive passengers outbound for Kansas City or Chicago, or to discharge passengers inbound. (Barstow was for connections to San Francisco and Northern California points; San Bernardino was for the posh resorts at Arrowhead and Palm Springs; and Pasadena was for Hollywood.)

The Super Chief entrained and detrained *no one* between Chicago and Kansas City --a distance of 451 miles-- or between Kansas City and Barstow -- a distance of 1,636 miles, perhaps an all-time record for the greatest distance ever between regular revenue stops.

In the late 1930s, even at cities as large and important as Albuquerque, fair warning at the grade crossings was all the notice the public would receive from the Super Chief.