&sq=&lang=&file=File:Streamline_diesel_powered_Challenger_1953.JPG) Diesel-powered, streamlined version of the Union Pacific Challenger as it prepared to return to service in 1954 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Service type | Inter-city rail |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Locale | Central and Western United States |
| First service | May 1936 |
| Last service | May 1, 1971 |
| Former operator(s) | |
| Route | |
| Termini | Chicago, Illinois |
| Distance travelled | 2,225 miles (3,581 km) (Chicago-Los Angeles, 1954) |
| Train number(s) |
|
| Line(s) used | Overland Route |
| On-board services | |
| Seating arrangements | Reclining seat coaches Women-Children's coach (1946) |
| Sleeping arrangements | Open sections |
| Catering facilities | Dining car |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
The Challengers were named passenger trains on the Union Pacific Railroad and the Chicago and North Western Railway (which was replaced in 1955 by the Milwaukee Road). The economy service ran between Chicago, Illinois, and the West Coast of the United States. The trains had full Pullman service and coach seating and were an attempt to draw Depression-Era riders back to the rails. Food service was advertised as "three meals for under a dollar a day."[1]
During the late 1930s the Challenger fleet was among the highest-patronized of American trains, and the best revenue producers of the UP passenger fleet. Discontinued in 1947, the Challenger name reappeared in 1954 on a streamliner. When Amtrak took over the nation's passenger service in 1971, it ended the Challenger once and for all.[1]
- ^ a b "The Challenger" (PDF). Union Pacific Railroad. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2011. (PDF)