Chief (train)

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Chief
The Chief in Morley, Colorado, August 1967
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Midwestern and Southwestern United States
First service	1926
Last service	May 15, 1968
Successor	Super Chief/El Capitan
Former operator(s)	Santa Fe Amtrak (1972)
Route
Termini	Chicago Los Angeles
Average journey time	39 hours 45 min (1954)
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	19 and 20
Line(s) used	Southern Transcon
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map v t e Legend January 10, 1954 Chicago Joliet Streator Chillicothe Galesburg Illinois Iowa Fort Madison Shopton Iowa Missouri La Plata Marceline Carrollton Kansas City Missouri Kansas Topeka Ottawa Emporia Newton Hutchinson Stafford St. John Macksville Dodge City Garden City Kansas Colorado Lamar La Junta Trinidad Colorado New Mexico Raton Valmora Las Vegas Glorieta Lamy Albuquerque Gallup New Mexico Arizona Winslow Flagstaff Williams Ash Fork Seligman Kingman Arizona California Needles Barstow Victorville San Bernardino Pomona Monrovia Pasadena Los Angeles

The Chief was an American long-distance named passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that ran between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. The Santa Fe initiated the Chief in 1926 to supplement the California Limited. In 1936 the Super Chief was introduced, after the Super Chief was relaunched in 1948 with daily departures from LA and Chicago it gradually eclipsed the Chief as the standard bearer of the Santa Fe because of its timetable oriented to the Raton Pass transit. For some the Chief and San Francisco Chief ( which inherited the Chief, Turquoise lounge and other features in 1968) as deluxe integrated trains with both Pullman sleepers and fully reclining coach seating with all facilities; lounges and pleasure domes, available to all passengers were at least equal flagships better suited to the business and executive market. From the mid 1960s the super Chief was only a small entirely separate section of the El Capitan seated vista train, the El Capitan passengers having no access to the Super Chiefs expensive eateries and bars which selling point was exclusion and service. The Chief was discontinued in 1968 due to high operating costs, competition from airlines, and the loss of Postal Office contracts.

Amtrak revived the Chief for three months in the summer of 1972 as a second daily Chicago–Los Angeles train (numbers 19 & 20). It complemented the combined Super Chief/El Capitan (numbers 3 & 4), running over the same route. Today, the Southwest Chief remains the only train serving the former route of the Chief.