Interesting video, however I believe it is not the Super Chief but the El Capitan that they used as the subject for the cover art. New Mexico Magazine Slide Show
Good spotting, the full length dome rather than the Super's Pleasure Dome gives it away as the El Cap. I guess none of those involved are railfans and probably not even born when Santa Fe passenger trains were running so any Santa Fe train is the Super Chief. It is an interesting video and nice artwork though.
Good catch Russell. I would agree. This is most likely the El Capitan, an all chair car train. It received the first of the full dome observation cars. Followed by the high level chair cars. The Super Chief and Chief ran as an all Pullman train graced with the Dome Vista chair cars. During the last days of the Santa Fe Passenger trains before Amtrak took over the passenger business. The Chief and El Capitan were joined together as one train and the Super Chief continued to run but only on certain days. To those of us who remember the coloful consists and the variety of equipment on any railroad, it was a sad day when those trains gave way, some disappearing forever while others lived on in the make believe world of Amtrak. Days gone by.
The El Capitan had the full domes from the time they were delivered in 1954 until the train was re-equipped with the Hi Level cars in 1956. They also saw service on the Kansas Cityan at that time. After the arrival of the Hi Level El Cap, the full domes were moved to the Chief. They later saw service on the San Francisco and Texas Chiefs in conjuction with extra Hi Level cars. So depending on the year for the photograph they used, the train through New Mexico could have been either the El Cap or the Chief.
OK, in Robert Strein's book Santa Fe - The Chief Way, the photo is on page 13. The caption says that it is the Chief somewhere in Arizona in 1956.
I still think it's a good catch. You can't tell in the picture whether or not the passenger consist is made of of sleepers or chair cars. Russell, Once again your research pays off.
They flipped the image of the modern Rail Runner locomotive to align it with the painted image. They had to then go back and correct the mirror image lettering and numbering. However they forgot to correct the coupler. Don't they realize there are rivet counter lurking about?
