Except for The Chief, the two most famous Santa Fe passenger trains in the last decades of passenger service were the Super Chief and the El Capitan. Both were introduced with great fanfare and operated with aplomb and panache by the Santa Fe's operating and passenger department personnel. Ultimately they were combined into one train, though both names were retained. When Amtrak arrived it retained the Super Chief name for a while before the train was renamed the Southwest Chief. Known as "the train of the stars" because of the movie stars who often took this premier accommodation out of Los Angeles, the Super Chief name is still redolent with fame. The history of these two great trains is chronicled in word and picture in the 100 pages of this book by noted railroad author Patrick C. Dorin.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
keep looking,
By Atchison "Topeka" (Kansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan 1936-1971 (Hardcover)
The book offers a high level recap of Super Chief and El Capitan facts and lore. The author's fondness for the subject is evident. There are many photographs, especially of the car interiors. All photographs are black and white. Note that very few will be new to readers that have read any other book on these trains or even the ATSF railroad in general
Unfortunately, lack of content, pervasive bad grammar and typos make this a difficult read. Instead please look for a used copy of "Santa Fe Streamliners: The Chiefs and their Tribesmen" by Karl R. Zimmermann for an excellent book on the Chiefs, or a new copy of "Santa Fe Railway (Railroad Color History)" by Steve Glischinski for a great account of ATSF history.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Packed!,
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This review is from: Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan 1936-1971 (Hardcover)
YES -- details, details, details!!! Dorin does his usual superb documentation, this time on the premiere passenger trains of the West. It's especially nice that he describes and illustrates the consists for modelers like me, and gives a few examples of the scale models available (I'm sure the next edition will include the superb N-scale models of both trains offered by Kato).
As for specifics on the content, I found it appropriate that there were no pictures of movie stars and celebrities, as other publications have always done; this book is about the trains. It is richly illustrated with photographs, diagrams, maps, posters, and adverts that capture the lives and the liveliness of the Super Chief and the El Cap, so not only does it bring back fond memories of those days, but it provides background information on the genesis and evolution of those magnificent transportation systems. It is not just a book to evoke nostalga, however; Dorin notes a number of things that ATSF did well with its runs that Amtrack has an opportunity to emulate -- and passengers have the right to demand. The book is a fine companion to several other similar (and well-illustrated) books, such as Zimmerman's SF Streamliners, Glischinski's SF Railway, or Berkman's ATSF history, albeit a bit shorter -- Dorin simply packs more-precise info into slightly fewer pages. I'm a fan of his work, and this one sits on the shelf amists several others he has written.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Facts are right but this book needs an editor - badly.,
By Lane Stripe "Lane Stripe" (Bloomington, Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Santa Fe Super Chief and El Capitan 1936-1971 (Hardcover)
This is the first book I've bought through Amazon for which I don't feel that I got my money's worth. Instead of a hardcover, TLC might have published this as a slick-paper brochure, or in a magazine format, and lowered the price. Especially disappointing, however, is the editorial quality. This thing needs an editor -- BADLY! The facts seem to be all right but the presentation is disorganized, which leads to mind-numbing repetition and redundancy. Examples: there is an arithmetic error in the schedule comparison table on p. 7. For the year 1965, it gives an L.A. departure time of 8:00 p.m. and CHI arrive time of 1:30 p.m. but a travel time of 40 hours. This cannot be correct, and it might have been helpful to remind readers of the two hours' difference between the Pacific & Central time-zones. Dorin gives woefully scant mention of the fact that the Santa Fe used Dearborn Street Station in Chicago. In Los Angeles, ATSF passenger trains used their own La Grande Station until May 1936 when the new Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal was opened. I understand that the book is about the train and its cars but the station buildings are an integral part of the rail travel experience, being the cathedrals of our industry and gateways to transcontinental travel. I'm sorry that one of our greatest historical trains didn't get better presentation.
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