Portal:Trains/Featured article/Week 4, 2006

The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was often referred to as "The Train of the Stars" because of the many celebrities who traveled on the streamliner between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. The streamlined Super Chief was the first diesel-powered, all-Pullman sleeping car train in America, and it eclipsed the Chief as Santa Fe's standard bearer. The extra-fare Super Chief-1 commenced its maiden run from Dearborn Station in Chicago on May 12, 1936. Just over a year later, on May 18, 1937, the much-improved Super Chief-2 traversed the 2,227.3 miles (3,584.5 km) from Los Angeles over recently upgraded tracks in just 39 hours and 49 minutes, averaging 60.8 mph (90.0 km/h), often exceeding 100 mph in the process. Direct competitors to the Super Chief during its lifetime were the City of Los Angeles, jointly operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad, and (to a lesser extent) the Golden State, jointly operated by the Rock Island and Southern Pacific railroads. Santa Fe's route from Chicago to Los Angeles was the lengthiest of the high-speed, long distance trains of the day, making its way through mostly sparsely populated areas (which enhanced the train's already distinctive aura).

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