Made in the 1950s, THE PASSENGER TRAIN is an educational film that shows a boy named Bobby making a cross-country trip aboard a Santa Fe Railroad train known as the The Chief. The train is pulled by a diesel-electric locomotive and features aluminum-sided streamline Pullman cars. At the start of the film Bobby arrives at a train station in a big city (probably Chicago) to board the train. The film then shows the operation of the train as it heads west towards Los Angeles. Bobby disembarks at the town of Lamy, New Mexico.

The Chief was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The Chief was inaugurated as an all-Pullman limited train to supplement the road’s California Limited, with a surcharge of USD $10.00 for an end-to-end trip. The heavyweight began its first run from both ends of the line, simultaneously, on November 14, 1926, scheduled 63 hours each way between Chicago and Los Angeles, five hours faster than the California Limited. (The Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited and Golden State Limited began their extra-fare 63-hour schedules between Chicago and California the same day.)

The Chief was a success, dubbed “Extra Fast-Extra Fine-Extra Fare” though it failed to relieve traffic on the California Limited. The Chief became famous as a “rolling boudoir” for film stars and Hollywood executives. In 1954 the Chief reduced its schedule to equal its cousins, the Super Chief and El Capitan, and would ultimately drop the extra fare requirement as well.

The Chief would have been the “crown jewel” of most railroads’ passenger fleets. But it did not survive the national decline in passenger demand and its last run was on May 15, 1968.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com