Super Chief Coast Daylight California Zephyr 

Old as I am now; I still just barely caught sundown of the real streamliners. Another reminder of just how fast time passes for both you and me. It wasn't just the passing of passenger train travel. It also marked a fundamental change for the worse for smaller cities, small towns, and really small towns too. A national way of life became obsolete and went away at the same time. But I miss what little fading piece of the rail travel glory days did see. I wish I could have ridden more. Amtrak just isn't the same, and probably can't ever be with all of the track that has been taken up and abandoned. But I miss the way it was.

In the late seventies a friend of mine and I would watch trains we were up at Union station one day and we walked around and back past mission Tower to the old coach yard of the Santa Fe. That's where Amtrak had put all the cars that were out of service. We walked through the cars and everything that at one time was luxurious and so beautiful was destroyed. Anything that was porcelain was smashed to pieces every mirror it was it was the most tragic trade of vandalism that made you want to throw up

It's embarrassing that our passenger trains were nicer 70 yrs ago than they are today !

I loved it all. Anything with wheels on rails fascinated me-even the trolley cars & Angel's Flight on 3rd St. When I was old enough to venture out alone, I went to L.A. Union Station & hung out weekends on the platforms or trackside past the control tower as trains came & went in the 60's. Too bad I didn't have a camera then. The most impressive daytime consist was UP's City of L.A. with 17+cars & 3 domes. The yellow color stood out. The only time I would get to see the Super Chief leave was when I was going to Chicago once. It left L.A. at night. It knocked me out to see how light reflected off the stainless steel cars at night. There was a short uptick in ridership in Aug. '66 due to an airline strike. Everything was booked up. It was my last trip on ATSF's El Capitan that year. I will never forget those years. Thanks for the memories.

It’s cool you caught a pic of Santa Fe’s only set of Erie Built FM passenger units.

I rode that train from Chicago to Denver. I believe it started out with a CB&Q engine. Then went to D&RG. This was about '61. I remember all those domes.

When I was 11, I was fortunate enough to ride the original California Zephyr all the way from Chicago to Oakland. It was the only train I ever rode west of Chicago before Amtrak. After all the reading I've done on the subject since then, that would still be the the one train I'd want to take if I could only ride one. One of many highlights was when the train got to the top of the front range and made the left turn into the mountains. From the dome, it felt like the train was flying, even though it couldn't have been going more than 30 mph. 13 1/2 years later, I got the same sensation on the Rio Grande Zephyr.

WHEN TRAINS ACTUALLY LOOKED AND SOUNDED GOOD

Gone, but not forgotten!

I never rode the Santa Fe Super Chief, but I have been across the country on the El Capitan more times than i cn remember. (And the Southwest Chief as well. I rode the Daylight between Los Angeles and Salinas frequently on school vacations. Great memory footage. Must confess that the trolley car scenes from Los Angeles brought back just as many memories. A sad day when they approved taking away the light rail system. Can't even imagine what it cost to acquire the right away for Metrolink. Serves them right

What an astonishing journey I've just been on. That was tip-top tea-time entertainment and once again, hat's off to the sound effects boys.

The yellow Union Pacific passenger train brought back memories for me. Where I lived in central Iowa, yellow painted passenger trains stopped in my town to let passengers on and off. I don’t remember if they were Union Pacific or not. I was more interested in the engines. I like the way they look and I was always impressed with how they sounded. They seemed powerful and had a cool sound I liked. It seemed like it required almost no effort for them to get the cars rolling again.Man, what I’d do to be able to go back for a while to see and hear it all again!

I was born too late. I would like to go back to that time!

Truly a great video! !t is amazing to realize that at one time our Nation had such a magnificent rail system. A couple of railroads, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe operated their own tracks for 2000 plus miles across the United States from Chicago to the West Coast (Los Angeles and Seattle/Tacoma)! All done without government help, though with significant government interference that some would pass off as "necessary regulation." Three railroads, carefully threading government regulation regarding a antitrust laws, were able to run transcontinental service on a regular schedule changing railroads and motive power to run the California Zephyr on a daily except Wednesday basis for twenty-one years from 1949 to 1970 all on agreements that did not violate Federal law or regulations! In all cases the service was prompt, luxurious, usually friendly, all weather, and most importantly, safe. An amazing accomplishment of the private sector at it's best! It was thrown away believing that automobiles and airliners were the wave of the future. They are now reviled in some places as contributing to the demise of the Planet due to Global Warming. What we once had and did not half appreciate!

Excellent footage. The Zepher looked really fine with the Burlington Route F Units pulling it.

Seeing Angel's Flight in color and in-service is truly amazing!

OMG... Those Buick Roadmasters... Cars had style

Excellent video! Love to watch it while my model train Santa Fe Warbonnetts circle the train table! Thank you!

Excellent! It just like Amtrak Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight,& California Zephyr Odyssey for 50 years.

WOW! Just WOW! The peak of streamlined railway passenger trains! Brought back many pleasant memories riding these trains before Halftrack. Thank you!

Key system too!!

ALCo taught GE how to build diesel locomotives. Despite a little issues, ALCo C636 series has been the prototype of today's American standard diesel locomotive.

Funny scene at the 20:00 mark - a Muni PCC care going backwards. The car must have been out of service, as they never operated that way in normally.

It's amazing how much seniority one had to have back then to hold a passenger job. A guy could work 50 years and, 15 minutes before retirement, he gets awarded his bid on a passenger job that he's had standing for like 27 years. lol

Excellent job on adding the sounds.

Comfort food for the soul!

Did every one see out that trolly turned that corner whhaaaattt hahahaha nice good video great work

I can’t imagine how thrilling it must have been to climb out of Denver through the big ten curves on a Super Chief with 10-11 cars and 4 engine leader….Oh man!!

My Grandfather was a Pullman Conductor for 25 years until they shut off the lights sometime near 1970. He was on the super Chief all those years and he loved it.

It turned like a city bus hahaha but no tires

Very cool video. Thanks for sharing

Excellent 32:30 no Rio Grande passenger video complete without F9A 5771, the face of the Road for many years until Amtrak took over in 1983 (5771 is in the Colorado Railroad Museum today)

Sure brings back good old memories. I rode the Super Chief, California Zephyr and the Coast Daylight. All were good rides but the Zephyr in my opinion was a bit above the others. Thank you for posting.

I enjoyed watching this video. Thank you for sharing. Excellent video.

Love the A B A lash ups Very enjoyable video!!

A fantastic video...of a time before I was born for the most part. Thank you for all the work you did to upload this video!

Great video, such memories.

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.

dear fm. i lived in glendora ca before i moved up here where i live now . i remember at and sf train # 4 and 3 going through town. #4 would run around 8 - 9 oclock. miss them . the pasadina sub second district is now part of metrolink and soon metro rail.

An excellent compilation. Thanks for much for putting this together and the added sound effects were spot on.

Those street scenes with the streetcars and the traffic are absolutely priceless. 19:22 that car driver cut it a bit fine...

Hermosas imágenes!! Desde Argentina!! Muchas gracias..

At 22:54 that is the old Sacramento Waterfront that was once served by the CCT, SP, and SN. Today this section now contains only 1 track out of the many seen in the pavement that is operated by the California State Railroad Museum.

What a wonderful video! Thanks so much for posting this.

Thank you This brought back o many memories.

A+B+B+A units and 10 passenger cars.

Wonderful video! I rode the CZ from Denver to Sacramento, and the Coast Starlight between LA and Oakland within the past several years. Two of the finest stretches of railroad the American west has to offer. I highly recommend either trip! Not really an error, but at 33:19 you can see the Burlington E units were lettered for BN, some of the last video of the CZ before Amtrak came along.

35:17 is that somebody on the roof?

Rear observation lounge gone from the Super Chief.

She was a beautiful girl, Super Chief’s spirit lives on

Gorgeous video, absolutely gorgeous!😉

Very Nice!

Timeline: Chicago 40's early 50's? Denver (?) early 50's. Got lost at where the big platform was after Denver but it was early 50's. Los Angeles it's starts as early 50's but moves up to 1959 at departure to San Francisco where it's also 1959 and 1961. At Salt Lake City it's the early 40's or during the War. Back to Chicago or Denver into the Moffitt Tunnel. Their at first is no snow out of it the first time. Then a huge snow storm! Then out on the other side of it again the snow has melted. When the train backs up into Chicago? Denver? Station the film is in reverse! Notice the car on the bridge going backwards!!! Well all this time traveling was fun. The the Daylight was an elegant way to travel from it's conception to it's unfortunate end. Today's Amtrak (as much as I appreciate rail travel) is a pale shadow of how much private rail company's invested in their rail travel. I has hopes the car would become less but with electric cars in the immediate future i don't think the poor train has anymore of a future than it had in 1946 than it has today. 😢

После первой секции что это за дополнительные вагоны это дизельные дополнительные?

Grand Trunk Western U-3-b #6323 (I think) with a farewell to steam excursion at 3:30.

I wonder if they're taking reservations for the torquay room?

The video would benefit from narration. It's not always possible to know where a video is taken from, even for someone who knows the West's geography quite well, as I do. I found the Super Chief route, as presented here, to be rather dull, especially by comparison with the Coast Daylight & California Zephyr segments. The urban video segments, especially those of San Francisco, are quite precious! Note that the California Zephyr appears to be taking the Feather River route (the WP route), though the engines, when shown, are SP. Doubtless the videos are from different sources.

I skimmed through most of the footage and I must say it looks great! What city is shown starting at 27:55? Is that Salt Pake City, UT?

ALCO PA thumbnail and we get EMDs. 😞

Amtrak will never close to those trains

Air travel killed off passenger trains

Because now your major passenger train Is old Santa fe cars, Not refurbished because of National railway (government) doesn't know How to run a train system.

I would love it if they could do some of those picture quality upgrades on these videos. I guess they are using AI or something. These pictures are not clear and they jump. Love them otherwise.

Why use the word Super Chief? Has nothing to do with the Zephyr or LA Street Cars.

Poor transfer from film to digital.

Government run Amtrac sucks compared to these trains.