ATSF 326L (F7A) with Train No. 12, The Chicagoan at Union Station Wichita, KS. A Big Dome and a cafeteria-diner are added here.
A Roger Puta Photograph. 27 March 1967. Click to enlarge.
(Roger Puta, courtesy Marty Bernard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
CHICAGOAN / KANSAS CITYAN
The Chicagoan and Kansas Cityan were a pair of American named passenger trains operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. They ran from Chicago, Illinois to Wichita, Kansas, with a later extension to Oklahoma City.
History
On April 17, 1938, the Santa Fe introduced a pair of day trains using lightweight, streamlined cars from the Budd Company, and numbered trains 11 and 12. These two, seven-car, lightweight, streamlined trains operated the 663-mile (1,067 km) route in 12 3/4 hours between endpoints. In December of 1939, the train's western terminal would be moved to Oklahoma City, extending running times by three hours. At the same time, The Tulsan, streamlined diesel train 211 and 212, was introduced, carrying through chair cars taken off 11 to and from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and adding through Tulsa-Chicago cars to train 12. This allowed the service to compete with the new Frisco Firefly.
The inaugural runs of the two lightweight streamliners were operated with Electro-Motive Corporation E1A units numbered 8 and 9. However, within a month, Santa Fe rebuilt the old Santa Fe Box Cab Diesel passenger units 1A and 1B as single-cab units for the new trains, and assigned them the road numbers 1 and 10. After being rebuilt in Santa Fe's Topeka shops with an elevated cab over a new snub nose and new AAR 1B drop-equalizer trucks, and painted in the Santa Fe "war bonnet" paint scheme, they replaced the newer E-units.
The Chicagoan and Kansas Cityan received new full-length "Big Dome" lounges in 1954. after the war, trains 111 and 112 carried a portion of the train (including a new sleeping car) to Dallas via Ft. Worth and Cleburne. This extension disappeared in 1957, and reappeared in 1960. The trains were discontinued in their entirety in 1968.
A Chicagoan - Kansas Cityan timetable from 1966. Click image to enlarge
(AT&SF Timetable, Public domain, via Streamlinermemories.info.)
Train consists
At the train's inception, each of the two trainsets consisted of the following units:
One EMC E1A 1,800 hp (1.3 MW) Diesel locomotive
One Baggage 30-foot (9.1 m) or Railway Post Office car
Three 52 seat coaches
One 26 seat coach or 30-seat club lounge car
One 48 seat dining car
One 32 seat parlor observation
A full-length dome car was added to the consist in 1954.
Post-rebuild locomotive No. 1L, along with cabless unit No. 50A and an "E"-unit booster (center) lead the Chicagoan near
Red Rock, Oklahoma in 1938. Click to enlarge. (AT&SF Railway, Publicity Dept., Public domain, CC-0)
Overview
Service type: Inter-city rail
Status: Discontinued
Locale: Midwestern United States/Southwestern United States
First service: April 10, 1938; 84 years ago
Last service: April 18, 1968; 54 years ago
Former operator: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Route Termini: Chicago / Stops Oklahoma City; to Dallas (1950s, 1960s)
On-board services
Seating arrangements: Chair cars
Sleeping arrangements: Pullman cars: sections, compartments and double bedrooms from Kansas City to Dallas and sections, compartments and a drawing room Oklahoma City to Dallas (1954)
Catering facilities: Lunch counter-dining car
Observation facilities: Dome lounge car
Train No. 12, the Chicagoan, will leave Dallas at 8:30 pm and arrive in Chicago the next day at 8 pm.
Leading the train is No. 14, an E6 built in 1940. Dallas, Texas, April 26, 1966. Photo by Lt. Col. D.A. Woodworth, Jr.
(Audio-Visual Designs, Earlton, NY, Public domain, via the W. Lenheim Collection)
