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Santa Fe Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters

Last revised: November 3, 2026

By: Adam Burns

There were railroads, and then there was the Santa Fe. In 1948 Fortune called the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe the nation’s number one railroad, and the compliment fit a company that had spent eighty years turning a Kansas charter into the only single-railroad route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Colonel Cyrus K. Holliday imagined it. William Barstow Strong built most of it. The public name was the Santa Fe. On Wall Street it was the Atchison. The train that made both names famous was the Super Chief.

The Burlington Northern and AT&SF merged on December 31, 1996, becoming the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe.

A Santa Fe company photograph of FT locomotives outside the shops at Barstow, California, circa 1948. The railroad bought 320 of them, 155 cabs and 165 boosters, the largest FT fleet in the country. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: At a glance · The charter · Across Kansas · Raton and the Royal Gorge · The Belen Cutoff · California and the Gulf · Chicago · 1895 and Ripley · Fred Harvey · The Chiefs · Steam and oil · Santa Fe Southern Pacific · Burlington Northern Santa Fe · Passenger trains

At a glance

The charter

Long before the Warbonnet, the Santa Fe was a hotel-room charter. Keith L. Bryant, Jr., in History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, places Holliday in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, on January 30 and 31, 1859, writing up the Atchison & Topeka Railroad. The paper railroad would join its two namesake towns, run southwest toward Santa Fe, and send a branch to the Gulf. The territorial legislature took up the bill on February 1. Governor Samuel Medary signed it on February 11, 1859.

Drought and the coming war froze the project for more than a year. In the late summer of 1860 Holliday and a few supporters went to Atchison and organized the company in Luther Challis’s law office, September 15 through 17. Holliday was president, Peter J. Abell secretary, and Milton C. Dickey treasurer. The charter allowed $1.5 million in stock. The money that mattered was land. Samuel Clarke Pomeroy helped place the Atchison & Topeka inside the amended Pacific Railroad Act. When President Lincoln signed that law on March 3, 1863, the railroad was promised the odd-numbered sections, ten sections deep on each side of the track, if it reached the Colorado line by March 3, 1873.

The same day the land-grant act became law, the company took the name that outlasted every corporate rewrite. The Kansas Historical Society dates the change to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad on March 3, 1863. Pomeroy’s reward was the presidency, which he took up later that year. Holliday stayed with the property. He wanted Kansas in the Union, and Kansas entered as the thirty-fourth state on January 29, 1861. He also wanted the railroad, and almost nobody else in the territory did. West of the Missouri the settlement was thin, and a line aimed at Santa Fe looked like a promoter’s map. Holliday’s answer was the one the land-grant railroads all used. If the iron arrived, the settlers would follow, and the prairie between the rivers was already farm country waiting for a market.

The Santa Fe Railroad logo. Author’s work.

Across Kansas

In 1867 the counties of Shawnee, Atchison, Osage, and Lyon voted bonds of $150,000 to $200,000. A quieter purchase did as much for the treasury. In 1868 the company bought 338,766 acres of the Potawatomi reservation in northeastern Kansas and began selling them. Construction contracts went out in 1867. Surveying followed in 1868. The formal start was a small ceremony on Washington Street in Topeka on October 30, 1868.

Atchison, on the Missouri River, was the charter’s eastern point. The builders started at Topeka instead. The Kansas Pacific was already running between Topeka and Kansas City, and that connection delivered rail, ties, and supplies to the end of track. The first bridge over the Kansas River, the Kaw, opened on March 30, 1869. Carbondale, and its coal, was in service by July 1. By the end of the year the grade was nearing Emporia, and the cash was gone.

The rescue came from Boston. Kidder, Peabody & Company took the securities, and a group of Boston investors took control. Emporia was reached on July 20, 1870. Cattle did the rest. Gross earnings for 1870 were $126,960, and the track turned east toward the river town the charter had promised. Atchison celebrated the arrival on May 13, 1872. West of Newton the prairie was flat enough that a good day produced more than a mile of track. Newton came in 1871. Dodge City opened on September 19, 1872. On December 28, 1872, the railhead reached the empty outpost of Granada, Colorado, inside the land-grant deadline. The reward was 2,928,928.54 acres.

Santa Fe PA-1 #52-L arrives at Pasadena, California, in March 1947. Russ Cole photo. American-Rails.com collection.

The first branch was a cattle feeder. In May 1872 the Wichita & Western, backed by the Santa Fe, joined Wichita and the Chisholm Trail to the main line at Newton. In 1873 the Colorado & New Mexico Railroad was incorporated to carry the main line past Granada toward Albuquerque. Boston stayed with Holliday’s original aim. The Pacific and the Gulf were both still on the map.

Raton and the Royal Gorge

La Junta, Colorado, opened on February 16, 1876. From there the railroad wanted two lines: the original road southwest toward New Mexico, and a line west into the Colorado mines, with Salt Lake City as a hope rather than a promise. In 1877 the board made William Barstow Strong vice president and general manager. His 1884 annual report put the policy in one sentence. “A railroad to be successful must also be a progressive institution. It cannot stand still if it would. If it fails to advance, it must inevitably go backward and lose ground already occupied.” He kept that rule for the twelve years he ran the property, and most of the Santa Fe map is his.

The obstacle was General William Jackson Palmer’s Denver & Rio Grande. Mike Schafer, in Classic American Railroads, describes Palmer’s plan to take the narrow gauge from Denver and Pueblo to El Paso by the one easy saddle in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Raton Pass. Strong sent engineer Ray Morley to stake the pass at 7,834 feet. Morley found Richens Lacy Wootton, “Uncle Dick,” who owned a 27-mile toll road, a house, and a small hotel on the summit. Wootton sold the road to the Santa Fe. When the Rio Grande crew arrived to claim the pass, Uncle Dick helped turn them around.

Santa Fe’s yard at Emporia, Kansas, in March 1972, with an A-B-B-A set of F units in freight service. Roger Puta photo.

Strong then went after Leadville. An ally, the Cañon City & San Juan, built from Pueblo to Cañon City in 1878 and was folded that year into the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley, a Santa Fe subsidiary. Santa Fe crews got about twenty miles into the Royal Gorge and built the Hanging Bridge over the Arkansas, the span that later filled Rio Grande publicity books. Armed men gathered on both sides. Bat Masterson worked for the Santa Fe. The Rio Grande built forts. A Supreme Court order of April 21, 1879 stopped the fight. The Treaty of Boston followed. Each road was to stay out of the other’s territory, a promise both later broke, and the Rio Grande bought the Santa Fe’s finished gorge line for $1.4 million.

Raton went ahead while the gorge case was still in court. Trinidad, Colorado, was reached on September 1, 1878. The first train used the new 2,041-foot tunnel, at 7,588 feet, in September 1879. Glorieta Pass, 7,453 feet, came next. Albuquerque was reached on April 15, 1880. Santa Fe itself, the town in the corporate name, was an 18-mile branch from Lamy that opened in February 1880. The main line had gone around it on an easier grade.

By 1879 net income was $3.455 million. Gould, Huntington, and the other syndicate builders never got a permanent hold on the company while Strong was spending that money on branches across Kansas and on the line west. The Atchison of 1880 had already beaten the Rio Grande for Raton, irritated the Union Pacific and the Kansas Pacific, and was about to meet Collis P. Huntington at the Colorado River.

The Belen Cutoff

Raton remained a beautiful and expensive mountain. Helpers, a summit tunnel, and a crooked descent were a passenger railroad’s advertisement and a freight railroad’s tax. In the first decade of the twentieth century the company built the Belen Cutoff, more than 200 miles across eastern New Mexico from the Texas Panhandle connection, through Abo Canyon, to Belen. There it joined the transcontinental line. Through freight left Raton for the new road. The passenger trains stayed on the mountain, and for another half century the Super Chief and the El Capitan were Raton trains, along with the coal that came off the nearby mines. BNSF still uses the cutoff as the freight main line.

An official 1966 system map of the Santa Fe. The Belen Cutoff is the freight line across eastern New Mexico. Raton is the mountain the passenger trains kept. Author’s collection.

California and the Gulf

At Albuquerque, Strong turned toward Mexico instead of California. A port at Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, would open a trade to the Pacific and to Latin America and would postpone a fight with Huntington. Track went on to Deming, New Mexico. A separate piece was built from Benson, Arizona, to Nogales, with Southern Pacific trackage rights filling the gap between Deming and Benson. Mexico chartered the Sonora Railway in 1880. The 260 miles to Guaymas opened on October 25, 1882. Counted from Kansas City, which the Santa Fe had reached in June 1875 by lease of the Kansas City, Topeka & Western, the new line was about 1,700 miles. The traffic never arrived. The Sonora lost money and was sold within a few years, and the sale became the price of California.

The other transcontinental on the map was the St. Louis & San Francisco, the Frisco. It had begun as the Pacific Railroad in 1849, become the Atlantic & Pacific in 1870, and taken the Frisco name in 1876, keeping the Atlantic & Pacific charter from Isleta, New Mexico, to Needles, California. In 1879 the Tripartite Agreement put that charter, and effective control of the Frisco, in Santa Fe hands. Construction reached Needles in August 1883. The showpiece was Canyon Diablo, a 250-foot gorge about 26 miles west of Winslow. The 560-foot trestle there was finished in July 1882. BNSF still crosses the canyon, on a later bridge.

Santa Fe F units southbound at Ardmore, Oklahoma, on December 29, 1973. American-Rails.com collection.

Huntington built a branch to the meeting point and then declined to hand over eastbound California traffic. San Diego wanted the Santa Fe more than Huntington did. The California Southern, incorporated October 16, 1880, built north from the harbor and made its connection on September 13, 1882. The Santa Fe bought it in 1884. Strong then bought the Southern Pacific line from Needles to Mojave, the old Sonora bargain turned around. California Southern built the remaining 81 miles from San Bernardino to Barstow, including 3,823-foot Cajon Pass, under chief engineer Joseph Osgood. Cajon was finished on November 15, 1885. That was the transcontinental. Los Angeles was still a tenant’s gate, reached by a lease of Southern Pacific track west of Colton.

In early 1887 Strong bought the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Valley, James F. Crank’s short line out of Los Angeles, which the Southern Pacific had refused to help. The gap between San Bernardino and Duarte was closed, and Santa Fe trains entered Los Angeles on their own rails on May 31, 1887. On August 12, 1888, a 70-mile extension from Los Angeles to Fallbrook opened the coast road that became the Surf Line, the direct Los Angeles–San Diego route. It is still one of the busiest passenger railroads in the West.

Santa Fe PA-1s #67 and #58 on their farewell excursion, sponsored by the Pacific Locomotive Association, at Richmond, California, in March 1968. Drew Jacksich photo.

The same farewell trip, Richmond to Stockton, westbound through Port Chicago, California, in March 1968. The trailing unit had died, and #67-L brought the train back to Richmond. Drew Jacksich photo.

The Gulf Coast was the other half of the 1859 charter. In 1887 the Santa Fe took the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, about 625 miles among Galveston, Houston, Brownwood, Lampasas, Dallas, and Paris. As part of the purchase the Atchison paid for a line north to Purcell, in what was then Indian Territory. The two construction forces met, and through service to Galveston began on June 18, 1887. Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907. The Purcell gateway was already a main line by then.

Chicago

For years the Santa Fe had handed Chicago cars to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and to other partners at Kansas City. Strong wanted his own entrance. He chartered the Chicago, Santa Fe & California on December 3, 1886. The new company bought the Chicago & St. Louis, 154 miles between Chicago and Pekin, and used it as far as Ancona, near Streator. The remaining 350 miles to the Kansas City Belt Line were built new. The last spike went down near Medill, Missouri, on December 31, 1887, on a line so straight that the construction still reads like a surveyor’s boast. Through trains reached Chicago on April 29, 1888. Bryant records more than $3.3 million spent on terminals and yards in the city, including the right to use Dearborn Station. The Santa Fe became Dearborn’s best-known tenant. The Chesapeake & Ohio, the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Erie, the Grand Trunk Western, the Wabash, and the Monon were the others.

Denver had come the year before, a direct line of about 116 miles north from Pueblo, finished in 1887. By 1888 the system Strong had assembled covered 7,010 miles. A great part of that mileage was grain and cattle branches in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, the feeders that made the transcontinental worth owning.

F7s, F3s, and a few F9B boosters at the north end of the passenger yard in Temple, Texas, in December 1969. Rick Burn photo.

1895 and Ripley

Strong’s fault was the same appetite that built the map. Some of the new mileage was redundant, and the late 1880s caught the company extended. He was pushed aside. The Panic of 1893 finished the old corporation. On December 23, 1893, the Union Trust Company of New York, trustee under the mortgages, asked the federal court in Kansas for a receiver. The receivership was the company’s one collapse. Earnings were still there. A reorganization plan was approved in the spring of 1895, and before the year was out the property belonged to a new corporation, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. The Frisco was one of the affiliates cut loose.

Edward P. Ripley’s railroad was a different machine: fewer speculative branches, more attention to the traffic already on the line, and a capital budget aimed at the roadbed and the equipment. Within a year of his arrival the company reported a net income of $3,382,806. The twentieth-century Santa Fe is Ripley’s as much as the nineteenth-century map is Strong’s.

San Francisco was the hole in the western end. In the late 1890s the Santa Fe bought the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley, an independent of 278 miles from Stockton, on the bay, to Bakersfield, built to break the Southern Pacific monopoly in the San Joaquin. The sale closed in late 1898. Tehachapi was already the Southern Pacific’s railroad, fifteen tunnels and a loop in the original line, and there was no second grade worth building. The Santa Fe took trackage rights between Mojave and Kern Junction, near Bakersfield. Union Pacific owns that railroad now. BNSF still uses the rights. The Santa Fe’s own bay terminal was Point Richmond, on the east shore. Ferries and car floats covered the water to San Francisco, and passengers used the Market Street slip.

Santa Fe E8Am #84-L at Pueblo, Colorado. Electro-Motive rebuilt it in 1953 from E1A #6. Fred H. Worsfold photo. American-Rails.com collection.

The network the company reported for 1932 was 13,568 miles, the high figure. The Depression cut other railroads to the bone. The Santa Fe’s net income stayed at $3.7 million or better through the 1930s. The reason was the same one Ripley had insisted on. The railroad already owned the freight path from Chicago to the Pacific, and it was willing to spend money on whatever made that path faster.

Fred Harvey

Fred Harvey gave the traveling public its first reliable meal on a western railroad. He was born in London on June 27, 1835, came to the United States in 1850, and learned the depot lunch counter by working for railroads. In 1875 he opened restaurants on the Kansas Pacific at Wallace, Kansas, and Hugo, Colorado. In 1876 he leased the Santa Fe lunch counter in Topeka. The first formal contract, for a restaurant and hotel at Florence, Kansas, is dated January 1, 1878. “Meals by Fred Harvey” became a reason to ride the railroad.

The Harvey Houses followed the main line across the Southwest. Many of them were mission buildings, with an Indian shop at the Alvarado in Albuquerque, the Hopi House at El Tovar on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, and the El Ortiz at Lamy. Mary E. J. Colter did the interiors that people remember. In 1893 Harvey and the railroad contracted for dining-car service as well. Harvey died on February 9, 1901. The business he left was fifteen hotels, forty-seven restaurants, and thirty dining cars.

Santa Fe PA-1 #62-L waits to leave Houston Union Station with the “California Special” on May 1, 1964. F. L. Becht photo.

The Chiefs

The Chief of 1926 was the first of the name. The Super Chief followed on May 12, 1936, an all-Pullman train between Chicago and Los Angeles with heavyweight cars and a pair of Electro-Motive boxcab diesels the crews called Amos and Andy. The schedule was 39 hours and 45 minutes. A year later the train became the streamliner people mean by the name. It was re-inaugurated on May 18, 1937, with Electro-Motive E1s and a nine-car Budd consist: a club-baggage, five Chicago–Los Angeles sleepers, a club lounge, a diner, and a sleeper-observation.

General Motors’ styling department named the paint the Warbonnet. Leland A. Knickerbocker drew it for the E1. Red covered the nose, swept back over the cab, and came down behind the cab door to a stripe along the skirt. A circled cross on the nose carried the words Santa Fe. The rest of the body was stainless steel or aluminum, to match the cars. An Indian head rode near the center of the early units. Sterling McDonald did the interiors, in turquoise and copper, with murals and with ebony, teak, satinwood, bubinga, macassar ebony, and ribbon primavera in the woodwork. Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh, in Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon, call the result the most beautiful scheme ever put on a locomotive. The later freight version, the blue and yellow warbonnet, and the passenger stainless scheme are both on the Warbonnet page.

A Santa Fe publicity photograph of E8Am #83-L and F7A #46-L with the “Super Chief” and the “San Diegan” at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. Date not recorded.

The Super Chief produced a family. The all-coach El Capitan, the Texas Chief, and the San Francisco Chief were the famous ones. Bill Yenne’s Santa Fe Chiefs is the book-length account. Around them ran the Scout, the Grand Canyon, the Chicagoan and Kansas Cityan, and the Tulsan. Patrick Dorin, in Santa Fe Passenger Trains in California, covers the intrastate trains, including the Golden Gate and the San Diegan. The list is below.

Santa Fe train #48, the “Oil Flyer,” northbound at Chanute, Kansas, in November 1969. The train connected Tulsa with Kansas City. Rick Burn photo.

Train #76, the “California Special,” at View, Texas, in May 1968. It was the Houston connection for the “San Francisco Chief,” running between Houston and Clovis, New Mexico. Tom Hoffmann photo, Rick Burn collection.

U28CG #350 with train #66, what remained of the California Special, at Houston Union Station in June 1968. Rick Burn photo.

Steam and oil

George H. Drury’s chapter on the Santa Fe, in the revised Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, is the account behind the steam roster. The railroad adopted the compound with enthusiasm after 1900, then spent a decade taking the compounds apart. In 1912 John Purcell became assistant to the vice president in charge of the mechanical department. The shopping list changed. Large classes of modern 2-8-2s and 2-10-2s replaced the experimentals. The last compound Pacifics, in 1914, were the exception.

Fuel changed with the map. East of Albuquerque the railroad burned bituminous coal from Illinois, southern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and the Gallup field. West of Albuquerque the coal sparked, and wooden freight-car roofs made that a fire problem. Water was scarce on the Mojave and across Arizona and New Mexico. After a Santa Fe oil subsidiary found commercial oil in California, the San Bernardino shop worked out a burner that sprayed oil into the firebox. Oil became the fuel on almost the entire western lines. The later 4-8-4s were oil burners from the start or were converted.

The modern road engines are the ones people still go to see. No. 5000, the Madame Queen, was Baldwin’s first 2-10-4 for the Santa Fe, in 1930, and the test bed for the 5001 class of 1938 and the 5011 class of 1944. The 2900 class, thirty 4-8-4s of 1943 and 1944, were the heaviest Northern type built, at 510,150 pounds, because wartime steel was heavier than the alloy the railroad would have preferred. No. 3751, Baldwin’s first 4-8-4, went on display at San Bernardino and returned to steam in 1991 under the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society. The Blue Goose, Hudson 3460, was the streamlined experiment of 1937.

Santa Fe 2-8-2 #3151 at Redondo Junction, Los Angeles, in February 1949. The railroad’s only A-B-A set of Erie-built diesels is at the right. American-Rails.com collection.

Dieselization was early because the desert was hard on steam, and because the FT worked. Electro-Motive’s 1,350-horsepower freight cab, and the 5,400-horsepower A-B-B-A set the railroad preferred, took over the Chicago–California freight railroad during the war. Santa Fe’s 320 units were the largest FT fleet anywhere. The War Production Board was the reason the order stopped where it did. F3s, F7s, and F9s followed. The passenger E1s were rebuilt into E8ms in 1952 and 1953. Alco’s PAs, covered on the PA page, handled a share of the streamliners until the late 1960s.

The last revenue steam ran on August 27, 1957. Drury names the assignment. A 2-10-4, No. 5021, and a 4-8-4, No. 3780, helped eastbound freights from Belen to Mountainair, New Mexico, returned to Belen, and had their fires dropped. The FT and everything that followed it had already won.

Argentine Shops, Kansas, likely in the mid-1950s. FTs, F3s, and F7s in the passenger Warbonnet and in the blue and yellow freight scheme. American-Rails.com collection.

F7A #231-C leaves New South Yard in Houston with the scheduled freight “Texas Expeditor,” circa 1960.

F7s led by #228L, in the blue freight livery, at Fort Worth, Texas, in March 1964. Dennis E. Conniff III photo, Rick Burn collection.

F3A #34-L westbound, passing three RSD15s in the siding at Hesperia, California, in the early 1960s. Fred Worsfold photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Cleburne, Texas, and San Bernardino kept the second generation alive by rebuilding the first. F7A #331, shown below in the yellowbonnet freight scheme at Cleburne in 1975, became CF7 #2444 in August 1977. The CF7 program turned wrecked and worn-out F-unit cabs into road-switchers and stretched the frames well into the BNSF years. San Bernardino did the same sort of work on the six-axle EMD fleet. U36Cs became SF30Cs at Cleburne. The diesel roster carries the block list, including those shop classes.

F7A #331, in the yellowbonnet scheme, at Cleburne, Texas, in 1975. Cleburne rebuilt it as CF7 #2444 in August 1977.

SD45u #5433 after its rebuild at San Bernardino Shops on June 13, 1981. Steve Wille photo. American-Rails.com collection.

SD45u #5326, SD40u #5007, and SD45u #5435 eastbound near Christie, California, on January 24, 1986. Jon Porter photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Fairbanks-Morse H12-44 #506 switching, circa 1965. The Santa Fe was a modest FM customer. The three H12-44TS switchers carried steam generators for moving passenger cars at Dearborn Station. American-Rails.com collection.

GP7 #2671 in local service at Pasadena, California, circa 1952. Russ Cole photo. American-Rails.com collection.

GP7 #2884 and F7As #231L, #211C, and #273C at Sweetwater, Texas, on May 30, 1968. Tom Hoffmann photo, Rick Burn collection.

F7A #238C at Gainesville, Texas, in April 1968. It was traded to Electro-Motive in 1970. Tom Hoffmann photo, Rick Burn collection.

F7A #254-C and a pair of B units at the Colorado & Southern’s Rice Yard in Denver during the 1950s. American-Rails.com collection.

PA-1s and PB-1s in the deadline at Barstow, California, in March 1968. Rick Burn collection.

Another line of PA-1s at Barstow in March 1968. No. 67-L was traded to Electro-Motive the next year on new SD45s. Photographer unknown, Rick Burn collection.

The freight railroad of the same years was already practicing the business BNSF still runs. Piggyback experiments began in 1952. The autorack followed. The Chicago–Los Angeles line was built for the container train that replaced the Chief, and the Super C was the company’s own name for a hot intermodal schedule. In 1963 the fleet was 1,855 diesel locomotives, 84,439 freight cars, and 1,235 passenger cars. Those are year counts, not all-time totals.

The five bicentennial SD45-2s, #5700–#5704, at Barstow, California, on December 21, 1976. K. B. King photo. American-Rails.com collection.

SD40-2 #5083, delivered from Electro-Motive in primer yellow in October 1979. San Bernardino finished it in the blue and yellow warbonnet. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Freight-car stencils at the Topeka paint shop in April 1972. Roger Puta photo.

Santa Fe Southern Pacific

After the Staggers Act the western map redrew itself in a few seasons. The Union Pacific took the Western Pacific and the Missouri Pacific in 1982, and with the Missouri Pacific it finally owned its own railroad from Chicago to the Pacific. The Santa Fe’s long claim, a single company from Chicago to southern California, had company. Burlington Northern, created in 1970, added the Frisco on June 8, 1981. Steve Glischinski, in Santa Fe Railway, describes the Atchison looking for a partner of its own.

A union with the Southern Pacific was announced on May 15, 1980, as the Southern Pacific & Santa Fe. The talks died and were revived on September 27, 1983. The holding companies, Santa Fe Industries and the Southern Pacific Company, merged on December 23, 1983, into the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation. The railroads stayed separate while the Interstate Commerce Commission considered the operating merger. On July 24, 1986, the Commission refused it, on the ground that the combined company would have owned too much of California and of the southern corridor. Locomotives already painted in the new red and yellow, the scheme railfans called Kodachrome and “Shouldn’t Paint So Fast,” had to be repainted or worn out. Southern Pacific was sold onward. The Santa Fe kept its independence for another decade.

SD45u #5394 in the Santa Fe–Southern Pacific Kodachrome paint, with SF30C #9500, near Venus, Texas, in August 1985. Cleburne had rebuilt #9500 from U36C #8721 in April 1985. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

GP35u #2835 in Kodachrome paint in April 1986. American-Rails.com collection.

Power at the Argentine engine terminal in Kansas, circa 1983. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

GP60M #150 leads containers east out of Barstow, California, on July 18, 1992. The wide-nose GP60M and the SD75M were the last new warbonnets ordered by the independent company. American-Rails.com collection.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe announced their merger on June 30, 1994. Shareholders approved it on February 7, 1995. After the Union Pacific dropped its appeal, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the transaction on August 23, 1995. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation acquired the two holding companies on September 22, 1995. The railroads themselves merged on December 31, 1996. The last independent day was December 30. The name on the locomotives became Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, later shortened to BNSF. The Warbonnet did not vanish with the corporate seal. Heritage units, repaints, and the Chicago–Los Angeles intermodal railroad still carry it.

An August 1952 public timetable is on the timetable page.

Passenger trains

• The Chief (Chicago–Los Angeles, from 1926)
• Super Chief
• El Capitan
• San Francisco Chief
• Texas Chief
• The Scout (Chicago–Los Angeles)
• Grand Canyon
• San Diegan
• Chicagoan / Kansas Cityan
• Golden Gate
• Tulsan
• Super C (freight)

Related reading

• Santa Fe steam roster, built since 1900
• Santa Fe diesel roster, all-time
• Warbonnet locomotives · The Blue Goose · Fred Harvey
• Super Chief · El Capitan · EMD FT · Alco PA
• Denver & Rio Grande Western · Southern Pacific · St. Louis-San Francisco · Chicago, Burlington & Quincy · Union Pacific
• August 1952 timetable

Sources

• Bryant, Keith L., Jr. History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The 1859 charter, the land grant, the Kansas construction, the Chicago entrance, and the terminal figure of more than $3.3 million.
• Schafer, Mike. Classic American Railroads. Palmer, the Rio Grande, and Raton Pass.
• Schafer, Mike, and Joe Welsh. Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon. The Warbonnet and Knickerbocker.
• Yenne, Bill. Santa Fe Chiefs. The named passenger fleet.
• Dorin, Patrick C. Santa Fe Passenger Trains in California: From the 1940s Thru Amtrak and More. The Golden Gate and the San Diegan.
• Glischinski, Steve. Santa Fe Railway. The search for a merger partner after 1980.
• Drury, George H. Guide to North American Steam Locomotives. Revised edition. Santa Fe chapter. Oil fuel, the Belen Cutoff as the freight bypass of Raton, the last revenue steam on August 27, 1957, and No. 3751’s return in 1991.
• Berglund, Lee, and Jay Miller. “Santa Fe F Units.” Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society. The FT count of 155 cabs and 165 boosters.
• Kansas Historical Society. Administrative history of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company records. Charter name Atchison & Topeka; name changed March 3, 1863.
• Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company v. United States. The receivership complaint of December 23, 1893, and the reorganization of 1895.

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   Nov 06, 26 11:56 AM

   
   Union Pacific filed a November 5, 2026 verified statement that the confidential label is off the March 17 Vena recording and that parties of record received a copy at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

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6. OmniTRAX Adds Tenants at Its Blue Island Hub

   Nov 06, 26 10:26 AM

   
   OmniTRAX has signed new construction-company leases at its 90-acre Blue Island, Illinois, hub and is planning a second phase.

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7. Veterans and Active-Duty Members Exceed 16 Percent of Norfolk Southern

   Nov 06, 26 10:14 AM

   
   Norfolk Southern said on November 5, 2026, that more than 3,000 veterans and active-duty service members are more than 16 percent of its workforce. This year grants are $100,000 and $50,000.

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8. BNSF: Merger Would Put Half of U.S. Rail Shipments Under One Railroad

   Nov 06, 26 10:00 AM

   
   BNSF chief marketing officer Tom G. Williams told customers on November 3, 2026, that a Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger would put about half of U.S. rail shipments under one railroad. Nothing is…

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9. Amtrak Opens a Winter Fare Sale

   Nov 06, 26 09:28 AM

   
   Amtrak opened a Winter Wanderlust sale on November 5, 2026. Book by November 12 for travel from December 1, 2026, through March 14, 2027. Blackout dates apply. Coach and Acela Business only.

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10. CN and CPKC Report October Grain Records

    Nov 06, 26 08:50 AM

    
    CPKC reported October 2026 grain records in Canada and the United States. CN reported 3.54 million metric tonnes across Canada. The releases do not print a combined total.

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11. New Brunswick Transload Gets CN Rail Service

    Nov 06, 26 08:49 AM

    
    CN said on November 4, 2026, that it has started serving AD Gagnon Transload Services near Grand Falls, New Brunswick. The site is three kilometres from the Trans-Canada Highway and lists room for 106…

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12. Together, Freight and Passenger Rail Can Grow, Union Pacific Says

    Nov 06, 26 08:47 AM

    
    Union Pacific said on November 5, 2026, that passenger obligations would remain if it combines with Norfolk Southern. The capacity claim is a Union Pacific analysis, not a Surface Transportation Board…

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13. FM "C-Liner" Locomotives: Specs, Roster, Photos

    Nov 05, 26 11:19 PM

    
    Fairbanks-Morse Consolidation Line cab units, the C-Liners. 165 locomotives, Beloit and Kingston, March 1950 through February 1955. Models, specs, and production rosters.

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14. Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast Railroad: Map, History, Roster

    Nov 05, 26 12:03 PM

    
    Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, from Brunswick and Waycross to Atlanta and Birmingham. Atlantic Coast Line control at the close of 1926. Merged in January 1946 as the Western Division. Steam roster of th…

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15. El Paso & Southwestern Railroad: Map, History, Logo

    Nov 05, 26 12:00 PM

    
    The El Paso & Southwestern, the Phelps Dodge copper railroad from Tucson to the Rock Island at Tucumcari. Southern Pacific control on October 31, 1924.

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16. Brightline Says Orlando Service Has Resumed

    Nov 05, 26 11:55 AM

    
    Brightline said on November 5, 2026, that trains to and from Orlando have resumed after weather suspensions in Brevard County. Later that morning the departures page still showed the Orlando segment s…

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17. Metra Customers Must Sign Up Again

    Nov 05, 26 11:43 AM

    
    Metra says customers who want service alerts must sign up again at metratracker.com. The November 2 story says the new system has launched and the old email list is shut down. A notice on the same pag…

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18. Norfolk Southern Packs Six Projects Into One Window

    Nov 05, 26 11:38 AM

    
    Norfolk Southern used one 26-hour window on the W Line for six projects in Indiana and Kentucky, including three bridge replacements. The October 27 account does not give the calendar day of the work.

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19. CSX: More Time to Comment on an Inspection Waiver

    Nov 05, 26 11:29 AM

    
    The Federal Railroad Administration extended comments on a CSX petition for relief from some qualified mechanical inspector rules until December 2, 2026. The November 2 notice does not grant the waive…

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20. Brightline Expects Orlando Service on Thursday

    Nov 05, 26 09:21 AM

    
    Brightline said on November 4, 2026, that it expects trains to and from Orlando to resume on Thursday, November 5. South Florida stations kept running. The departures page still showed the Orlando seg…

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21. Union Pacific: More Time to Comment on an Inspection Waiver

    Nov 05, 26 09:15 AM

    
    The Federal Railroad Administration extended comments on a Union Pacific petition for relief from some qualified mechanical inspector rules until December 2, 2026. The November 2 notice does not grant…

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22. Wisconsin Opens Comments on the 2027 Freight Plan

    Nov 05, 26 09:03 AM

    
    WisDOT opened the draft 2027 State Freight Plan for comment through December 1, 2026. The plan covers freight rail with highways, harbors, aviation, and intermodal links. Completion is expected in sum…

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23. U.S. Rail Traffic Rose 3.5 Percent in the Week Ending October 31

    Nov 05, 26 08:52 AM

    
    U.S. railroads moved 514,080 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending October 31, 2026, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier, the Association of American Railroads said on November 4.

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24. Muni and Bay Area Transit Measures Pass

    Nov 05, 26 08:49 AM

    
    San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said on November 4, 2026 that Proposition H and a regional transit measure passed. Proposition H is about 160 million dollars a year for Muni. The regiona…

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25. Ground Rules Set for Responsive Applications

    Nov 05, 26 08:47 AM

    
    Decision No. 46, served November 4, 2026, denies a request to add Walsenburg to the Union Pacific interchange list and sets what CPKC and CN must include in responsive applications. Four CPKC proposal…

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26. Video of the Vena Address Must Be Released

    Nov 05, 26 08:42 AM

    
    The Surface Transportation Board on November 4, 2026 denied the Union Pacific appeal and ordered the March 17 shipper-conference recording released to the parties by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on November 5. C…

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27. Chicago & North Western Iron Ore C628s

    Nov 04, 26 11:47 PM

    
    Chicago and North Western C628s 6701-6730, the ex-Norfolk and Western high-hoods, in Upper Peninsula iron-ore service from the mid-1970s until December 21, 1986, and what happened to each unit.

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28. Warrenton Railroad: Serving Warrenton, NC (1884-1985)

    Nov 04, 26 10:33 PM

    
    The three-mile Warrenton Railroad, from Warren Plains to the North Carolina county seat. Chartered January 28, 1871. First train November 8, 1884. Closed in 1985.

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29. Rio Grande Steam Locomotives (Since 1900)

    Nov 04, 26 11:40 AM

    
    Denver & Rio Grande Western steam locomotives built since 1900. Standard gauge quantity 435 and narrow gauge 48. Challengers, 2-8-8-2s, Mountains, Northerns, and the K-27, K-28, K-36, and K-37.

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30. Rio Grande Diesel Locomotives (All-Time)

    Nov 04, 26 11:39 AM

    
    Denver & Rio Grande Western diesel locomotives, each frame once. 554 units, from the 1941 NW2 through the 1990 GP60s. FT, F3, F7, and F9 sets are not counted again under their 1950 numbers.

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31. Rio Grande Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters

    Nov 04, 26 11:34 AM

    
    Denver & Rio Grande Western history, from William Jackson Palmer and the October 27, 1870 charter through the Royal Gorge, the Moffat route, the California Zephyr, and Union Pacific common control…

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32. Lindblom Gift Expands the Fort Wayne Restoration Shop

    Nov 04, 26 11:14 AM

    
    Art Lindblom gave the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society more than $1.4 million, its largest single gift, to expand the New Haven shop. The addition is planned for late 2026 and early 2027. A sepa…

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33. Design Contract Awarded for the Forest Park Branch

    Nov 04, 26 11:09 AM

    
    The Chicago Transit Board approved a design contract for about 13 miles of Blue Line track from the Illinois Medical District to the I-290 Bridge. The release summary calls it a $17 million contract…

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34. Kanawha River Railroad: The Norfolk Southern Lease Is Renewed

    Nov 04, 26 10:51 AM

    
    Kanawha River Railroad filed to keep leasing 309.45 miles from Norfolk Southern in West Virginia and Ohio. The second amendment is dated August 17, 2026. The Board has not set the date the exemption t…

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35. Short Line Center Awarded a $5.625 Million Grant

    Nov 04, 26 10:35 AM

    
    The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association received a $5.625 million CRISI grant on October 20, 2026, for the Short Line Training Center. A 25 percent match brings the project to $7.5 m…

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36. Palestine and Rusk Track Rebuild Finishes Its First Phase

    Nov 04, 26 09:13 AM

    
    The Texas & Eastern Railroad has finished the first phase of a roughly $30 million track project between Palestine and Rusk. Phase I used a $13.4 million CRISI grant. Phase II, at $8.54 million, adds…

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37. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx Get Subway Power Design

    Nov 04, 26 09:12 AM

    STV said on November 2, 2026, that MTA Construction and Development selected the firm to manage design of 10 subway substations and 12 circuit breaker houses in four New York boroughs. No contract pri…

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38. Chicago's Regional Transit Budget Goes Out for Comment

    Nov 04, 26 09:07 AM

    
    The Northern Illinois Transit Authority opened its first regional budget for comment through December 4, 2026. The proposal is $5.04 billion for 2027 operations and $9.73 billion in capital work throu…

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39. VIA Rail Finishes the Toronto Maintenance Centre

    Nov 04, 26 09:05 AM

    
    VIA Rail completed a four-year modernization of its Toronto Maintenance Centre on November 2, 2026. The Government of Canada invested $310 million. The shop supports 32 Corridor trainsets and will sus…

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40. Brightline Suspends Orlando Service for High Water

    Nov 04, 26 09:02 AM

    
    Brightline suspended trains between Orlando and West Palm Beach on November 2, 2026, because of high water in Brevard County. A later post the same day kept the suspension until 2:00 p.m. on November…

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41. Hiawatha West Draws Federal Funding Toward Madison

    Nov 04, 26 08:58 AM

    
    Amtrak welcomed a CRISI selection for Hiawatha West, extending Chicago-Milwaukee service toward Madison, Watertown, and Pewaukee. Wisconsin said on October 16 that the award is over $218 million.

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42. Seattle's Train Maintenance Facility Opens for Airo Trains

    Nov 04, 26 08:56 AM

    
    Amtrak cut the ribbon October 23, 2026, on a $250 million Seattle shop for Airo trains on the Cascades route. The building came in on time and $50 million under budget and opens in phases through the…

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43. Aberdeen Carolina and Western Wins a $19.9 Million Grant

    Nov 04, 26 08:46 AM

    
    The Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway won a $19.9 million CRISI grant for about 30 miles of welded rail in Montgomery and Stanly counties. The railroad and NCDOT are putting up a 52 percent match…

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44. Alco "C628" Locomotives: Roster, Data Sheet, Specs

    Nov 03, 26 07:57 PM

    
    Alco Century C628: 2,750 hp C-C road switcher, 186 built from December 1963 to December 1968. Production roster, specs, and where the high-hood Norfolk and Western units went.

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45. Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF): Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Nov 03, 26 12:54 PM

    
    Santa Fe diesel locomotives, each new frame once, with construction numbers and order numbers. The counted total is 3,964, from the 1935 boxcabs through the SD75Ms.

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46. Metra Holiday Trains Return on Six Lines

    Nov 03, 26 11:40 AM

    
    Metra holiday trains will run on six lines in December, with tickets on sale at noon November 16 for $10. The Chicago Transit Authority and Pace are fielding holiday buses in the same regional announc…

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47. Amtrak Encourages Early Booking for Thanksgiving

    Nov 03, 26 11:39 AM

    
    Amtrak is asking travelers to book Thanksgiving trips early. The railroad carried more than 1.2 million customer trips over the 2025 holiday and expects another record, with extra Northeast Regional s…

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48. Channel Pacific Keeps Its West Sacramento Exemption

    Nov 03, 26 11:26 AM

    The Surface Transportation Board denied a West Sacramento challenge to Channel Pacific Railroad’s exemption to operate about 2,132 feet of terminal track. The exemption took effect in June 2026.

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49. DART Marks One Year of the Silver Line

    Nov 03, 26 11:22 AM

    
    DART marked one year of Silver Line service linking seven North Texas cities and DFW Airport. The 26-mile regional rail line opened October 25, 2025, as the agency’s first rail expansion in a decade.

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50. Massachusetts Breaks Ground for the Berkshire Flyer

    Nov 03, 26 10:07 AM

    Massachusetts broke ground October 29 in Pittsfield on track work meant to support permanent seasonal Berkshire Flyer service. MassDOT has $31 million for the project in its 2027-2031 capital plan.

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