Southwest Chief
The Southwest Chief (formerly the Southwest Limited) is a passenger train operated by Amtrak along a 2256-mile (3631-km) route through the Midwestern and Southwestern United States. It runs from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California, passing through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
The Southwest Chief is the indirect successor to the Super Chief, a train operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway until 1971 and later by Amtrak until March, 1974 when the AT&SF forced Amtrak to stop using the name because of a perceived decline in quality after Amtrak took over the Santa Fe's passenger trains. After subsequent improvements in service, the Santa Fe allowed Amtrak to change the name of the Southwest Limited to the Southwest Chief on October 28, 1984.
The train currently consists of three P42 locomotives, one baggage car, one Superliner transition dorm, two Superliner sleeping cars, a Superliner dining car, a Superliner lounge car and three Superliner coach cars. The train also carries perishables in express refrigerator cars. A third Superliner sleeping car and a fourth Superliner coach are typically added during peak travel periods.
Unique among all long distance Superliner trains, the Southwest Chief is permitted to run up to a maximum of 90 mph (145 km/h) along significant portions of the route.
Westbound Southwest Chief comes up on a BNSF freight train in Western Springs, IL
<googlemap lat="41.814186" lon="-87.900324" zoom="14"> 41.809722, -87.900556, Western Springs, IL 60558, USA. This is not the accurate location of the video </googlemap>
Station stops
The Southwest Chief, train #3 westbound and #4 eastbound, makes the following station stops:
