Would appreciate any help finding out what became of Santa Fe diners 600-606 that were used on the Chief.

Thank you!

Joshua

601-603 and 605-606 became Amtrak 8070-8072, 8074-75. Although the rosters I am looking at said 600-606 were assigned to these 1950-built diners, they indicate only 6 built for the 7 numbers in the series. The above list is from a 1976 Amtrak roster, so either 604/8073 never made it to Amtrak or it was an early retiree. The 8000-series diners are long retired, with the 8500-series retained later/to the present day.

I found one site claiming Santa Fe retained, or reclaimed diner 600, and it became ATSF 61 in 1974, and 601-606 became 8070-8075. Santa Fe/BNSF retained a diner named "Fred Harvey" and numbered 61 into the 1990s at least.

One of these diners may be in Houston, Texas: http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?o ... -May87.jpg

Hi Joshua
I did find some information on the dining cars , 600 -606 .
Cars 601 - 606 sold to Amtrak in 1971 renumbered to # 8070 - 8075 .
Car 600 sold to Amt in 1974 renumbered # 61 . I could find any other information on these cars , if any were preserved . I am just guessing all sold for scrap , when Amtrak was getting new equipment .
I did find some photo when on Amtrak .

The Santa Fe did retain car 600 for use on "executive trains." It also retained a full-dome car, a bar-lounge car, and six REGAL-series 4-4-2 sleeping cars. At one time these cars were stored when not in use at the Car Shop building at San Bernardino, CA.

A list from the booklet Railway Passenger Car Annual Volume V 1980-1981 which is on the shelf next to the computer (The Santa Fe passenger car books are downstairs) gives these numbers:

60 ex-506 big dome
61 ex-600 diner
62 ex-1348 bar-lounge
63 REGAL CREST
64 REGAL HUNT
65 REGAL LANE
66 REGAL LARK
67 REGAL MANOR
68 REGAL SPA

The picture of the diner in Houston is the former AT&SF 1488, built by PS in 1940. It is no longer at that location, but still exists at a roadside location outside of Houston.

I believe the former AT&SF 601/Amtrak 8070 is still at the Feather River/WP museum in Portola, CA.

The AT&SF 604/Amtrak 8073 was wrecked in 1975 and scrapped.

The AT&SF 605/Amtrak 8074 was owned by Ken Bitten's group and was seen stored in York, PA in 2008. It was moved a few years ago to the Chicago area IIRC, but not sure of current status.

Thank you Gents. I'm trying to sort passenger car history of excursion cars operated by the DO era NYS&W. They picked up a number of cars through the Auto-Train sale, but prior to that they purchased a diner, believed to be ex Santa Fe and I suspect it may be one of these. It became Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley #13, later NYSW #508.

Joshua

You should have said that in the beginning. We could have saved you a step. That car was not one of the Super Chief diners. It was one of the 1937 Budd diners, former Amtrak 8032. It was built as AT&SF 1480. The D-O bought it directly from Amtrak, as far as I know. It was an Amtrak Certified car for awhile in the early 1980's, back when you didn't need to do much to get a car Amtrak Certified. Don't remember off hand where it ended up.

A AT&SF diner left Jacumba one day on the SD&AE and headed east without the benefit of a train or crew. It's stop about 3 miles east when it left the rails and was dashed upon the rocks as it approached Carriso Gorge. I'm not certain, but I believe it met the scrappers torch sometime later.

Jim - I believe that was the former Amtrak 8034, a sister to the former Amtrak 8032 mentioned above. It was originally AT&SF 1483. The car was in fairly decent shape when it decided to take it's last ride down the track. I believe another former AT&SF Budd pre-war coach and an ex-SP economy baggage car also decided to join the birds during that same il-fated excursion.

I think it ended up going to CSX when the DO sold off all of their passenger equipment after Walter Rich's death.

That was a really nice car. In the late 80's and early 90's I was involved with some excursions on the NYS&W using that diner. On one glorious occasion we used a brand new pattern of dining car china made for the Susquehanna and had a menu printed up for the day. We even had a New York state sparkling white wine that was labeled as being especially bottled for the NYS&W. A four course dinner was prepared and served on that diner that day.

We have #1474 Cochiti in our museum.
http://www.csrmf.org/library-and-collec ... 74-cochiti

AT&SF Diners #600-#606:

Ordered in 6/1948. Built by P-S in Lot #6851 to Plan #7625. Delivered in 11/1950-12/1950. Assigned to the Super Chief. 36 seat dining arrangement.

#600: Retained by AT&SF in 1971 for executive service. Renumbered/named to #61 "Fred Harvey". Later upgraded to Amtrak mechanical standards with registration #800660. To BNSF 1995 and renumbered to #11 "Fred Harvey".
#601: To Amtrak #8070. Retired 7/1981. To Norman Holmes. Currently part of the collection at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA.
#602: To Amtrak #8071. Retired 7/1981.
#603: To Amtrak #8072. Retired 7/1981.
#604: To Amtrak #8073. Wrecked in 5/1975 and subsequently scrapped.
#605: To Amtrak #8074. Retired 11/1977. To Ken Bitten. Stored in York, PA. Now stored in the Chicago area.
#606: To Amtrak #8075. Retired 7/1981.

Pictures of BNSF #11 "Fred Harvey":

Hallway side: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1648048 (Christopher Palmieri photo)
Kitchen side: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2448736 (Pat Huemmer photo)

AT&SF Diners #1475-#1484:

Built by Budd in Lot #976. Delivered in 5/1937-6/1937. 36 seat dining arrangement.

#1477: To Amtrak #8030. Stored at unknown date and formally retired 6/2005!
#1479: To Amtrak #8031. Retired 2/1981. To Utica & Mohawk Valley Chapter of NRHS. Currently part of the railroad exhibit at the Utica Children's Museum.
#1480: To Amtrak #8032. Retired 1981. To Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley as CACV #13 and painted in NYSW red in the windowband and "Susquehanna" in the letterboard. Later transferred to the NYSW as #508. Picture of the #1480 as CACV #13: http://rr-fallenflags.org/nysw/cacv13ags.jpg.
#1481: To Amtrak #8033. Retired 7/1981.
#1483: To Amtrak #8034. Retired 7/1981. To Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. Stored at Jacumba (30 miles railroad east of Campo). Heavily damaged in runaway incident and subsequently scrapped.

Does anyone know the numbers of the prewar AT&SF coach and the SP economy baggage that decided to take a ride with the #1483, and when this occurred?

Does anyone know the dispositions of the other 5 diners from this Lot which did not go to Amtrak?

Sources:

1. Pictures of BNSF #11 "Fred Harvey" and CACV #13 located using Jerry LaBoda's photo links at: http://passcarphotos.info/

2. Retirement dates from "Amtrak by the Numbers" by David C. Warner & Elbert Simon. Ordering information at: http://on-track-on-line.com/pdfs/orderform-otol.pdf