Santa Fe Railway 1930's era

By Russell Crump

The decade of the 1930 was a period of new beginnings and endings. The decade saw the end of the last major period of line expansion and the beginning of the first wave of major line abandonments. The decade saw the first experiments with Diesel power finishing with major use of the diesel on passenger trains and in the yards. The decade saw the introduction of Air-conditioning on passenger trains the first lightweight passenger car and the first Super Chief. All wood freight cars disappeared and steel saw a greater and greater presents in the freight car fleet.

In the beginning of the decade the Santa Fe was building a new line to bypass Raton Pass via Boise City, a new line between Texas and Colorado also via Boise City, a new line to Sonora, Texas, Prisidio, Texas, Spearman, Texas, Coltexo, texas, Bumstead, Arizona and between Cane Jct. And Guy, Texas. In 1937 the Santa Fe also bought the line Fort Worth via Brownwood to Brady and Menard from the Fort Worth & Rio Grande. The decade also saw the abandonment of the lines Lehigh to Ada, OK and Byara to Purcell, OK, Oilton to Jennings, OK, Carisbrooke to Yankee. NM ,De Noya jct. To De Noya, OK , Hickman to Naphtha, OK and Stanley to Kennedy, NM.

The first Diesel was delivered to the Santa Fe on February 4, 1935 an Alco HH-6000 the 2300. This was followed on August 30, 1935 with the delivery of 1A and 1B the first mainline passenger Diesel units. On June 4, 1937 the first diesel pai8nted in the warbonnet paint scheme was delivered on E-1 2A and 2B setting what became the defining image of the Santa Fe locomotive fleet for rest of the century. At the end of the decade the Santa Fe rostered 54 diesel engines.

The decade saw the introduction of Air-conditioning on Passenger trains and the first lightweight cars. For the summer of 1930 the very first Santa Fe Air-conditioned car was placed in service on the Chief dinner 1418. By the end of the decade the number of air-conditioned cars numbered in the 100's with complete air-conditioned trains being offered. February 1936 saw the delivery to the Santa Fe of coach 3070 the very first lightweight streamline coach. By the end of the decade the Santa Fe was running complete trains of lightweight streamlined equipment which started with the first run of the Super Chief on May 18, 1937.

The decade saw the disappearance of the turn of the century wood freight cars with wood truss rod underframes. The color full bill board reefers were out lawed no repaints after July 1934 no interchange after January 1937. The most common box cars of the decade were 36 foot box cars with wood bodies and steel underframes. Other box and auto cars had either all-wood or composite bodies. The most common furniture/automobile cars were pre-WWI AC&F wood - bodied cars with massive steel side and center sills. Caswell composite drop bottom gondolas far outnumbered all other types of hopper and gondola cars. Caswell convertible stock cars with roof hatches and drop bottom doors were also very common. The company tank car fleet consisted mostly of pre-WWI cars with distinctive AC&F fishbelly sill underframes and mid height running boards.

Freight car paragraph paraphrased from "The Evolution of the Santa Fe's Freight car Fleet from a Modeler's Perspective Part 1- 1930 - 1940" by Richard H. Hendrickson published in the first Quarter 2000 Warbonnet.