The decade of the fifties can easily be described as
an era of transition. While most Santa Fe fans know this era as
the one of transition from steam to diesel, there were many other
"transitions" that would come to define the Santa Fe's future. As
the decade opened, the Santa Fe was in excellent fiscal and physical
condition from the massive wartime traffic further continued with
the Korean war. The Santa Fe knew that a postwar economy would require
significant reversion of industrial production to the output of
civilian goods. With record revenues but declining profits, the
economics of the mid 20th century(rising wages, inflationary trends
and the tax burdens of the US government) required the Santa Fe
to make substantial capital expenditures for improvements to the
property and the adoption of new technologies to maintain operating
efficiency while sustaining a high volume of traffic. The 1953 theme
of the Santa Fe as "America's New Railroad" was more than an advertising
slogan.
Dieselization was a major theme as the forties ended. The irrefutable
economic advantages of the diesel lead the Santa Fe to order 205
units in 1951, 228 in 1952 and another 222 in 1953. Such capital
expenditures allowed the Santa Fe to claim 100% desielization at
current traffic levels in 1954. Increased traffic required the use
of many of the 135 steam locomotives still on the Jan 1, 1955 roster
that year and again in 1957, but the end of revenue steam on the
Santa Fe was at hand. Ironically, Santa Fe did major reshoppings
of their steam and then put them in storage.
Other new technologies marking the decade of the fifties was the
use of welded rail. Santa Fe laid 39 miles of it in 1954 with plans
for 103 more in 1955, using electrical flash butt welds for the
first time in the US. The fifties marked further installations of
CTC and Automatic Train Stop. During the fifties we also saw more
and more use of boxcars of the 50' variety. Additional technology
marking Santa Fe's future was the transition from ice to mechanical
reefers and experiments with TOFC loads in 1954 between Chicago
and Kansas City. By the end of the decade, TOFC became one of the
bright spots in the Company's freight traffic picture.
The Santa Fe was never a railroad to ignore passenger service,
and the fifties were no exception. First class service has always
been their hallmark and despite a shift away from rail travel on
many railroads, the Santa Fe recommitted itself to providing a quality
travel experience, especially on it's fleet of transcontinental
streamliners, going so far as adding the San Francisco Chief in
1954. During this period, they developed a technology that would
make the transition even to the Amtrak era ... the Hi-Level.
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