No. 10185 Alco DL-109/110 AB Diesel Locomotive, heading up the "El Capitan" Streamlined Passenger Train

 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad

On February 22, 1938, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad unveiled a new all-coach companion train to the road’s highly acclaimed sleeper streamliner, the “Super Chief” (See No. 10088)—this was the “El Capitan,” running on the same fast twice a week 39 3/4 hour Chicago-Los Angeles schedule (2223 miles), with lightweight streamlined cars from the Budd Company. For power, the Santa Fe turned to General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division and its “E”-series (E-1s) diesel passenger locomotives. The two air-conditioned 5-car consists were an immediate success so that by 1940-41 thrice weekly service was offered in each direction, with added new equipment. The inaugural five cars consisted of a baggage/dormitory/32-seat chair car, two 52-seat chair cars, a lunch counter/diner (counter seating for 14 and a more formal section with six tables for four), and a 50-seat chair/lounge/observation car. All the chair cars seats pivoted to face the windows for better viewing or all the way around so passengers could more easily converse with one another. The “El Capitan” was at the time America’s first and only deluxe (extra-fare) all-chair-car transcontinental train. The new streamlined Budd cars were of shiny fluted stainless steel; there were two sets of cars.
 
In 1940 Santa Fe approached Alco to purchase a complementary locomotive to EMD’s “E”-series units; Alco had hired industrial designer Otto Kuhler in 1938 to design the DL-109 AB 2,000 horsepower per unit diesel locomotives, which could attain speeds of up to 120 mph with their trains, with two units delivered to Santa  Fe in 1941. The “A” unit (DL-109) was numbered No. 50, and the “B” unit (DL-110) No. 50A. They ran on the Santa Fe until 1960.
 
Postwar, in 1948, the “El Capitan”—by now more than ten cars long—was reequipped and service was stepped up to daily, with travel time 39 3/4 hours.  In 1954, dome lounges by Budd were added (called “Big Domes”). Then, in 1956, tall double-deck bi-level cars by the Budd Company became available, changing the look of the train. These new cars (coaches, diners, lounges) were called “Hi-Levels” and were so popular with the traveling public that they became the inspiration for Amtrak’s new fleet of Superliner cars introduced in the 1980s (see No. 10600).  In 1954, the extra-fare was discontinued on the "El Capitan." 
 
The “El Capitan” continued to offer excellent coach service on the Santa Fe through Amtrak’s takeover in 1971, until 1973, when the “El Capitan” name was dropped, and its coaches became part of the “Super Chief" ("El Capitan's" coaches had combined with the all-Pullman "Super Chief" in 1958, with both trains maintaining their identities as one train). 
 
No. 10185 represents an accurate scale model of Alco’s “warbonnet” adorned Santa Fe DL-109 diesel locomotive, with its complementary “B” unit DL-110 (No. 10224), heading up the 7-car streamlined train “El Capitan” (Nos. 10186 & 10225) as it would have been seen Chicago-Los Angeles in 1941 to the early 1950s. It is by MTH in “0" gauge.
 
Alco built 74 DL-109 “A” unit locomotives and 4 DL-110 “B” unit boosters 1940-1945 for nine American railroads, including the single pair for the Santa Fe. By far the largest purchaser was the New Haven railroad, which took delivery of 60 DL-109 “A” units for freight and passenger service (see No. 10438).