Dining car crew on the Southwest Chief, 1985.

In this image, the dining car crew of the Southwest Chief poses for a picture. When Amtrak took over this route from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1971, it retained the original Super Chief name. In 1974, Amtrak rebranded it as the Southwest Limited; ten years later, the train gained its current name, the Southwest Chief.

The Superliner dining car shown above was only a few years old at the time this photo was taken. Amtrak began the design process for the new bi-level cars in 1973 and accepted the first car in October 1978. Built to be pulled at speeds up to 100 mph, the cars measure 85 feet long (to the ends of the couplers), approximately 10 feet wide and 16 feet high. The final car in the Superliner I order arrived in 1981—representing a six year, $313 million capital investment on the part of the company.

Photo by Ira Silverman.