Super Chief
The Santa Fe intended the "Super Chief" to be the latest in a long line of luxury Chicago–Los Angeles trains wedded to the latest in railroad technology. In the 1930s these included air conditioning, lightweight all-metal construction, and diesel locomotion. In August 1935 the General Motors Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) delivered two blunt-nosed diesel-electric units Nos. 1 and 1A, intended to pull the "Super Chief". Aside from an ALCO HH600 switcher at Dearborn Station in Chicago, they were the Santa Fe's first diesel-electrics and the first such trains intended for passenger service. The locomotives made their first test run with a set of Pullman cars and a dynamometer car in September 1935. The first "Super Chief" operated on May 12, 1936, with the diesels pulling air-conditioned heavyweight Pullman cars.