railroad@ucbvax.ARPA (11/09/84)
From: David.Black@CMU-CS-A.ARPA According to the 12/84 TRAINS the SDP40F's were swapped to Santa Fe by Amtrak [18 units] for 25 CF7's and 18 SW1200's. Amtrak intends to use these units to retire its SW1's and RS3's. (SW1's handle terminal switching in Albany, New York, Phila., and Chicago, RS3's are mostly used on NEC work trains and help in the coach yards.) CF7's are Santa Fe (Cleburne shop) rebuilds of the 'warbonnet' F7's, the SDP40F's go into Santa Fe freight service and will get repainted when Sante Fe gets around to it. On a related note, the Southwest Limited has been renamed the Southwest Chief with Santa Fe's blessing. Amtrak originally called this train the Super Chief/El-Capitan, but Santa Fe officials who rode the train were not impressed with the rolling stock and service. As a result the railroad told Amtrak that if they weren't going to run the train right, then they couldn't use the Santa Fe names. Obviously things have improved with the Superliners.