N Scale North American Passenger Cars

In 1971 Amtrak, �America�s Railroad�, was born, and with it was born the responsibility of maintaining America�s passenger services. Taking up among others the Santa Fe�s luxury �Super Chief� and coach class �El Capitan� trains, Amtrak quickly set about attempting to create its own image for these classic stainless trains, adorning them with bold red, white and blue stripes and the Chevron logo (known today as Phase I colors) which would be synonymous with Amtrak service for nearly three decades.

Amtrak continued to operate the �El Capitan� and �Super Chief� trains in combined consists for a number of years before retiring the historic �El Capitan� name, but the legacy of the train�s double decker cars would live on, both in the form of first-class �Pacific Parlour� lounge cars and in the design of the Superliners which would take form and inspiration from the Hi-level car�s revolutionary design.

In the early years of Amtrak service, when the Santa Fe was transitioning to a freight-only business, Amtrak was reliant on leased motive power for pulling its trains. The Santa Fe, wanting to differentiate their equipment that was to be used on the new Amtrak trains, began repainting the F7�s destined for Amtrak use in a new �Yellow Bonnet� scheme. A number of locomotives received this scheme, and although their service on Amtrak was brief many of these Yellow bonnets were returned to the Santa Fe for freight use after 1973.

The return of the F7's also heralded the introduction of Amtrak's first official diesel, the SDP40F. The new EMD SDP40F locomotives, fitted with dual steam generators to provide the cars with hot water and heat and geared for high-speed operation, were perfectly suited to operating the Santa Fe heritage cars.

Rolling Stock:

Amtrak's original Hi-level cars were repainted Santa Fe Budd Hi-Levels; the below cars show the appearance of these cars wearing Amtrak Phase I paint:

Baggage-Dormitory	Step Down Coach	Coach
Diner	Lounge	Baggage