Overview
The brainchild of company president John S. Reed, the Super C (led by a pair of EMD FP45s) made its first run on January 17, 1968, covering the distance in a record-breaking 34½ hours averaging 63.7 miles-per-hour (108.4 km/h). For an added fee of $1,400 per trailer shippers were guaranteed fast delivery.
Santa Fe first experimented with high-speed freight operations on its Illinois Division in late 1966. By year's end, passenger-geared GE U28CG locomotives took 19 piggyback cars from L.A.'s Hobart Yard to Chicago in 61 hours. On June 8, 1967 a joint run using New York Central's Flexi-Van container cars traveled from New York City to Los Angeles in 54 hours, 21 minutes. The train typically carried high-priority items such as auto parts and electronic components; the United States Post Office was a consistent customer.
The size of the Super C varied from one to 15 or 20 cars. In the end, too few shippers chose to pay for 40-hour delivery, especially considering that a standard TOFC load arrived in 15 hours more. The final blow came in 1976 when the Santa Fe lost its mail contract to a joint venture of the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad that could deliver at lower cost on a 50-hour schedule.
The Super C completed its last trip on May 20, 1976.
Read more about this topic: Super C (freight Train)