The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. The Budd Company designed the car in the 1950s for use on the El Capitan, a coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago.
About Hi-Level in brief
The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. The Budd Company designed the car in the 1950s for use on the El Capitan, a coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago. Amtrak inherited the entire fleet in 1971 and continued to use the equipment on its western routes. In 1979, the first Superliners, based on the Hi- level concept although built by Pullman-Standard, entered service. Amtrak gradually retired most of its Hi-levels in the 1990s as more Superliners became available. Five lounges, dubbed Pacific Parlour Cars, provided first-class lounge service on the Coast Starlight until their retirement in 2018. The train ran on the Santa Fe’s main line between Chicago and Los Angeles. Unusually for streamliners of the period, the ElCapitan carried coaches only, and had no sleeping cars. The design was inspired by two recent developments in railroading: the dome car, employed in intercity routes in the western United States, and bileVEL commuter cars operating in the Chicago area. The first two prototype coaches entered service in 1954 and were immediately successful. A formal christening took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 8, on the July 15, 1956, with duke and duke attendance. The new train ran 16 cars, carried 438 people and weighed 1,066 tons, and carried 130 additional additional tons.
Fred Gurley’s USD 13 million got Santa Fe a 13-car train that carried 130 extra people and carried 110 tons less … A regular revenue service began on July 15. As Fred Frailey explained: “The new train was far more efficient than its predecessor.. The new El Capitans ran far more efficiently than its predecessors. As a conventional conventional train ran 15 cars, the new train carried 16 cars,. The new trains were much more comfortable and even above 90 mph”. Siprington wrote that he thought the equipment was ‘definitely sold on the high angle and that it was even more comfortable on every high angle in every angle that it sold’ The cars went into regular service in 1956. A press trip took place between Washington, D. C. and Pittsburgh on June 16, 1956,. using the route of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Santa Fe exhibited the equipment throughout the U.S. during June. during early July. The project cost USD 13 million. A. Regular revenue service in July and August of that year began on the Alburquerque in New Mexico and Albuquerque in Albuquerque in July of the same year. The cars were sold for $1,000 each. The Santa Fe and Budd considered but never created a sleeping car. Budd built sufficient coaches, dining cars,. and lounge Cars to fully equip the Elcapitan, with additional coaches seeing use on the San Francisco Chief.
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This page is based on the article Hi-Level published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 11, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
