Wilbur
Johnson
The
Santa Fe added the Tulsan to its Kansas City-Tulsa trains
on December 10, 1939. I rode the initial run southbound on
that date from Bartlesville to Tulsa. It had made an exhibition
run the previous day, then began service the next morning
leaving Tulsa at 8:40 a.m. and arriving in Kansas City at
1:40 p.m. In later years, it changed to a 7:05 a.m. departure
and arrived at Kansas City a little after noon. It stayed
on this schedule until May 1971, when Amtrak came into existence,
despite numerous efforts on the part of the Santa Fe to scuttle
it. At the time of the efforts to discontinue it, over 1,000
people appeared at a hearing in Chanute, Kansas to protest.
One of the greatest services the Tulsan provided was enabling
people in northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas to
see their doctors and specialists in Kansas City, affording
them an early afternoon appointment, then boarding the southbound
Tulsan at 5 p.m. for the return trip.
At its inception, the train consisted
of three chair cars, a diner, and the round-end lounge car
that operated between Tulsa and Chicago. One of the chair
cars was a through Tulsa-Chicago coach. Prior to its being
included in the schedule, the Santa Fe had the day trains,
No. 49 and 50, the Oil Flyers, and the overnight trains, No.
47 known as the Southern Kansas-Eastern Oklahoma Express,
and No. 48 from Tulsa known as the Kansas City Express.
Above: Santa Fe Tulsan (Train
No. 212) departing Bartlesville, OK for Kansas City, Mo. in
1941.
For the most part, the Oil Flyers
were locals, with No. 49 leaving Kansas City at 8:30 a.m.,
arriving in Tulsa about 3:34 p.m. and No. 50 departing Tulsa
at 12:30 p.m. and arriving in Kansas City about 8 p.m. The
advent of Nos. 211-212 not only improved the service on the
Kansas City-Tulsa schedule, but also brought about a change
in the schedule on No. 50. Instead of a 12:30 p.m. departure,
it now departed Tulsa at 4 p.m., and with a through Tulsa-Chicago
sleeper, a business man could spend the entire work day in
Tulsa, get a good night’s rest, and arrive in Chicago at 8
a.m. in time for a full work day there.
In August 1940, the Santa Fe
discontinued No. 48 and 49, and at that time the RPO-baggage
car was added to the consist of Nos. 211-212. Also at that
time No. 47 became the Oil Flyer and in later years, the northbound
Oil Flyer was changed from No. 50 to 48. The Oil Flyers lasted
until 1968 and were discontinued because the Post Office Department
believed that sectional service centers were better off handling
the mail than RPO’s. When the Santa Fe instituted the Texas
Chief in the late 1940s, the Chicago-Tulsa sleeper was included
in its consist. It had a 6 pm departure from Chicago, with
a 1:30 a.m. arrival in Kansas City. This necessitated a 2
a.m. departure for the Oil Flyer and 8:30 a.m. arrival in
Tulsa, much to a business man’s liking. I was on No. 15, the
Texas Chief, coming out of Chicago one evening and remarked
to the Pullman conductor that I was surprised to see the Tulsa
car so well patronized. He replied, “Oh, this is the best
car on the train.” With Bartlesville being the headquarters
of a major oil company, there was nearly as much Bartlesville
business as there was Tulsa patronage.
When the Frisco discontinued
passenger service between Kansas City and Tulsa in the late
1950s, the schedule of No. 47 had to be changed to a 11:59
departure from Kansas City for mail contract purposes. That
necessitated changing the departure on the Chicago-Tulsa sleeper
from 6:00 p.m. to 3:15 for the San Francisco Chief, and the
sleeper never did well after that. In the mid-1960s, the Santa
Fe discontinued the sleeper. In 1966, the Chamber of Commerce
in Tulsa and the Santa Fe got together and agreed to revive
the Tulsa-Chicago sleeper, and at the same time, add a lounge-diner
back into the consist. I moved from Tulsa to Houston in June
1966 but my Oklahoma correspondents told me the sleeper was
doing a good business. Then came the dreadful announcement
in August 1967 that RPO cars were being discontinued, and
that finished not only the sleeper, but also the Tulsa-Chicago
coach on Nos. 211 and 212. This caused Chicago passengers
from train No. 212 to have to walk across the platform in
Kansas City to board the Grand Canyon Limited.
One of the greatest delights
in my lifetime came in 1965 when the Santa Fe applied to the
ICC to discontinue the Oil Flyers. I testified at the Tulsa
hearing, at the Mayo Hotel, practically calling the Santa
Fe’s Eastern Division Superintendent a liar because he testified
that people were not patronizing the “fine equipment” on the
two trains. After departing the Mayo that evening, I happened
to run into the ICC examiner who had conducted the hearing.
In all sincerity I told him that I felt as though he had handled
the hearing fairly and impartially. I always wondered if that
happenstance meeting might have contributed to the ICC ruling
that the Santa Fe had to run the trains for at least one more
year. It was during the next year that Santa Fe reinstated
the aforementioned sleeper and Lounge-diner
on the Oil Flyers.
Below: Santa Fe
Tulsan (Train No. 212) is shown eastbound with F7 diesel No.
30 and an unidentified booster unit on July 4, 1969. By this
time the diner had been discontinued and coffee-cart service
was offered instead.
I
I have always felt that the Santa Fe made an honest effort
to stay in the passenger business, but never could understand
their total disdain for the Tulsa trains by making moves that
discouraged the public from using these trains.
