The Chief was an American long-distance named passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that ran between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California.

In 1926 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurated the all-Pullman, extra-fare Chief as a supplement to the California Limited between Chicago and Los Angeles.

The quality of dining, drinking and sleeping car comfort The Chief offered at a substantial price was far superior to later Amtrak trains.

The Chief, leaving Chicago in the morning, ran through to Los Angeles in just 1 night, arriving at San Bernardino by 9pm and LA around 11pm.

The Westbound chief transited the Dodge City- Albuquerque section in darkness, missing the tourist vista of other Santa Fe trains.

The last 60-mile run through the Los Angeles suburbs was slow, and many passengers concluded the trip unnoticed at San Bernardino or Pasadena.

But it did not survive the national decline in passenger demand, due to the faster transport provided by the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 which overcame the airlines' previous inferior eight-hour Los Angeles-Chicago flights on propeller DC-6s, DC-7s and Constellations at 300 mph (480 km/h), only 3 miles high with a turbulent and dangerous crossing of the Grand Canyon.

However, the impact of jet aircraft; the exorbitant cost of train crew (who operated under old union rules of a day's pay for each 150 miles traveled while the Chief traveled 450 miles every 8 hours) and the loss in 1967 of most US rail companies' contracts for carriage of first class US mail Postal Department created a crisis for all US railroads.

To Santa Fe's shock, the ICC ruled that the all-stops, common carrier Grand Canyon be continued rather than the Chief, which made its last run on May 15, 1968.

In June 1929 the Chief and Overland Limited schedules dropped to 58 hours each way, leaving Chicago at 11:15 AM/11:50 AM and Los Angeles/San Francisco at 9:45 PM/9:40 PM.