This car served as a step-down transition between high level cars and standard cars in the same train.

The Budd Company built this "Hi-Level" car for the Santa Fe Railway in 1964. One end door is at high level, the other at standard level. As built, the upper level had 68 seats and an end stairwell leading to the lower-level lavatories, baggage storage, and equipment rooms. When Amtrak took over U.S. passenger operations in 1971, this car became part of their fleet. They added 8 dormitory rooms to the upper level for the train crew, which reduced available seating to 38.

This car served on trains passing through Flagstaff and northern Arizona. After it was retired in 1990, it served at smaller railroads until its donation to the museum in December 2019.

In the mid-1950s, when its passenger trains were getting too long, the Santa Fe ordered innovative new "Hi-Level" cars from the Budd Company. These allowed for greater seating on the upper level by keeping everything else on the lower level. The first batch of 47 cars consisted of coaches, step-downs, diners, and lounges. They served as part of the coach-only (no sleepers) "El Capitan" streamliner between Chicago and Los Angeles. Following the success of that first batch, a second set was ordered in the mid-1960s to serve on the "San Francisco Chief" between Chicago and San Francisco, also running through northern Arizona. This car was part of that second order.

At Amtrak, this car was assigned number 9917, later 39917. As built, this 85-foot car had steam heat and an electrical generator, but Amtrak required 480-volt head-end power (HEP), so it was modified to that new configuration at the Santa Fe′s Topeka Shops.

This car was sold in the 1990s to an excursion train in Cincinnati, then to the "Music City Star" commuter service in Nashville, then to a private individual who donated it to the Arizona Railway Museum. It arrived at the museum′s Tumbleweed Park location by rail on December 26, 2019. Because handbrake controls for passenger cars are located inside the car (which was locked), it was accompanied by a box car so handbrakes would be available from the outside. The box car was then returned to its home rails.

The Amtrak stripes have been removed and the car is being restored to its original Santa Fe appearance.

	11/23/2021 - View of the Amtrak installed 2-person dorm rooms.  These were used by crew members for off-duty rest.
	11/23/2021 - View of coach seating.  Amtrak era, 2-person, dorm rooms for crew at the "step-down" end of the car.
	2/4/2021 - The car has been de-Amtraked.  "Santa Fe" nameplates and number boards reproduced and installed.
	Interior view of the seating.  Amtrak added six, 2-person, dorm rooms at the "step-down" end of the car.
	View of the crew shower/lavatory on the lower level.
	12/26/2019 - Side view of the car as it arrived at ARM.

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