DAYLIGHT
The Coast Daylight was a passenger train run by the Southern Pacific Railroad between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. The train ran on SP's coast line tracks which was considered to be the most beautiful route of all their passenger trains. The passenger cars and locomotive were painted red, orange, and black. The colors were so striking against the California coastline that the train was often called the "Most Beautiful Train in the World". The streamlined Daylight began running on March 21, 1937. Initially 12 Pullman passenger cars were hauled by GS-2 steam locomotives. Later, more passenger cars and newer steam engines were added as ridership increased. A southbound train in San Francisco (Train 98) and a northbound train in Los Angeles (Train 99) would leave at the same time. Both would depart at 8:15 am and arrive at their destination at 6:00 pm, traveling 471 miles in 9 hours 45 minutes. After the inaugural run, the trains became very popular and ridership skyrocketed. Within a few years the Coast Daylight had the highest ridership numbers in the country. Almost every day the trains operated at full capacity. SP placed an order for more streamlined cars and when they received the new equipment in 1940 they turned the Coast Daylight into the Morning Daylight which ran with 14 cars. The older 1937 cars from the Coast Daylight became the mid-day train called the Noon Daylight. Continue reading spdaylight.net/...
COMMUTERS
The Southern Pacific ran commuter trains along the peninsula route (San Francisco to San Jose) from the 1890’s until the service was taken over by Caltrain in 1980. SP operated about 24 round trip commutes on weekdays to fast schedules. Reliable locomotives with fast acceleration were required. The 60’ Harriman design coaches were built in 1911 by Pullman to common standards for all the Harriman owned railroads. They had arched roofs, reversible swing-over seats, and sat 68 passengers. The dates for the commute train pictured extend from 1946, when “Southern Pacific” replaced “Southern Pacific Lines” on cars and locomotives, until 1956 when the gallery commuter cars were introduced and diesel locomotives had replaced steam. Trains had from 2 to 8 cars depending on demand and time of day. A fleet of 4-6-2 Pacifics was the backbone of the commuter locomotive pool, but 4-8-2 mountains and 4-8-4 GS northerns were sometimes assigned, especially after they were replaced by diesels on SPs long distance trains and re-assigned to commuter service to replace aging Pacifics. Southern Pacific also purchased 78’ (72’ inside space) coaches in 1923-27 from Pullman Standard. Their appearance with the arched roof was very similar to the Harriman design. A total of 111 of these 96-passenger coaches were purchased by the SP. The 78’ coaches were used on commuter trains even after the gallery cars arrived in 1955, and were more numerous on trains than the 60’ coaches in the 1940s and 1950s. The 78’ coach has smaller, squarish windows placed close together, and there are about twice as many as on the 60’ coach.
MAIL TRAIN
As fundamental institutions in American society, the U.S. Mail's Railway Post Office and the Railway Express Agency's baggage car business died in 1967, although they weren't officially pronounced dead until years later - 1975 for REA and 1977 for the RPO. In the fall of '67, the Postal Service cancelled most of its railroad mail contracts, thereby yanking governmental life support on hundreds of money-losing or marginally-profitable passenger runs. On the Coast Route, loss of the RPO after September 30 was last straw for the Lark, which succcumbed the following spring.
PFE - PACIFIC FRUIT EXPRESS
Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) was a joint Union Pacific/Southern Pacific venture which started in 1906. Until the UP merger with the Western Pacific in 1982, the SP and UP moved PFE reefers from the Roseville and Salinas California regions to Chicago, and cities on the east coast. Once the UP/WP merger was completed, the Union Pacific was able to move the reefers almost entirely over their own steel. The UP developed a marketing term for the train, calling it the "Salad Bowl Express", a priority train of perishable goods from California to Chicago. By the mid-1980's, the UP was struggling to compete with trucking companies for the business, however, the train still runs today with more modern mechanical reefers.
freight trains, passenger trains, commuter trains, Coast Mail Train, steam locomotives, Varsona, Peninsula Route, LARK, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, California, rail road.
Негізгі бет Southern Pacific Railroad, San Jose operations
Пікірлер: 7