Imagine yourself rolling along in a rail car and staring out into open desert. Suddenly, the car dives into a tunnel and you are plunged into complete darkness for several minutes. When you emerge, you are streaming down the beaches of the California coastline at over 100 miles per hour. That is what the Southern Pacific Daylight would have offered you from 1941 to 1974.
Originating at the Los Angeles Union Terminal, you would travel 470 miles north to San Francisco in around 10 hours. If you remained on the train for the entire journey, you would have seen hot and empty deserts, sandy white beaches, rustic countryside, quaint towns and big cities. During the trip, the GS-4 steam locomotive would have also hit speeds of 110 miles per hour – an astonishing speed for a steam locomotive of the era.
Dubbed “The Most Beautiful Train in the World," the Daylight, in her orange, red and black livery, surely was a striking sight to see speeding along the coast. It’s most famous locomotive, the GS-4, was a prime choice for the job. Made by Lima Locomotive Works in 1941, the GS-4 semi-streamlined locomotive weighed 435 tons, carried 19,600 gallons of water, 4,900 gallons of “Bunker C” fuel, and had a tractive effort of just over 71,000 pounds. This gorgeous locomotive was capable of hitting speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour. Today, one GS class locomotive survives in Portland, Oregon. Locomotive number 4449 still makes special appearances and is often considered the most recognizable locomotive in the world. Knowing this, she was one of only three steam locomotives selected to pull the American Freedom Train in 1975 and 1976.
From their entry into service to the day they were retired, the GS-4s hauled the 20-car Daylight. This contained baggage chair car combine, 12 chair cars, articulated dining car (triple unit, consisting of a coffee shop car, kitchen car and dining room car), tavern car, parlor car and parlor observation car. These cars had some of the most comfortable and luxurious accommodations on the rails: plush leather seats; a fully operable salad bar and restaurant; royal blue carpeting with teak walls; constant pampering by the staff on board; relatively no rules for passenger placement or baggage; vibrant paintings decorating the walls; and even a bar in the observation car. These accommodations were often the deciding factor that attracted a great number of music and movie stars of the day.
Just like all good things in life come to an end, so did the legendary service on the Southern Pacific Daylight.Gradually the royal treatments started to stop. The restaurant car was replaced with an automatic food dispenser (much like a vending machine) and the famous pampering of guests slowly diminished. Even the beloved, GS-class locomotives were replaced with cheaper, more easily maintained Electro-Motive Division (EMD) E7, E8 and E9 class diesel locomotives. This change was so drastic, and the public was so displeased with the change, arrangements were made to run steam lines from the diesel’s steam generator (which provided heat and power to the trailing passenger cars) to a set of steam whistles tucked behind the diesel’s pilot. These whistles, taken off the GS locomotives, provided a slight, old-style comfort to the longtime travelers. Even following such desperate measures, the company was slowly losing interest from the public. Finally, in 1971, after 34 years of superb service to its passengers, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company had to surrender its passenger services to Amtrak. Even to this day, the Daylight route remains one of the most gorgeous and geographically diverse in the United States.
Rail travel has strayed from what it used to be. No more can the luxury and grandeur of the 1940s and '50s be found in public operation today. Rail travel, however, still appeals to many and is certainly an enjoyable method of transportation for the laid back, countryside viewers.
