Southern Pacific RailRoad Film "Daylighting the Padres' Trail" - 1937 Luxury Passenger Train

Documentary made by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1937 to showcase the "Daylight" passenger train service.

The streamlined Daylight began running in March, 1937, hauled by GS-2 steam locomotives. It was the first of the Daylight series that also included the San Joaquin Daylight, Shasta Daylight, Sacramento Daylight, and Sunbeam. The Coast Daylight continued to run behind steam until January 7, 1955, long after most streamliners had been powered by diesel. On May 1, 1971 Amtrak took over and rerouted their Coast Daylight to Oakland so it could continue north to Portland.

A second train known as the Noon Daylight ran on the same route between 1940 and 1949, with a suspension during World War II. The original Coast Daylight was informally known as the Morning Daylight during this time.

In 1949, the Noon Daylight was replaced by an overnight train known as the Starlight using the same equipment. In 1956, coaches from the Starlight were added to the all-Pullman Lark and the Starlight was discontinued in 1957. Amtrak later revived the train name for its Los Angeles to Seattle service known as the Coast Starlight.


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Pacific_Transportation_Company
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company (reporting mark SP), earlier Southern Pacific Railroad (1865--1885) and Southern Pacific Company (1885--1969), and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or (from the railroad's initials) Espee, was an American railroad.

The railroad was founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring the Central Pacific Railroad by lease. By 1900, the Southern Pacific Company had grown into a major railroad system which incorporated many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad, and which extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, throughout most of California including San Francisco and Sacramento; it also included the Central Pacific Railroad extending eastward across Nevada to Ogden, Utah and had lines reaching north throughout and across Oregon to Portland.

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[kenwilkins1]

Watching these rail documentaries made in the 1930's,40's and 50's is to me a feast of mood

music from the publishers mood music libraries, being a collector of such recordings.

[RathbunDan]

@yankinga What confused me was the P class 4-6-2 steamer that I have has the daylight paint colors and scheme. It is much smaller than the G class and has a small smoke stack. It is the one I have running in my Youtube video. I now have the SP daylight G-4 and a G class SP war baby on my layout. I have a smaller SP from the 1890s with the traditional black paint.

[yankinga]

@RathbunDan You're welcome. The two classes of passenger power that preceded the GS, or "Golden State" (SP's name for the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement) were the P class 4-6-2 Pacifics followed by the Mt class 4-8-2 Mountains. Both groups had multiple subclasses. The GS class began with 10 GS-1 non-streamlined 4-8-4s (4400-4409) and culminated with 10 GS-6 class engines (4460-4469) which were essentially copies of the GS-2s, minus the side skirts and Daylight livery.

[RathbunDan]

@yankinga Thank you, I did not realize that the GS2 and GS3 had the same wheel configuration. I have a model of a S P steamer from the early 1900s that is a 4-6-2 wheel configuration and I thought that was a GS1 or 2. I lived in So Cal from 1955 to 2007. I have been to LA Union station many times and rode round trip on Amtrak to Iowa from Union Station in 2007 on my last visit to Union station. I Lived in Chicago from 1940 to 1955. Took many trips to LA from Chicago as a family.

[yankinga]

@RathbunDan The Daylight was inaugurated in 1937 with GS-2 class locomotives 4410-4416 with 73.5 inch drivers, and that is what is depicted in this documentary. They were superseded by the GS-3 class 4415-4429 with 80 inch drivers in 1938. The 80 inch driver equipped GS-4s 4430-4457 took over the run when they were delivered in 1941. Note the train departing from Los Angeles Central Station along Alameda street. LAUPT wasn't opened until 1939.

[RathbunDan]

The only thing I have to say is, it was not a GS-2 steam locomotive but a GS-4 steam 4-8-4 locomotive built by Lima. A very good history caption on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Thank you for posting this on YouTube.

[BerkeleyGang]

Modelers take note: Steam whistle is NOT used. "Blat" air horn IS. So those of you with sound equiped GS locos - lay off the whistle, and use the horn. Doyle McCormick used the whistle, but he is more interested in smiles from little kids than historically recreating the look and sound of the real Daylight.

[PoetryETrain]

This has been added to our playlists here, and on facebook.

[1958]

Yeah, the canned scores of these old promo films really make you realize just what a talent a guy like Carl Stalling (he of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) was. Any of his cartoon scores was infinitely better than this.

[NN2Blue]

A Classic - if an irritating sound track! :-) Thanks for sharing! Mike