S.P. Coast Daylight 1968-1971

[081552]

Does anyone have some photos of the Coast Daylight from 1968-1971 that they can share? As I child I rode the train between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara to visit my grandparents.

[rcdrye]

The Daylight in that period seemed to be fairly camera-shy.  Most of the time the consist was led by a single SDP45 in the 3200-3209 series, with assists from FP7s and F7Bs as necessary.  Cars were usually "tomato can" smooth side stainless steel with the red stripe on the letterboard, with some ex-Sunset Budd coaches thrown in, except for the baggage car, almost always in dark gray.  Surprisingly, given SPs reputed attitude towards passenger trains, the cars were kept clean and in good repair, with an original Daylight observation car (now smooth-sided in the "tomato can" style) trailing most of the time, and one of the 3600-3606 series dome lounges appearing when traffic was heavy.  Dining service was limited to the Automat Buffet car. On May 1, 1971, the Daylight shifted to Oakland, running four days a week when the through Seattle-San Diego train didn't run.  SP diners reappeared to replace the Automat cars.

By the summer of 1972 the standard "Short train" consist used on days the "Long train" to or from Seattle didn't run had Santa Fe coaches and diner (some pre-WW II) and an SCL ex-SAL round-end lounge-observation. The SDP45s were generally paired. SDP40Fs replaced the SDP45's around 1975.

[KCSfan]

There are numerous excellent youtube videos of the Coast Daylight on the net. However, all of those I've viewed are pre-1968 vintage and depict the train when it was headed by a GS4 4-8-4 not a diesel as it would have been in the time period you specified.

Mark

[rcdrye]

There's a photo of an SP dome lounge on the San Francisco Overland along with parts of two other cars in the tomato can scheme among the Classic Trains "Photos of the day".

http://ctr.trains.com/Online%20Extras/Photo%20of%20the%20Day/2012/07/SP%20homemade%20dome%20car.aspx?page=3&type=&keywords=

[Dragoman]

 

Check out this site:

http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_jose/long_haul/daylight/9899.html

At the bottom, you can go to a Page 2.

wx4.org has a lot of intersting photography and stories relating to SP operations in that era -- there may be more on other parts of that site.