I have a question about passenger trains running in multiple sections. How far apart did sections follow each other time-wise? If you had a ticket for travel on a train that was in sections, did your ticket distinguish what section you would travel on? Thanks for any info.
Practically speaking, sections would run as close together as would constitute safe and prudent practice for the era -- sometimes that was pretty close. I remember a number of anecdotes where passengers on the observation platform could see the headlight and even some details of the following locomotive (this at 80mph!)
The basic idea (Hungerford's book on the Century has some details, if I remember correctly) was that your accommodation determined what 'section' you'd be directed to, and this was by assigned car number (this being different from the physical car number painted on the car). I do not know if passengers were told (or could choose) whether they could arrive a little 'later' trading off against a few minutes' earlier arrival by being on a given section -- on the Century, the official position was that any section "was" the Century and (probably in part to nip any complaints about being in a 'later train' in the bud) I think there was no official way to prioritize being put on the first section. Although there were probably 'other ways' to assure that...
There were some cases, like the advance Commodore Vanderbilt, where 'sections' of a train could be thought of as operating before the 'main sailing time' to provide an effectively quicker overnight service, or perhaps a shorter effective overall travel time. At least some of this was "marketing" to make name recognition of a famous train 'brand' apply to a different time slot. I do not know whether or not passengers on one of these trains traded off amenities in order to achieve a quicker arrival at destination, or whether the train handling was the same (e.g. faster peak speeds to make up for more mail-and-express handling).
Where trains were operated by timetable and train orders, a "train" included everything from the engine of the first section (displaying green flags/lights if sections following) to the markers on the rear of the last section. The engine leading the last section did not display green. On some western roads (SP, UP) the train number was displayed in the number boards, led by a section identifer, so 1-27 and 2-27 would be sections of the westbound Overland Limited. Extras would be identified by an "X" plus the engine number ( X4294 )
When a schedule was running in two or more sections, each section was a "train" by the rulebook definition.
When a train ran in sections, your ticket would indicat that you were in a specific car number. That number would define which section you were in. If you were on car number 2505 and it was an 11 bedroom car, you were in the first train #25. If your ticket indicated you were in car 2525, you might be in the second or third train #25. Each section of the 20th Century had the same compliment of dining, lounge and observation cars. But the sleepers could vary by demand. Only one section had the mail car however.
My most frequent direct experience of multiple section operation was on the pre-1967 DENVER ZEPHYR and on the late 1960s CITY OF LOS ANGELES/CHALLENGER. The DZ frequently ran in two sections--usually a coach section with the slumbercoach economy sleepers and a First Class Pullman section that sometimes also rated a few coaches. Checking car numbers was vital on these days. This was routine on most weekends, college semester changes and at holiday periods until Louis Menk became CB&Q President and stopped the practice despite the Q's moderately profitable passenger operation. (See Fred Frailey's "Twilight of the Great Trains" for an amazing Menk story related to his insistence on downgrades of profitable passenger services).
On the UP the public timetable by 1965 showed seperate listings (with identical operating times) for the CITY OF LOS ANGELES and the (previously) all coach CHALLENGER, but at least through the summer of 1967 seperate sections ran virtually daily in July and August and at the Christmas holidays. Here uniquely both sections usually had some coaches, but the CHALLENGER no Pullmans. The trains generally ran almost on each other's markers, typically spaced two blocks/7-10 minutes apart.
The Santa Fe's SUPER CHIEF/EL CAPITAN did the same, at least in summer and at Christmas, through the end of the summer of 1967 and even on a few dates in 1968. Here too the theoretically "All Pullman" SUPER CHIEF section would rate a few coaches and a seperate diner and lounge for those coaches, with the EL CAPITAN being entirely a High-Level coach/diner/lounge run. Once again the same times were shown in the public timetable, but the two actually chased each other.
On both the CITY OF LOS ANGELES and the SUPER CHIEF coach passengers had to carefully note car numbers to make sure they were not (respecdtively) actually on the CHALLENGER or EL CAP sections.
Carl Fowler
President (Retired)
Rail Travel Center/Rail Travel Adventures
I would adjust Carl's recollections of the U.P. separate sections (above) just slightly.
The all-coach Chicago-L.A. Challenger had been absorbed into the City of L.A. years before and showed the same numbers (103-104) as well as schedule. Why U.P. continued to show it separately in the timetable is a mystery -- sentiment? (The economy-priced Challenger was Averill Harriman's first bold effort to revitalize a moribund U.P. passenger service.)
Also running combined with 103-104, between Chicago and Ogden, were Nos. 101-102, the City of San Francisco. It was these Cities trains (L.A. and S.F.) that split into 2 sections in the summertime, one all-Pullman and the other all-coach, with both sections having cars for both cities. The First (all-Pullman) Section had the RPO and mail cars.
The last summer requiring two sections was 1967.
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