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• Overland Limited
• Overland Flyer

The Overland Limited leaving 16th Street Station, Oakland, in 1906
Overview
First service	November 13, 1887 (1887-11-13)
Last service	1963 (1963)
Former operator(s)	Union Pacific Railroad Southern Pacific Railroad Milwaukee Road Chicago and North Western Railway

The Overland Limited (also known at various times as the Overland Flyer, San Francisco Overland Limited, San Francisco Overland and often simply as the Overland) was a named passenger train which for much of its history was jointly operated by three railroads on the Overland Route between San Francisco and Chicago. The Southern Pacific Railroad handled the train west of Ogden, Utah, the Union Pacific Railroad between Ogden and Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa, and east of the Missouri River to Chicago it was operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway as well by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road") for a few years starting in 1905.

The named service on this route began on the UP as the Overland Flyer (1887–96), and the SP began its own separate named Overland Limited train in 1899. The Overland name disappeared on C&NW's portion of the route on October 30, 1955, from the UP in 1956, and finally ended on the SP as a separate year-round train on July 16, 1962 when that service was consolidated with the City of San Francisco.

History

The first transcontinental rail service on the Overland Route between the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific on the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa via Ogden, Utah (CPRR) and Sacramento (WPRR/CPRR) to the San Francisco Bay at the Oakland Wharf was opened in 1869. At that time just one daily passenger express train ran in each direction taking 102 hours to cover that 1,912 mile route. The fare from Council Bluffs to Sacramento (the end of the Central Pacific Railroad proper) was $134.50, and from Chicago $22.00 more. During the entire decade of the 1870's and much of the 1880s the schedule was shortened by only 3 hours and service was not improved to any major extent until November 13, 1887 when the Overland Flyer was put into service by the UP connecting to SP's Pacific Express (westbound) and Atlantic Express (eastbound) at Ogden. Between Chicago and Council Bluffs connecting service was provided by the Chicago and North Western.

The name Overland had its roots in the West: Bret Harte, chronicler of the California Gold Rush, had founded a monthly literary magazine named the Overland Monthly in 1868 while previously various stagecoach companies had incorporated "Overland" into their names. The Overland was the subject of an early train documentary film short in 1901. For a period of years in the early Twentieth Century beginning in 1905 the Overland used the Milwaukee Road between Chicago and Council Bluffs. Lucius Beebe contends that the Union Pacific always intended this as a temporary measure to coerce better performance from the Chicago and North Western, and in fact a section of the Overland continued to use the C&NW during the period.

The introduction of the then five-times-a-month dieselized streamliner City of San Francisco in 1936 began the relegation the Overland to secondary status on the Overland Route. By January, 1955 the train was a shell of its former self, carrying only two Chicago–Oakland through cars. While the train ceased operation on the C&NW on October 30, 1955 and its name was dropped by UP in 1956, San Francisco Overland for trains 27 and 28 was retained by the SP between San Francisco and Ogden until that last vestige of that road's original 1899 Overland Limited as a separate named train providing year-round daily service ended on July 16, 1962. On that date the ICC's recent order (Docket #21946) approving of its discontinuation and consolidation with the City of San Francisco went into effect and new Overland Route schedules were instituted. The Overland continued only as titular seasonal summer and holiday service consolidated with the City of San Francisco except when run as an occasional second section if heavy seasonal traffic warranted until January 2, 1964 after which the Overland name disappeared forever from the route. The SP declined to revive the train's name in 1964 amid some controversy.

Name

The Overland Limited 's formal name varied during its long career although it was generally referred to colloquially as the Overland regardless of whatever other nouns might be attached. The Union Pacific introduced the Overland Flyer on November 13,1887 and renamed it the Overland Limited on November 17, 1895. On December 5, 1888 the SP joined with the UP to introduce its first deluxe transcontinental service, the weekly Golden Gate Special, between San Francisco/Oakland via Ogden to Council Bluffs where passengers connected with the C&NW's trains 1 and 2 to and from Chicago although that extravagant extra-fare train was dropped after just five months. The cost for travel between San Francisco and Council Bluffs on this train was $60 for the First Class passage and $40 in extra fare for sleeping accommodations and meals in the dining car.

For the next decade the Overland's connection at Ogden to and from San Francisco was with the eastbound Atlantic Express and westbound Pacific Express until October 15, 1899 when the SP inaugurated its own new Overland Limited (TR1&2) which became the UP's identically named Ogden to Omaha/Council Bluffs train providing 71-hour through service. The SP described its new first class train as "An Elegant Solid Vestibuled Train of Composite Car, with library, Smoking Parlor, Buffet, etc. Luxurious Double Drawing-room Sleeping Cars, Dining Car. The Fastest Overland service in the history of transcontinental railroading." On January 1, 1913 the Overland Limited became an extra-fare ($10) train when it further cut its running time from 68 to 64 hours and added amenities such as a barber, manicurist, stenographer, bath, etc. Known variously as both the Overland Limited and San Francisco Overland Limited for the next 32 years, on May 31, 1931 the service again became the San Francisco Overland Limited when its train numbers changed from "1 and 2" to "27 and 28", and on July 10, 1947 the designation "Limited" was dropped from the name altogether.

Equipment

With the Depression raging, the previously all-Pullman Overland began to carry chair cars in 1931, a service which lasted through much of the rest of that decade. In 1941–42 the Pullman-Standard Company built two groups (60 "6-6-4" and 18 "4-1-4") of streamlined light-weight sleeping cars for the UP (54), SP (13) and C&NW (11) and three groups totaling 70 similar style head-end and chair cars for the UP for use on all their trains servicing their Overland Routes to the west coast from Los Angeles to Seattle. To meet the tripling of military and civilian passenger traffic during the WWII years the consists on the again all-Pullman San Francisco Overland Limited ballooned to as many as 20 cars and often ran in multiple daily sections. Chair car service returned to the train in 1946 and it became all streamlined by 1951 including a dome car by 1955. In March 1952, toward the end of its existence as an independent through train, the San Francisco Overland carried Chicago–San Francisco sleepers, a New York–San Francisco sleeper conveyed on alternating days by the New York Central Railroad's Wolverine and the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pennsylvania Limited, and a summer-only sleeper for Yellowstone Park conveyed to the Idahoan at Green River, Wyoming.

The Southern Pacific introduced a "Hamburger Grill" car between Oakland and Ogden on October 24, 1954. The SP was bullish, saying the burgers were among "the finest meat products of Southern Pacific territory." Lucius Beebe was unimpressed, noting the car, and the coffee-shop car which replaced it, as part of the decline of the train.

Route diagrams

See also

• Overland Limited of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
• Passenger train service on the Union Pacific Railroad

Notes

1. Executive Order of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, Fixing the Point of Commencement of the Pacific Railroad at Council Bluffs, Iowa. dated March 7, 1864. (38th Congress, 1st Session SENATE Ex. Doc. No. 27)
2. "Travellers' Official Guide of Railways an Steam Navigation Lines in the United States and Canada", June, 1870 pp. 215-16
3. Klink, William L. "Modern Passenger Schedules and Their Development in Railway Transportation". University of Illinois, College of Commerce and Business Administration. 1918. p. 19
4. Beebe 1963, p. 28
5. Beebe 1963, p. 27
6. IMDB has "1901" and another short 1901, however cf. John Huntley Railways in the cinema 1969 p.89 "THE SHORT FILM In addition to films like "Darlington Centenary" and "Night Mail" (see pages 47 and 52) the railways of the world have inspired countless documentary, instructional, factual, poetic, compilation and amateur films. ...Union Pacific Overland Limited (Edison, 1902)"
7. Beebe 1963, p. 31
8. Beebe 1963, p. 50
9. "Now ... Service to all the West". The Milwaukee Road Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 7. October, 1955. pp. 4-6
10. THE OFFICIAL GUIDE of RAILWAYS of the UNITED STATES, May, 1962, 94th year, No. 12, p. 658
11. Signor 1985 p. 276
12. Beebe 1963 p. 51
13. Solomon 2001 p. 71
14. ICC Financial Docket No. 21946 (Filed February 5, 1962, decided July 6, 1962, served July 16, 1962)
15. Southern Pacific Overland Route Time Tables (Form 4), July 16, 1962
16. Southern Pacific Passenger Train Schedules, October 28, 1962, p. 6, Table 17
17. THE OFFICIAL GUIDE of RAILWAYS of the UNITED STATES, October, 1962, 95th year, No. 5, p. 654
18. "Railroad Dispute". Daily Independent Journal. July 22, 1964. p. 2. Retrieved August 30, 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
19. "In the Matter of the Unauthorized Discontinuance by SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY of passenger Trains Nos. 27 and 28, the "Overland" Public Utilities Commission of the State of California, Case #7955 (Filed July 21, 1964), Decision #70568 and Order, April 12, 1966
20. Solomon 2000 p. 74
21. Beebe 1963 p. 13
22. THE OFFICIAL GUIDE of the RAILWAY and STEAM NAVIGATION LINES of the UNITED STATES and CANADA New York: National Railway Publication Co. 21st year, No. 8. January, 1889. p. 355
23. THE OFFICIAL GUIDE January, 1889. p. 328
24. "The Golden Gate Special to be discontinued after the 12th of May", The Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 61, Number 56, April 29, 1889, p. 1
25. "The Finest Train in the World: The Golden Gate Special." Union Pacific Railway, Passenger Department (1888)
26. "The Golden Gate Special", UP 8-panel folding brochure, December, 1888
27. SP Overland Limited Advertisement The San Francisco Call, November, 1899
28. The Straits Times, November 19, 1912, p. 9
29. Signor 1985 p. 276
30. Signor 1985 p. 276
31. Wayner 1972 pp. 156-7
32. Welsh 2008, p. 85
33. Beebe 1963, p. 138
34. San Francisco Overland Limited Consists September 15, 1945
35. "Southern Pacific Equipment Registers" #14 (June 2, 1946); #15 (February 1, 1955)
36. Solomon 2007 p. 67
37. Maiken 1989, p. 339
38. "S.P. Glorifying Hamburger With New-Style Car". Nevada State Journal. October 24, 1954. p. 9. Retrieved August 30, 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
39. Beebe 1963, p. 51

References

• Beebe, Lucius Morris (1963). The Overland Limited. Howell-North Books. ISBN 0831070382. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maiken, Peter T. (1989). Night Trains: The Pullman System in the Golden Years of American Rail Travel. Chicago: Lakme Press. ISBN 0-9621-480-0-8. OCLC 20461978. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Signor, John (1985) DONNER PASS Southern Pacific's Sierra Crossing. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books
• Solomon, Brian (2000). Union Pacific Railroad. Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI. ISBN 0-7603-0756-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Solomon, Brian (2007) Southern Pacific Railroad. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. ISBN-10: 0760329311
• Welsh, Joe; Bill Howes (2004). Travel by Pullman: a century of service. Saint Paul, MN: MBI. ISBN 0760318573. OCLC 56634363. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Welsh, Joe (2008). Union Pacific's Streamliners. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-2534-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

v t e Passenger trains of the Southern Pacific
Named trains	Acadian Apache Argonaut Arizona Limited Beaver Californian Cascade Coaster Del Monte El Yaqui Golden Rocket Golden State Imperial Klamath Lark Oregon & California Express Oregonian Owl Limited Peninsula Commute Rogue River Sunbeam Sunset Limited Suntan Special Tonopah Express West Coast
Daylights	Coast Daylight Daylight Limited Morning Daylight Noon Daylight Sacramento Daylight San Joaquin Daylight Shasta Daylight
Overland Route	Challenger City of San Francisco San Francisco Challenger San Francisco Overland Pacific Limited Gold Coast Saint Louis Express

• Named passenger trains of the United States
• Passenger trains of the Chicago and North Western Railway
• Passenger trains of the Milwaukee Road
• Passenger trains of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company
• Passenger trains of the Union Pacific Railroad
• Railway services discontinued in 1963
• Railway services introduced in 1887