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| * July 1941: A second set of equipment enters service, allowing departures ten times per month thus replacing the short lived steam powered all-Pullman streamline ''Forty-Niner'' service that had operated five times a month between Chicago and San Francisco from July 8, 1937 to July 27, 1941.<ref>Heath 1945 p. 39</ref> | * July 1941: A second set of equipment enters service, allowing departures ten times per month thus replacing the short lived steam powered all-Pullman streamline ''Forty-Niner'' service that had operated five times a month between Chicago and San Francisco from July 8, 1937 to July 27, 1941.<ref>Heath 1945 p. 39</ref> | ||
| * 1946: Service increased to thrice weekly on October 1, 1946. | * 1946: Service increased to thrice weekly on October 1, 1946. | ||
| * 1947: Train became daily on September 1, 1947 when a fourth train set was added to support daily operation in both directions of the ''City's'' 39-and-a-half-hour service thus finally supplanting ''The Overland'' as the only train providing premium daily service between Chicago and San Francisco on the Overland Route.<ref>Beebe, Lucius Morris ''The Overland Limited''. |
* 1947: Train became daily on September 1, 1947 when a fourth train set was added to support daily operation in both directions of the ''City's'' 39-and-a-half-hour service thus finally supplanting ''The Overland'' as the only train providing premium daily service between Chicago and San Francisco on the Overland Route.<ref>Beebe, Lucius Morris ''The Overland Limited''. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books (1963) p. 50.</ref><ref>Heath 1945 p. 39</ref> | ||
| * January 13, 1952: The ''City of San Francisco'' is caught in a blizzard and remains stuck for days. The incident was one inspiration for ] book, ]. | * January 13, 1952: The ''City of San Francisco'' is caught in a blizzard and remains stuck for days. The incident was one inspiration for ] book, ]. | ||
| * May 1, 1971: UP ends the ''City of San Francisco'' train as ] takes over long-distance passenger operations in the United States; Amtrak retains the name until 1972. | * May 1, 1971: UP ends the ''City of San Francisco'' train as ] takes over long-distance passenger operations in the United States; Amtrak retains the name until 1972. | ||
| <!-- Commented out because image was deleted: ] --> | <!-- Commented out because image was deleted: ] --> | ||
| ==Other railroad uses of the name ''City of San Francisco''== | ==Other railroad uses of the name ''City of San Francisco''== | ||
Revision as of 10:16, 25 February 2015
The City of San Francisco was a streamlined passenger train on the Chicago and North Western Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California, with a ferry connection to San Francisco. It was the pride of the Southern Pacific fleet, providing crack service from Chicago to San Francisco in 1936 of 39 hr 45 min each way.
On August 12, 1939 the train derailed while crossing a bridge near Carlin, Nevada, killing 24 and injuring 121. The wreck appeared to have been caused by sabotage, but despite a major manhunt, offers of reward, and years of investigation by SP, the case remains unsolved.
Competing streamlined passenger trains were, starting in 1949, the California Zephyr on the Western Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroads, and starting in 1954, the San Francisco Chief on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As with the City of Los Angeles, many of the train's cars bore the names of locales around its namesake city, including Mission Dolores, the nickname given to San Francisco's Mission San Francisco de Asís.
The City of San Francisco is remembered for the blizzard in the Sierra Nevada that trapped the train for six days in January 1952 at 39°19′34″N 120°35′35″W / 39.3262°N 120.593°W / 39.3262; -120.593 on Donner Pass in California. Snowdrifts from 160 km/h (100 mph) winds blocked the train, burying it in 12 feet of snow and stranding it from January 13 to January 19. The event made international headlines. In the effort to reach the train, the railroad's snow-clearing equipment and snow-blowing rotary plows became frozen to the tracks. Hundreds of workers and volunteers, including Georg Gärtner, using snowplows, tractors and manpower came to the rescue by clearing nearby Highway 40 to reach the train. The 196 passengers and 20 crewmembers were evacuated within 72 hours, on foot to vehicles that carried them the few highway miles to Nyack Lodge. The train itself was extricated several days later.
In October 1955 the Milwaukee Road replaced the Chicago and North Western between Chicago and Omaha; in 1960 the City of San Francisco was combined with the City of Los Angeles east of Ogden. A May 1969 timetable is available online.
History
Timeline
- 1936: The City of San Francisco makes its first run between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California as streamline through service operated with a dedicated, diesel-electric powered articulated 11-unit consist.
- 1938: Upgraded on January 2, 1938 to a quarter-mile long 17-unit consist made up of a three-part 6,000 h.p. diesel-electric power set built by the Electro-Motive Corporation and 14 aluminum-alloy girder-type baggage-dormitory, diner, lounge, sleepers, and observation cars. Frequency remained at five trips per month each way.
- August 12, 1939: Sabotaged track sends the City of San Francisco flying off a bridge in the Nevada desert; two dozen passengers and crew members are killed and many more injured, and five cars are destroyed.
- July 1941: A second set of equipment enters service, allowing departures ten times per month thus replacing the short lived steam powered all-Pullman streamline Forty-Niner service that had operated five times a month between Chicago and San Francisco from July 8, 1937 to July 27, 1941.
- 1946: Service increased to thrice weekly on October 1, 1946.
- 1947: Train became daily on September 1, 1947 when a fourth train set was added to support daily operation in both directions of the City's 39-and-a-half-hour service thus finally supplanting The Overland as the only train providing premium daily service between Chicago and San Francisco on the Overland Route.
- January 13, 1952: The City of San Francisco is caught in a blizzard and remains stuck for days. The incident was one inspiration for Railway series book, The Twin Engines.
- May 1, 1971: UP ends the City of San Francisco train as Amtrak takes over long-distance passenger operations in the United States; Amtrak retains the name until 1972.
Other railroad uses of the name City of San Francisco
The City of San Francisco name has been applied to a 10/6 sleeping car built by Pullman Standard in the early 1950s. The car is now owned by the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad and operates on the line's dinner and first class trains. Union Pacific itself has a dome lounge car used on excursion and executive trains which carries the "City of San Francisco" name.
See also
- Passenger train service on the Chicago and North Western Railway
- Passenger train service on the Milwaukee Road
- Passenger train service on the Southern Pacific Railroad
- Passenger train service on the Union Pacific Railroad
References
- Schafer, Mike; Welsh, Joe (1997). Classic American Streamliners. Osceola, Wisconsin: MotorBooks International. ISBN 978-0-7603-0377-1.
- Solomon, Brian (2000). Union Pacific Railroad. Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI. ISBN 0-7603-0756-3.
- DeNevi, Don. "Tragic Train: The City of San Francisco -- The Development and Historic Wreck of a Streamliner." (1979, Superior Publishing). ISBN 0875645259.
- http://www2.gbcnv.edu/howh/CitySF.html
- http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track8/citysanfran196906.html
- Heath, Erle Seventy-Five Years of Progress: Historical Sketch of the Southern Pacific (1945) San Francisco: Southern Pacific Railroad. p.39
- A railroad train "consist" is defined by 49 CFR §210.7 as "one or more locomotives coupled to a rail car or rail cars." Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Parts 200 to 299, Transportation. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (2005), p. 59
- Heath 1945 p. 39
- The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba, Volume 70, Issue 8 (1938). New York: National Railway Publication Company, p. 39
- "Railway Age" Vol. 11 (1941). New York: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. p. 305
- Heath 1945 p. 39
- Beebe, Lucius Morris The Overland Limited. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books (1963) p. 50.
- Heath 1945 p. 39
External links
- "The Case of the Stranded Streamliner" offers detailed information and photographs of the 1952 disaster.
- "Recalling a Train Wreck" offers information and photographs of the 1939 derailment.
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1920s   1940 | |
- Passenger trains of the Union Pacific Railroad
- Passenger trains of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company
- Passenger trains of the Chicago and North Western Railway
- Passenger trains of the Milwaukee Road
- Former Amtrak routes
- Named passenger trains of the United States
- Railway accidents in 1939
- Railway services introduced in 1936
- 1939 in the United States
- Railway services discontinued in 1972