Southern Pacific commute train (San Francisco peninsula), 1946-1956

Fred Klein, 2010, 2013

The Southern Pacific ran commuter trains along the peninsula route (San Francisco to San Jose) from the 1890’s until the service was taken over by Caltrain in 1980.  In 1985, new push-pull corrugated stainless steel cars and new locomotives took over the Caltrain service, which continues to this day. SP operated about 24 round trip “commutes” on weekdays to fast schedules. Reliable locomotives with fast acceleration were required.

 

The 60’ Harriman design coaches were built in 1911 by Pullman to common standards for all the Harriman owned railroads. They had arched roofs, reversible swing-over seats, and sat 68 passengers. The dates for the commute train pictured extend from 1946, when “Southern Pacific” replaced “Southern Pacific Lines” on cars and locomotives, until 1956 when the gallery commuter cars were introduced and diesel locomotives had replaced steam. Trains had from 2 to 8 cars depending on demand and time of day. A fleet of 4-6-2 Pacifics was the backbone of the commuter locomotive pool, but 4-8-2 mountains and 4-8-4 GS northerns were sometimes assigned, especially after they were replaced by diesels on SPs long distance trains and re-assigned to commuter service to replace aging Pacifics.

 

Southern Pacific also purchased 78’ (72’ inside space) coaches in 1923-27 from Pullman Standard. Their appearance with the arched roof was very similar to the Harriman design. A total of 111 of these 96-passenger coaches were purchased by the SP. The 78’ coaches were used on commuter trains even after the gallery cars arrived in 1955, and were more numerous on trains than the 60’ coaches in the 1940s and 1950s. The 78’ coach has smaller, squarish windows placed close together, and there are about twice as many as on the 60’ coach. Unfortunately, no company makes a model of this 78’ coach (as of 2013), but a companion web page has a commute train of 7 of the 78’ coaches I made from the Microtrains heavyweight coach. Most of the prototype photos of trains below have 78’ coaches.

 

My grandfather often took me on trains like this to San Francisco in the early 1950s. As a little kid, I remember the fun of a train, swinging the seats back and forth until someone told me to stop, and the disappointment of finding the toilets locked while in the station because they just dumped directly on the ground and could only be used while the train was moving. I am not a Southern Pacific modeler, but I could not resist having a prototype train that I rode as a kid.

 

Modeling commuter trains of this 1946-1956 era became possible when Wheels of Time introduced their 60’ Harriman coach, and painted it in the two-tone grey scheme with “commute” lettered in the upper corners. SP used “commute” and not “commuter”.  Few trains are perfectly matched, and I included a green SP coach as an extra car from a longer distance train. The model locomotive is labeled “Southern Pacific Lines” as it was before 1946, so it strictly predates the 1946-1956 era. The cars are labeled “Southern Pacific” as they were after World War II. If the cars said “Southern Pacific Lines”, the train would appear as it did from the teens through the forties. The locomotive model is a USRA 4-6-2 Pacific which differs in many details from the SP prototype, which was a “common standard” Harriman design.

 

Commuter trains rarely had postal cars like the one pictured after world war II. Photo from page of Dorin’s Commuter Railroads.

 

 

After Southern Pacific’s name trains like the Coast Daylight were dieselized, the great GS4 4-8-4s that hauled them served out their last years in lowly commute service. On December 24, 1956, SP 4444 brought a clutch of the 1911 60’ Harriman coaches into San Francisco. The models below could duplicate this train. Photo from page 76 of Solomon’s Southern Pacific Passenger Trains.

 

Another view of SP’s GS4 #4444 pulling 13 of the 60’ Harriman coaches near Burlingame, California. It looks like the two-tone grey and solid grey or solid green coaches were freely mixed together. The GS4s had their skirting and daylight colors removed during the war but was still classy for a commute train. Photo from page 25 of Solomon’s Southern Pacific Passenger Trains.

 

 

 

Commuter train, 1946 to 1956

 

The commute train is pulled by an oil-burning 4-6-2 Pacific with a Vandy tender.  The locomotive model is by Model Power. Pictured are three 60’ Harriman commute coaches. The coaches have reversible seats, so only the locomotive must be turned at the San Francisco and San Jose terminals. The number of coaches in a commuter train varied from 2 to 8 and what is pictured above could be an entire off-peak train.

 

More coaches

 

Three more Harriman coaches make a rush-hour train. One is painted coach green to add to the formal commuter fleet.

 

GS4 locomotive for mid-1950s commute trains

 

The mid 1950s saw old steam locomotives like the 4-6-2 Pacifics as used in the commuter fleet replaced by newer and more powerful locomotives like this 4-8-4 GS4. As diesels arrived for long and short haul trains, the 4-8-4s became available. The result was that the best and most serviceable steam was used on commuter runs. Two photos above show beautiful 1939 GS4 engines originally used on long distance daylights paired with ancient 1911 60’ coaches. For commute trains in the 1955-57 transition period, a black GS4 would be a prototypical locomotive. This is a Con-cor model.

 

 

REFERENCES

Dorin, Patrick, Commuter Railroads, A pictorial review of the most traveled trains, Superior Publishing Co., 1970.

McGovern, Janet, Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service, Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages, 2012.

Ryan, Dennis, and Joseph Shine, Southern Pacific Passenger Trains, vol. 2, Day trains of the coast line, Four Ways West publications, 2000.

Solomon, Brian. Southern Pacific Passenger Trains, MBI Publishing, 2005.