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. SP operated about 24 round-trip “commutes” on weekdays to fast
schedules. Reliable locomotives with fast acceleration were required. In 1985,
new push-pull corrugated stainless steel cars and new locomotives took over the
Caltrain service, which continues to this day.
The dates for
the model commute train pictured extend from about 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. See the
companion page with a train of SP 60’ coaches.
Southern
Pacific purchased 78’ coaches (72’ inside space) in 1923-27 from Pullman
Standard, calling them class 72-IC-1. 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 older 60’ coaches in the 1940s and 1950s. Although
it was rare to see solid trains of 78’ coaches after 1956, they were often
included in trains of gallery cars to extend the train capacity. The 78’
commute coaches were painted two-tone grey in the 30s and 40s but most were
repainted the simpler solid dark grey in the late 40s and 50s. The model train
is solid grey because that is simpler to model and suits the time period. The
coaches were not air conditioned, but passengers could open windows, and each
of the roof vents had a fan underneath in addition to naturally sucking air
outward as the train moved forward. They were also steam heated, for the cooler
times that were necessary in Northern California.
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 modeling a prototype train that I rode
as a kid.
The 78’ SP
coach cars are not available commercially, so I painted a set of Microtrains heavyweight coaches. SP had both paired-window
and single-window coaches, though most of the commute cars appear to be single
window. The Microtrains coach is paired window. I
replaced the clerestory roof of the Microtrains car
with a round roof available as a new 78’ casting from http://www.prr-parts.com. The distinctive
roof vents are also available there. See the modeling notes section for more on
the coaches.
The model
train has 8 cars, which is near the maximum platform length for many peninsula
stations. 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. 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.
A long commuter train of nine 78’ coaches
on Southern Pacific’s Los Gatos branch on the San Francisco peninsula. The
first coach has open vestibules and a banner on the
side recruiting for the Marine Corps. After WWII a few SP commuter coaches were
affixed with banners recruiting for the armed services in a spirit of
patriotism. The other coaches were built by Pullman in 1924. This Los Gatos line
branched off the San Francisco-San Jose mainline in Palo Alto. The line is single tracked and only carried
three inbound (heading northwest to S.F.) commuter trains in the morning
and three outbound late-afternoon trains per day. The location is in Los Altos
not far from the present day Rancho shopping center. This line was abandoned in
the early 1960s and is now occupied by a four-lane county expressway. The
location is familiar to the author because it is ¼ mile from his house. The
time is also familiar: the author was born in 1948 the same year this photo was
taken, and my family moved to the area in 1949. Photo by Reg McGovern from Janet McGovern’s Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service.
A commuter train heading south with San Francisco skyline in the
background.
A commuter
train #149 with Pacific 2424 and 3 Harriman coaches at San Jose California in
1946. The coaches are the 78’ (72’ passenger
space) coaches of 1924 rather than the 60’ coaches of the teens. The locomotive
is a class P1 built by Baldwin in 1907. From page 74 of Solomon’s Southern Pacific Passenger Trains.
The
commute train is pulled by an oil-burning 4-6-2 Pacific with a Vandy
tender. The locomotive model is by Model
Power. The coach with the banner “Join the United States Marines” is one of the
coaches decorated to recruit for the military after the war. The photo above
shows a 1948 train with the Marine coach in the lead position after the engine.
In 2014 and 2015 The N Scale Enthusiast issued a series of four coach cars recruiting
for the army, navy, marines and blood donors, any one of which could be used in
these commute trains. Note the prototype photo shows open vestibules and vents
on a round roof, but Microtrains used their standard
coach car. Also pictured are three 78’ 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. The coaches
are custom painted Microtrains coaches with round
roof castings and vents obtained from prr-parts.com.
Four more coaches make a full-sized rush-hour train.
Modeling notes for the coaches
The 78’ SP
coach cars are not available commercially, so I painted a set of Microtrains heavyweight coaches in SP grey. SP had both
paired-window and single-window coaches, though most of the commute cars appear
to be single window. The Microtrains coach is paired
window but the effect is OK to my eye. In the 40s and 50s, SP repainted its
commute coaches solid grey which was much simpler for both SP and this modeler
than the previous two-tone grey. I replaced the clerestory roof of the Microtrains car with a round roof available as a new 78’
casting from http://www.prr-parts.com. Jeff
Faulkner made the casting to fit the Microtrains
coach. The distinctive roof vents are also available there. The cast roofs have
no fitted bottom, so they must be glued onto the car or styrene strips must be
carefully attached to the roof. The round roof is not quite as high as a proper
Harriman-style roof, but the roof vents make the roof distinctive for Harriman
roads like the SP, RI, IC or UP. The
6-wheel trucks supplied by Microtrains must be
replaced by 4-wheel trucks. I used surplus trucks from Concor passenger cars, and removed the coupler pocket,
which was not needed. The models aren’t perfect but remind me of the SP commute
cars.
REFERENCES
Dorin, Patrick, Commuter Railroads, A pictorial review of the most traveled trains, Superior Publishing Co., 1970.
Kincaid, James, Southern Pacific color guide to freight and passenger equipment, volume 3, Morning Sun Books, 2006, page 25.
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.
