Golden State (SP and RI), about 1950- about 1954

Fred Klein, March 2005

 

The streamlined Golden State was Southern Pacific’s and Rock Island’s answer to the postwar rush for new trains to capture the boom in tourism and business travel.  Starting in 1902, the two railroads established a partnership where Rock Island carried the train from Chicago to Tucumcari, New Mexico, where it was passed on to Southern Pacific to carry it on its own sunset route rails to Los Angeles.  The In 1948, plans for a streamlined and fast “Golden Rocket” train planned during the war were abandoned, and a nearly streamlined Golden State running on a slower schedule took its place.  In 1942 Pullman Standard delivered some streamlined cars to Southern Pacific, who put them in service in the heavyweight train.  Rock Island added some of its own streamlined cars in 1947.  Stunning red and silver E7 diesels were added in 1947.  In 1949 and 1950, PS fully completed its new car order and the Golden State was launched as a full-fledged streamliner in 1950.

 

Many streamlined cars for the train were cobbled together from available cars, and the Golden State never had a uniform set of trains made expressly for it like the Empire Builder or Morning Daylight.  Each of the Golden State trains was therefore different.  In 1950, Southern Pacific provided two trainsets of mostly SP cars, and Rock Island provided three trains of mostly RI cars.  Later the cars from the two railroads were mixed together more thoroughly.  The cars had “Golden State” centered in the letterboard, with the railroad’s name in smaller letters at each end of the car.   As a rule, the Southern Pacific cars had smooth sides with extended railroad Roman lettering, and Rock Island’s cars were corrugated sided with art deco lettering.  Train number 4 was eastbound and train number 3 was westbound.

 

Both railroads added new cars in 1954.  Starting in 1953-54, all Southern Pacific cars used the stainless steel (or simulated stainless paint) scheme when the cars came up for re-painting.  This was because the red paint faded quickly to pink in the desert sun.  During repainting, a red letterboard with white “Southern Pacific” letters was substituted for the “Golden State” lettering, and the “Golden” car names were dropped in favor of SP numbers.  Rock Island kept the names, however.  The stunning red and silver cars therefore gradually gave way to silver cars with a completely red letterboard.  In 1958, this all-silver scheme became standard for all SP cars.  The Golden State was combined with the Sunset Limited between El Paso and Los Angeles in 1964.  1968 saw the complete termination of through Golden State service. 

 

Therefore the modeler has a great deal of flexibility in choosing cars for the consist.  My train uses a variety of available cars that approximate the types of cars used by the two railroads such that the train ends up with the proper number of coaches, sleeper types, etc.  A purist could model one of the specific trainsets car-for-car, but every train would be a bit different.  The pure model would not be pure for long, because car substitutions were sometimes made and repainting began in 1953.  I get the impression that operating the prototype train was a struggle in which neither railroad had any heart for purity or the stunning red and silver paint scheme.  A modeler can adopt the same spirit and just keep a train of believable cars running.  If you mix a heavy weight car or two into this lightweight consist, you can model a train during 1948-1950.  If you use some silver cars, you can model trains from 1954-1958.  There is a detailed history of all these car changes, and the most thorough Golden State reference I have found is Ryan, Dennis and Mike Jarel, The streamlined Golden State, SP Trainline No. 59, SP Historical and Technical Society, Spring 1999.

 

The locomotives and some of the cars in this train were custom painted by Ernie Guise of Model Railroad Customizing. 

 

This table indicates the prototype cars in a basic Golden State consist of September 15, 1950 drawn from the five different trainsets (Ryan and Jarel, SP Trainline, Spring 1999), and what cars or kits I used to model them.  The train thus uses representative Golden State cars without duplicating a specific Golden State train.

 

Car type	Car maker, date	Model car	comments
A-B-B set of E7 diesels, 6000-6002	EMD 1947	Life-like E7 A-B, 6000, custom painted silver and red	Daylight paint scheme used on trains also
RI corrugated baggage dorm	PS 1948	Rivarossi baggage dorm, custom paint	Prototypical car
RI corrugated coach Golden Chime	PS 1947	Corrugation applied to Kato coach, custom paint	Very similar, model has 1 more window than proto
SP smoothside coach Golden Bar	PS 1949	Con-cor coach, custom decaled, not prototypical, a stand-in car	Not a typical GS coach; model is more like a daylight coach.
SP coffee shop lounge Golden Trencher	PS 1949	Con-cor diner, custom decaled	Similar, except for door placement & car reversal
SP smoothside coach Golden Flake	PS 1949	Kato coach, custom paint	Very similar, proto has 1 more window than model
SP 6/6/4 sleeper Golden Creek	PS 1942	Kato smoothside sleeper, custom paint	Prototypical car
SP 6/6/4 sleeper Golden Valley	PS 1942	Kato smoothside sleeper, custom paint	Prototypical car
SP diner Golden Chalice	PS 1949	Con-cor diner, custom decaled*	Similar, except for door placement & car reversal
SP club lounge Golden Outlook	PS 1949	Marshall Shops kit, custom paint	Prototypical car
SP 12 double BR Golden Orange	PS 1950	Marshall Shops kit, custom paint	Prototypical car
RI 4/4/2 sleeper Golden Desert	PS 1942	Rivarossi corrugated coach*	Substitute car
RI 4/4/2 sleeper Golden Sunset	PS 1942	Rivarossi corrugated coach*	Substitute car
SP 10/6 sleeper Golden Crest	PS 1950	Rivarossi smoothside 10/6 sleeper*	Prototypical car
RI 2 BR/ 1 DR observation buffet lounge Golden Vista	PS 1948	Rivarossi corrugated observation, custom paint	Prototypical car, decaled Golden Terrace

* M&R models make metal sides for the SP diner, SP 4/4/2 and SP 10/6 sleeping cars.

 

Diesel power

 

Power for the 1947-1958 (approx) Golden State was an A-B-B set of silver and red EMD E7 passenger diesels.  The SP diesels were used on SP rails between Los Angeles and Tucamari, and Rock Island used its own power between Tucamari and Chicago.  In earlier years after 1947, the red-silver diesels were sometimes used on the coast route.  In later years, E7s in daylight paint and Alco PAs in daylight paint could be found on the Golden State route.  The models are custom painted Life-like E7 diesels. 

 

Coach section

The first car in the Sept 15, 1950 consist was a baggage dorm.  One of the prototype cars was Rock Island 820, built by Pullman Standard in 1948, which was the prototype for this Rivarossi model car.  After April 1953, the baggage dorm was routinely preceded by a heavyweight baggage car and/or a baggage-RPO.  Next came two coaches.  I have a Rock Island corrugated coach (modeled by a Kato smoothside coach with corrugations applied to the sides), and an SP smoothside coach (modeled by a substitute, non-prototypical Con-cor coach, with windows too large for the coaches assigned to the Golden State).

 

Next, within the group of chair cars was a coffee shop lounge car for the coach passengers.  The Con-cor smoothside diner is a good approximation for this car, with both large and small elongated windows.  The door placement and exact number of windows is different, and the Con-cor car is mirror-reversed from the prototype.  The last chair car in this group went from Los Angeles to Kansas City (here the car is the Southern Pacific Golden Flake), to be set out at Kansas City for the Twin Rocket to take it to Minneapolis.  This model SP coach is a nearly prototypical Kato coach that gives a good impression of the window size and spacing of the SP and RI coaches used on the GS.

 

First sleeper section

The sleeper section began with a pair of 6/4/4 cars made by PS in 1942.  The first started at Los Angeles and was split off at Kansas City for carriage to Minneapolis with the preceding coach on the Twin Rocket.  The second 6/4/4 was set out at Kansas City for forwarding to St. Louis.  The Kato smoothside Pullman car is an accurate prototypical model for these 6/4/4 sleepers.  Next was the diner, here represented by Southern Pacific’s Golden Chalice.  The diner is modeled by Con-cor’s smoothside diner, which is not a bad representation of the prototype, assuming you don’t mind looking at a mirror-image representation of the car without enough doors.

 

After the diner is a club-lounge car, but the mid-train lounge cars were only assigned to the two primarily-SP trains out of the 5 Golden State trains.  The model is a prototypically faithful Marshall-Shops kit, custom painted by Ernie Guiese.  The following car was a 12 double-bedroom sleeper, here the SP Golden Orange.  The model is another Marshall-Shops kit.  Four of the 5 trains used a 12 DBR car, but the fifth used the Rock Island 4/4/2 sleeper La Quinta, an exception that drove the reservation agents up the wall.

 

Second sleeper section

The next pair of sleepers were 4/4/2 cars made by PS in 1942.  These 4/4/2 cars were carried from Chicago, and one was dropped in Phoenix and the other in Tuscon.   I don’t have photographs or models for these RI 4/4/2 cars, but I use a couple of Rivarossi coaches as substitutes for the corrugated Rock Island sleepers.  M&R models makes metal sides for the SP versions of these 4/4/2 cars.  Next came a 10/6 sleeper, always an SP car from PS built in 1950.  The car here is “Golden Crest”.  The Rivarossi smoothside Pullman sleeper is a Prototypical model for this car, but M&R models makes metal sides for this car. 

 

The tail observation car is Rock Island 2 BR/ 1 DR observation buffet lounge Golden Vista (here decaled as Golden Terrace).  I think this is the signature car of the Golden State train.  The Rivarossi corrugated model is prototypical for 2 of the 3 RI observation cars used on the Golden State.  The boat-tailed observation cars were only used on the 3 primarily Rock Island trains, and the 2 primarily SP trains used a blunt-end 10/6 sleeper (no lounge observation) on the tail.  Thus the 3 “RI” trains had the lounge car at the rear, and the 2 “SP” trains had the lounge car in mid-train after the diner.  Astute observers will notice that my train has BOTH the SP lounge and RI lounge, a feat the railroads probably never did because it would leave another train without bar receipts.  To include both cars, I claim a modelers license, a desire for ready availability of libations, and a desire to use as many prototypical models as I have.

 

REFERENCES

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

Ryan, Dennis and Mike Jarel, The streamlined Golden State, SP Trainline No. 59, SP Historical and Technical Society, Spring 1999.

Wayner, Robert, Car Names, Numbers and Consists, Wayner Publications, 1972.