No. 10371 Electro-Motive E-8  AA Diesel Locomotive, heading up the "Coast Daylight" Streamlined Passenger Train

 Southern Pacific Railroad

Faced with declining revenues from passenger traffic as a result of the Depression, the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1933 launched an all-out effort to revitalize its passenger service. Working with car builder Pullman-Standard and locomotive manufacturer Lima (Ohio) Locomotive Works, Southern Pacific set extremely high standards for design. The result was often called "The Most Beautiful Train in the World."

Inaugurated on March 21, 1937, Southern Pacific's new streamlined "Daylight" sets replaced two heavyweight trains of the same name operating on the scenic 470-mile Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Wearing Southern Pacific designer Charles Eggleston's dramatic red, orange, and black color scheme, the two luxurious 12-car trains featured state-of-the-art interior accommodations. Up front on each train was a new streamlined GS-2 Class 4-8-4 "Northern"-type steam locomotive (see No. 10432) a design so good it would spawn an entire family of dependable motive power to haul other Southern Pacific prestige trains.

Within days of the "Daylight's" introduction, Southern Pacific knew it had a winner.  Demand for a seat on the new trains was so high that the railroad was obligated to run second sections, using older non-streamlined equipment, to handle as many as 400 overflow passengers per day. By 1939, the "Daylights" were the most heavily traveled intercity trains in the country, averaging 370 passengers per trip on a swift schedule of 9 hours and 45 minutes between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

It was obvious a second streamliner set was needed, and in January, 1940, two new and similar 14-car trains replaced the first two "Daylight" equipment sets as the "Morning Daylights." Newly refurbished, the original 1937 streamliners became the "Noon Daylights." Then in July, 1941, came the "Night Daylights," all-Pullman trains offering the most modern sleeping accommodations on Southern Pacific's fleet.

Soon there were more "Daylight" day trains - the "San Joaquin Daylight" (1941, Oakland-Los Angeles) and the "Sacramento Daylight" (1946, Sacramento-Lathrop). In 1949, the day train "Shasta Daylight" (see No. 10729) became the only truly long distance "Daylight," linking Oakland with Portland, Oregon, with two consists offering daily service over the 714-mile route in 16 ½ hours.

Post World War II, the "Morning Daylight" set was renamed the "Coast Daylight" in 1952 (see No. 10095) and upgraded with new lightweight streamlined coaches in 1954, when the handsome 2250 horsepower per unit E-8 AA diesel locomotives by Electro- Motive were acquired by the Southern Pacific, along with popular new Dome lounge cars, added to the trains in 1955 (The dependable E-8s were introduced to American railroads in 1949). The train sets operated as the Southern Pacific "Coast Daylight" until Amtrak took over Southern Pacific's passenger operations in 1971, when the "Coast Daylight" name was retired (see page 3).

Alas, the late 1950s and 1960s was the time of the new interstate highway system and the revolutionary jet airliner, and the Southern Pacific began to lose money on its handsome fleet of streamliners as the traveling public transferred its allegiance to the automobile and jetliner. Ridership declined on the "Coast Daylight" during this time, the major reason for its demise in late 1971, when Amtrak combined it with the overnight all- Pullman "Cascade" (San Francisco-Portland) (see No. 10729) to become the "Coast Starlight" (see No. 10359). The "Coast Starlight" is considered to be Amtrak's finest long- distance sleeper-equipped train, that has continued to operate successfully right up to the present time, between Los Angeles and Seattle.

No. 10371 represents an accurate scale model of Southern Pacific's E-8 AA diesel locomotive by Electro-Motive, heading up the streamlined 6-car all-coach "Coast Daylight" (Nos. 10372 and 10373), as it would have been seen on its daylight run between Los Angeles and San Francisco 1955 to 1971, after Dome cars were added. The locomotive and cars are in "0"gauge by K-Line, in Southern Pacific's beautiful red, orange, and black color scheme.

As a footnote, the "Daylight Limited" started out in 1922 as a Friday and Saturday summer-season-only heavyweight coach train, on a fast 13-hour schedule with no stops.  It was so popular that by the following year it was a daily year-round train. By 1936, there were two heavyweight coach"Daylights" on 11-hour trips, ushering in the "Daylight" streamlined era on the Southern Pacific.