Time still at a premium but hoping to update more in 2019. It was hidden from public view until 2005, when the California State Railroad Museum acquired it. The first transcontinental railroad connected California to the rest of the country way back in 1869, nearly two decades after statehood. Standard streamlined sleeping cars with roomettes normally held 22 passengers in various configurations (10-6, 14–4, etc.) The train ran with many styles of equipment. The Southern Pacific provided modernized heavyweight baggage dormitory car 3401 which was built by American Car & Foundry as hospital car for the US Army in 1944 and was painted red and silver in 1947, and in 1949 a newly built lightweight smooth side baggage dormitory car numbered 3100. The Southern Pacific line from Los Angeles to El Paso was completed in May 1881; the Golden State ran on the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad from Tucumcari, New Mexico, to El Paso. West of there it sometimes used the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad (EP&SW) through Douglas, Arizona, to Tucson and sometimes the Southern Pacific (SP) via Deming; SP carried the train Tucson to Los Angeles. Within the Golden State, railroad entrepreneurs like J.D. So now the number of heavyweight cars in a Golden State consist could reach up to three. Amtrak's Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and New Orleans uses the Golden State's route west of Yuma. The last westbound Golden State left Chicago on Monday, February 19, 1968, and the last inbound Golden State pulled into Chicago's LaSalle Street Station on February 21. Rock Island lightweight smooth side 6-6-4 sleeping car "Golden Mesa" [St. Louis-Los Angeles], 10. The former EP&SW between Douglas and El Paso was abandoned in 1961 and the tracks removed in 1963. Over the years connections were made with through sleeping cars from Memphis and Little Rock to Los Angeles, generally connecting with the Golden State. After World War II, the Rock Island and Southern Pacific considered a new 39¾ hour (the accepted fast schedule between Chicago and Los Angeles/San Francisco) streamliner to be named the Golden Rocket. The Southern Pacific assigned five older heavyweight mail-baggage cars numbered 5065-5069 which were painted in the new red and silver scheme. Other transcontinental routes reached elevations of more than 7,000 feet (2,100 m) in the Santa Fe railway near Flagstaff, Arizona, and Union Pacific near Sherman, Wyoming. This page was last edited on 17 May 2020, at 07:31. Latest update with freight car photos added 2/1/19. It was not until 1959 that the number of heavyweight cars assigned to the Golden State consists would be reduced again. Jarel, Mike. The Golden State became a streamliner in January 1948, with vermilion red on the upper body and pier panel and the lower bodies either natural corrugated stainless steel or silver or grey paint on smooth-sided cars. Southern Pacific Passenger Trains. 12/09/2019 . Taken on the N-scale layout of the Golden State Model Railroad Museum in Point Richmond, CA. After World War II and until 1953 all cars in the train had names, mostly beginning with Golden. The Rock Island actually owned the rail line to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, 59 miles (95 km) south of Tucumcari, but since the routes intersected at Tucumcari, this is where the change from Rock Island to Southern Pacific crews and locomotives were made. The Rock Island assigned three newly in 1947 built lightweight corrugated side mail-baggage cars numbered 802-804 and later in 1952 two newly rebuilt (from old parlor cars) heavyweight mail-baggage cars numbered 720 and 721. About Us. The repainting process from the red and silver paint scheme to the all silver scheme for Rock Island cars and to the simulated stainless steel with red letterboard stripe scheme for Southern Pacific cars started in April 1953 and was not finished until January 1955. 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