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The Shasta Daylight, which had been reduced to three days a week in the off-season in 1959, became a summer-only train in 1965, with the April 1965 timetable noting that it would operate from June 10 to September 7. SP … Continue reading
Category Archives: Southern Pacific
I previously mentioned that reducing SP’s system timetable from 16 to 6 pages meant sacrificing a page showing connections at Chicago and St. Louis. In 1963, that page listed two dozen trains on eight different railroads going from Chicago to … Continue reading
Yesterday’s 1965 timetable listed two trains between the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago: the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Overland. They were, however, the same train, as both had identical schedules. Today’s 1966 timetable gives up … Continue reading
In 1964, Southern Pacific’s timetable was subjected to what would be the penultimate indignity: the 16-page system timetable of 1963 was reduced to a six-page timetable. In effect, what had been the condensed timetable became the system timetable. I don’t … Continue reading
Having reduced its 1962 system timetable to be as small as its condensed timetables of the 1950s, SP shrunk its condensed timetable to a brochure with the equivalent of 6 pages. That’s effectively one page each for the Sunset, Golden … Continue reading
In October 1962, Southern Pacific’s system timetable lost half its pages, shrinking down to just 16. The timetable still had room for a centerfold map, a one-page station index, a half page of SP agents with a half page of … Continue reading
Just as SP’s regular timetables were shrinking, its condensed timetables were shrinking as well. In 1955, the condensed timetable was 16 pages. This one is just 8. Click image to download a 2.6-MB PDF of this 8-page timetable. It offers … Continue reading
This timetable is arranged similarly to yesterday’s, including two full-page ads that promote both SP passenger and freight services. The full-page ad on page 11 promotes the Coast route and wide-door boxcars, saying that SP has the largest fleet of … Continue reading
Along with the simplified route map that first appeared on the April 1957 timetable (and shown on the October 1957 edition, SP drastically reduced the page count from 48 to 32 pages. The larger timetables had separate pages for eastbound … Continue reading
By 1958, off-season ridership on the Shasta Daylight had fallen so low that Southern Pacific applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission to reduce it to three-day-a-week service. Apparently, it didn’t get permission to do so, as it sent this notice … Continue reading