This timetable replaces the plain blue covers of pre-war and early-post-war SP timetables with a beautiful image of the Coast Daylight on its southbound journey to Los Angeles. This image was apparently first used on SP’s August, 1946 timetables.
Click image to download a 28.3-MB PDF of this 56-page timetable.
At a time when the railroads were rapidly Dieselizing, it seems strange that SP would feature a steam locomotive on its timetable cover. No doubt this was because the semi-streamlined Daylight locomotives had become iconic for the railroad, which continued to use them on the Daylight passenger trains until January, 1955.
The advertisement on the front cover of this timetable says, “SP’s fastest carry Chair Cars to and from California,” which was another way of saying that the San Francisco Overland and other premiere trains were no longer all-Pullman trains. The full-page ad on page 2 introduces “through coast-to-coast Pullman service” between New York and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and Washington and San Francisco.
Passengers would have to turn to page 51 to learn that a “Unique New Pullman Service Gives Passengers Carefree Stopover in Romantic New Orleans.” This refers to a through sleeping-car connection between the Sunset Limited and Crescent Limited. The railroads running these trains didn’t schedule them to depart New Orleans soon after the connecting train arrived, so the long layover was advertised as a feature, not a bug.
In fact, it probably was appreciated by a lot of travelers; I know I appreciated it when I took Amtrak and the Southern Crescent from Los Angeles to Washington via New Orleans a couple of times in the 1970s. This through-Pullman service was also advertised on the front cover of SP’s July, 1947 timetable with the addition of some two-color images.
SP was slow to dieselize compared to the other western roads. AFAIK Don Russell felt that it was preferable to utilize fully depreciated steam locomotives for as long as possible before investing in new diesel power.