The front cover of this timetable promotes the “extra fare Golden State” as a “delightful” way of getting to “southern Arizona or California.” As noted here before, the Golden State was slower to California than the City of Los Angeles or Super Chief, but faster to Phoenix and other points in southern Arizona.
Click image to download a 20.7-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.
The train, the ad goes on to say, was equipped with “‘Sleepy Hollow’ adjustable reclining seats with full-length leg rests.” As noted yesterday, the streamlined Rockets didn’t have leg rests, though it’s possible that there were leg rests on the Rocky Mountain Rocket.
“The Decorations and appointments in the observation-lounge, diner and snack cars create a delightful atmosphere of good living,” the ad also notes. However, the railroads did not have consistent “decorations and appointments” for all five trainsets that served the Golden State route. The one that was made for the never-run Golden Rocket had an observation car with extra large windows for viewing scenery. Others had generic observation cars. At least one had a mid-train lounge with no observation car.
Meanwhile, the Choctaw Rocket, Rock Island’s train from Memphis to Amarillo, has had its name changed to just Choctaw. This train went the same route as the Cherokee, but the latter went all the way to Tucumcari where it joined with the Imperial to Los Angeles. Both trains had sleeping cars, coaches, and dining service, but Rock Island favored the Cherokee as the through train.
The chair cars for the Golden State may have been SP’s contribution to the equipment pool, so maybe those did have leg rest seats?
Also, it’s kind of interesting that the Golden State had “deluxe” sleeping car accommodations i.e. 4-4-2 cars with compartments and drawing rooms, while SP’s flagship train, the Sunset, did not. Sometime around 1953 SP decided to transfer at least one 4-4-2 car to the Sunset. This would have been a Pullman Standard smooth sided car, so the Sunset no longer carried a matched consist. Of course by the late 1950s SP no longer worried about the exterior appearance of their passenger cars, all that mattered was what the interior arrangements were.