The Golden State Limited was still an all-Pullman train when this timetable was issued, a status it would soon lose due to the Depression. In 1932, Southern Pacific would add a chair car between Los Angeles and Phoenix. By 1934, coaches went all the way between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Click image to download a 29.6-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

SP-RI continued to operate a secondary train, the Apache, between Chicago and Los Angeles through the 1930s. A third train, the Californian, had disappeared from Chicago but continued to operate (in name only) as the Memphis-Californian from Memphis to Tucumcari, where it connected with the Apache. Continue reading →

Yesterday’s booklet mentioned a “new fast” but as yet unnamed Chicago-Los Angeles train that would be introduced on December 28, 1924, the same day as the Golden State Limited was reequipped with new cars. Actually, the “new” train was the old Golden State Limited, now renamed the Golden State Express. This timetable, which went into effect a year and six days after the new trains were introduced, shows that, while the Limited was still an all-Pullman train, the Express carried coaches and tourist sleepers. Unlike the new Limited (but like the old one), the Express didn’t offer shower baths, a ladies’ maid, or men’s barber/valet service.

Click image to download a 29.3-MB PDF of this 40-page timetable.

The Express also operated as a kind of advanced Limited. It left Chicago 2-1/2 hours before the Limited and arrived in Los Angeles a half-hour before. Eastbound, it left Los Angeles and arrived in Chicago an hour and 59 minutes before the Limited. Both trains required 68 hours minus one minute for their eastbound journeys, while westbound the Limited took 68-1/4 hours and the Express took 70-1/4 hours. Continue reading →