First off, Thanks very much in advance.
My dad is trying to ‘build’ the “Golden State” passenger train in N Scale. I know I have procrastinated but I am trying to get him a car or two to get him something for his Alco’s to pull. He still has to paint the engines, but that is another story. The only problem is I can’t find and cars. I have found that Con-Cor made some, but has since been discountinued. So does anybody have any suggestions?!? He is willing to paint and apply decals, but I don’t want to get him the wrong body style.
Thanks Again!!! [:D][:D][:D]
Brian
Fisrt off
[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#dots]
just wanted to say welcoem and i dont know srry
Dan
It depends on the degree of accuaracy you want. It was a mix of heavywieght and streamlined cars. The first 2 cars of the train were a baggage car and a baggage Railway Post Office, both SP, followed by a heavywieght combine which served as a dormitory car for the diner crew. The remainder of the train was lightwieght w/ a mix of SP and RI cars. The SP cars tended to be smooth side and the RI cars corrugated. A typical consist would have the above mentioned hjvywts (all w/ arched roofs), a couple of coaches, a coffee shop, 2 more coaches, 4 or 5 pullmans (mostly 10-6 but also 4-4-2) and a sleeper/observation. Sometimes the rear car would be a SP 10-6 w/ rouned corners at the rear and a permanent marker light and train name (kind of like a flat-end observation car but w/o the rear windows…a type of car peculiar to the SP)
Alcos as in PAs? I thought the Golden State was originally pulled by E7s.
While the Golden State was regularly pulled by E’s, let’s remember that it’s his layout and some modeler’s license should be allowed.
Concerning the 10-6 sleeper with the blind end, five of them were built for the Sunset Limited when it was streamlined in 1950 but there may have been others and having such a car stray into the Golden State’s consist would not be unreasonable.
CRI&P/SP
GOLDEN STATE
(January 4, 1948)
By Al
The Rock Island / Southern Pacific GOLDEN STATE between Chicago and Los Angeles by way of Kansas City, Tucumcari, El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix, and Yuma became streamlined and diesel powered on January 4, 1948. Never able to match the time keeping of rival Santa Fe’s SUPER CHIEF or EL CAPITAN, or Union Pacific’s CITY OF LOS ANGELES. The GOLDEN STATE route was never able to compete for speed but for direct service to Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, or El Paso the GOLDEN STATE was the train to take. The GOLDEN STATE in spite of its slower schedule to end points than its rivals was never the less a fine train and for many years had operated as an all-Pullman train. On January 4, 1948 the GOLDEN STATE began operating on a 45-hour schedule between Chicago and Los Angeles behind diesel power and advertised as streamlined. The new Red and Silver Paint scheme was introduced at that time with the red running from roof to the bottom of the windows and Silver was the color of the lower half of the cars. Only the Southern Pacific would own diesels painted to match in the red and silver scheme but they were soon repainted in DAYLIGHT colors. All of the lightweight streamlined sleeping cars were pre-war and the rest of the cars were a mixture of streamlined and heavyweights painted to match. The trains would not be completely streamlined until 1949-50. Rock Island operated the GOLDEN STATE behind their power between Chicago and Tucumcari, New Mexico and Southern Pacific assigned their diesels from that point to Los Angeles. An exact consist of the GOLDEN GATE would be difficult to list as they were almost constantly changing. The prewar sleeping cars were of two types 4 Compartment 2 Drawing Room 4 Double Bedroom Cars owned by both the Rock Island and Southern Pacific as follows:
ROCK ISLAND
GOLDEN DESERT
GOLDEN DIAL
GOLDEN DREAM
GOLDEN FLEECE
GOLDEN HOUR
GOLDEN SUNSET
GOLDEN WEST
SOUTHE
They were pulled by E7’s. My mistake. The reason he wants to model this train is we live in Tucson, and we want something local on the tracks, because we are trying to model ‘our’ area. But, as My Super Chief will be ‘sharing’ the rails with the Golden State there will still be some modeler’s license involved.
passengersfan YOU RULE. Thanks you for all that information!!!
jimmrice449: My dad says as long as he has to paint and detail the cars (and engines, now that I think of it) he might as well do it right the first time, so as accurate as we can get 
Again thank you SO MUCH!!!
Have a good weekend!
brian
Now I just have to find out where to find the cars in N Scale.
Here’s a little detail I should have mentioned earlier but it slipped my mind. In the process of our family moving from Chicago to LA I travelled to LA on the Golden State in June of 1950. Leaving Chicago we had RI E-7s and arriving LA SP E-7s (painted in Daylight) but from Tucumcari to El Paso we had SP 4438, a GS-4, deskirted and in black, but still a GS-4! I don’t know if that was usual proceedure or a rare expedient, and it’s a tad out of your area, but ay least once it was done.
Interesting story!
I think that is was quite an usual procedure to put steam locomotives in front of the streamlined Golden State on the Tucumcari to El Paso leg. I´ve actually seen a few photos of GS-4 steamers pulling the Golden State on that part of the route in New Mexico. And I must say these engines looked as good on the Golden State as the diesels. It must have been until 1953 that steam locomotives were in service on the Golden State because of the lack of diesel locomotives/power shortages.
I myself have put together a nice 10 car HO scale Golden State recently. I love that trains red and silver look, and I also have the matching engines to pull it: from Chicago to Tucumcari a Rock Island Alco DL 109 diesel will be in charge, from Tucumcari to El Paso a Southern Pacific GS-4 in Daylight paint, and from El Paso to Los Angeles an EMD E7 A-B Unit in matching Golden State paint scheme. So I can at least relive those glory days of train travel on my HO layout, since I of course can not enjoy the real deal like you did back then.