Model Railroader had some articles about silk cars back in the 1960s. One detail that I recall is that there were special buildings that housed the silk cars – solid brick with iron gated doors – because the loads were so valuable. The February 1965 MR has Gib Kenndy’s article on Cars for the Silk Express.
You’re right about the speed and the high priority given to this cargo.
The Canadian Pacific and Canadian National (and its predecessors) pulled out all the stops to carry the Silk trains from Vancouver, BC to New York City. One story has it that the train carrying the Prince of Wales (the future King George V) was put into a siding to allow a Silk train to pass. Talk about priority!
There was also a movie about a silk car moving to New York and various villans tryimg to stop it. Saw it on TMC last year. Pobably from the 30s ot 40s.
If memory serves, the online B.C. Provincial Archives and City of Vancouver Archives both have a lot of old photo’s of both the silk trains and ships. Both these websites can make your day disappear real fast with their thousands of rail pic’s. Quite interesting.
SP moved a lot of silk from San Francisco to the east, P class pacifics or several when doubleheading was required were assigned to the runs which from Sparks to Odgen consumed 500 miles without an engine change, they too had the authority to put the premier OVERLAND LIMITED and everything else in the nearest siding. I believe some knuckle heads tried to stop one of these movements for the purpose of robbery, much to their regret as SP assigned armed Special Agents to the Silks who occupied the rider coach and cab!
There’s some info on the CPR/CNR silk trains HERE, including photos (which are, for some reason, facing sideways). It also touches on the various reasons for the demise of the trains.
Further down in the pdf, and unrelated to the silk trains, is an account of a very unusual rail accident which occurred in Switzerland in the '70s. Interesting reading.
I recall reading of the silk trains travelling through my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, on their way to the border crossing at Niagara Falls, for the last leg of the trip to New York City. The tracks crossed a canal which was the entrance to Hamilton Harbour, Hamilton at that time being the major industrial centre of Canada. One hour before a silk train was due, the swing bridge which permitted ships to pass in or out of the harbour was locked in alignment for the rail route, with no ships allowed to use the busy canal.