I might be the only one who doesn’t know this.
Why are SP Daylight locomotives called Daylight?
Did they run only or primarily in daytime?
Something to do with the beautiful paint scheme?
Bring me into the daylight. [8D]
Thanks
Mark
They were built to haul the SP’s newly streamlined “Daylight” between LA and San Fransisco. The term “Daylight” referred to the fact that the train was a luxury streamliner that operated over its route during the day. As apposed to the “Lark” that was an overnight, all-Pullman limited. There was for a short time an SP train that ran overnight between LA and SF that was an all-coach streamliner. This was named the “Starlight.”
Without knowing much on SP steam, I took a look at Wright’s excellent book on the SP Daylights. The engines are in the “GS” class which initials I believe were referred to as “Golden State.” The class derived from similar engines that existed before the “Daylight” was built. When that train was built they made “GS” class power to match the train, were semi-streamlined, and carried the new orange-red-black-silver paint scheme.
Mitch
The idea was in reference to the time of day in which the train operated as the name “Daylight” preceded the 1937 streamlined equipment.
As an aside, the GS originally refered to "Golden State’ but during WWII, when the War Production Board wouldn’t OK new psgr equipment the SP “changed” it to mean “General Service”. Must have worked because the WPB OKd the construction of the GS-6 class for SP and WP.
They were named this because during the long days of summer, many rays of “daylight” that would shine through the windows.
They were called Daylights because the engineers that served on them were part of a group of disabled employees that suffered from severe night blindness. Because of that, the trains only operated during the day. The SP was very proud of this early initiative.
I trust that you’re posting this in an effort to be humorous in this topic.
Mitch
Yup to everything except alanmudd’s post where I have to agree with artmark. If you want any further information, you might want to check out the Pentrex (video) website; they have several excellent DVD’s and videos on the Daylights (even though I prefer the Chiefs and Super Chiefs of Santa Fe)
Note that there was more than one “Daylight” on the SP. The original SF - LA Daylight became the Coast Daylight. Then there were the San Joaquine Valley Daylight, Oakland - LA (or Bakersfield with bus connection?) and the Shasta Daylight, Oakland to Portland.
And the (1) Sacramento Daylight with connected Sacramento and Lathrop with the Valley Daylight and the (2) Oakland Daylight which connected Oakland and San Jose with the Coastal Daylight
The SP also had “Overnights”. These were fast freights targeted on the lcl market. For example, with the “Arizona Overnight” you could ship on Tuesday from LA and deliver on Wednesday in Phoenix.
It all worked just fine until economic regulation of freight rates by the Federal Government forced diversion of almost all lcl to highway movement.
Yes, because they pulled the SP Daylight trains, but also because they were painted in these trains’ “daylight” colors. Properly, they are Northerns classified as general-service locomotives (outfitted both for passenger and fast freight). I understand some GS locomotives were not painted in “Daylight” colors, and these engines are not known as “Daylights.”
The SP also had some Pacifics in the daylight paint scheme, as well as perhaps a couple of Atlantics. I suppose they were used on the Oakland/San Jose and Lathrop/Sacramento runs. Those little daylight trains would be great to model as the consisted of a locomotive and only a couple of cars.
The standard power for the San joaquin Daylights LA to Bakersfield was double headed Mt-5 class Mountains w/ Daylight paint on the cab sides and extending along the sides and ends of the tenders. The helper was dropped at Bakersfield and the train continued to Oakland w/ one eng. The helper was then turned and added to the eastbound Daylight on into LA. I believe the SP had 5 or 6 of the Mt-5s assigned to this service and painted tp match.
The Oakland to Bakersfield service w/ a bus connection to LA was the Santa Fe Golden Gate trains. Only a railfan would pay to go Oakland to LA via Oakland-Tehachapi Pass- Mojave- Barstow-Cajon Pass-San Bernardino-LA. Come to think of it, wouldn’t that BE the ultimate railfans’ trip. It would probaly take 18 to 24 hours.
As an afterthought: SP employees refered to the GS engines as 4400s most of the time. When applying a nickname the only one I heard used for them by employees was “Yellow Bellies”. I know, they weren’t yellow, but the cab forwards weren’t Mallets but were universally refered to as “Mallies”. Go figure!
It was a beautiful paint scheme. But the SP had four lightweight car paint schemes:
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Daylight
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UP Armor Yellow and red for the City of San Francisco and Challenger
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Dark grey with light grey through the windows panels and white striping and lettering for overnight trains. The Lark, for example.
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Stainless steel with red letterboard for some Budd-built cars
Many trains mixed up two of the schemes. Some three Sometimes all four
Got some more info on daylight Pacifics and Atlantics from John Signor’s Southern Pacific’s Western Division. Pages 167 and 170 says 3 P-10 Pacifics (shown with skirting and daylight colors) were used starting in July 1941 for new San Joaquin Dalight trains which started in Oakland and ran on to LA since pictures show the train passing through Tracy. Daylight Mountains were substituted for the Pacifics for the mountain territory south of Bakersfield. Initial consist were six chair cars, a diner, a tavern-coffee shop car, a parlor observation car, and a baggage mail car(s). Page 233 pictures an Atlantic pulling the Sacramento Daylight shortly afters its 1946 inaugeration. The Atlantic has no skirting, but the cab and tender are in daylight colors. The text on 231 says the run was between Latrhrop and Sacramento, offering daylight coaches, coffee shop car, and parlor observation and connected with the San Joaquin Dalight at Lathrop with stops at Stockton and Lodi. (SP’s rebuilt [1927-29] Atlantics were very efficient, and could make the distance from LA to San Luis Obispo [230 miles] without a water stop with only a 10,000 gallon capacity.)
So…SP had dalight-colored Northerns, Mountains, Pacifics, and Atlantics.
There was also a variation on 4 above, light gray (platinum mist?) with red letterboads for non-stainless steel cars.