City of San Francisco (train)

Chicago to San Francisco passenger express train

City of San Francisco

Union Pacific train 101, the City of San Francisco, near Cheyenne, Wyoming on December 4, 1948

Overview
Service type| Inter-city rail
Status| Discontinued
Locale| Western United States
First service| June 14, 1936; 88 years ago (1936-06-14)
Last service| June 10, 1972; 52 years ago (1972-06-10)
Successor| San Francisco Zephyr
Former operator(s)|

* Chicago and North Western Railway
* Milwaukee Road
* Union Pacific Railroad
* Southern Pacific Railroad
* Amtrak

Route
Termini| Chicago, Illinois (pre-1971)
Denver, Colorado (post-1971)
Oakland, California
San Francisco, California
Stops|

* 37 (westbound)
* 38 (eastbound)

Average journey time|

* 45 hours 45 minutes (westbound)
* 43 hours 44 minutes (eastbound)

Train number(s)|

* 103-101 (westbound)
* 102-104 (eastbound)

Line(s) used| Overland Route
Technical
Track gauge| 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Operating speed|

* 49.5 mph (westbound)
* 51.8 mph (eastbound)

| Route map

Legend

1936–1971

| Chicago C&NW |  |

|  | Chicago Union Station

|
|
|
|

|  |

|  | Elgin
|  |

|  | Davis Junction
|  |

|  | Savanna
|  |

|  |

| Illinois

Iowa

Clinton  |  |

|  | Marion
Cedar Rapids |  |

|  | Perry
Boone  |  |

|  |

| C&NW

UPRR

pre-1955 route

|  |

|  |  |

| MILW

UPRR

|  |

|  |

| Iowa

Nebraska

|  |

|  | Omaha
|  |

|  | Grand Island
|  |

|  | North Platte
|  |

|  | Sidney
|  |

|  |

| Nebraska

Wyoming

|  |

|  | Cheyenne
|  |

|  | Laramie
|  |

|  | Rawlins
|  |

|  | Rock Springs
|  |

|  | Green River
|  |

|  | Evanston
|  |

|  |

| Wyoming

Utah

| UPRR

SPRR

|  |

|  | Ogden
|  |

|  |

| Utah

Nevada

|  |

|  | Elko
|  |

|  | Reno
|  |

|  |

| Nevada

California

|  |

|  | Sacramento
|  |

|  | Martinez
|  |

|  | Berkeley
|  |

|  | Oakland (16th Street)
|  |

|  | Oakland Pier
|  |

|  |

San Francisco Bay ferry

|  |

|  | San Francisco
|  |

|  |

Bus transfer

|  |

|  | San Francisco
|  |  |  |  |  |

This diagram:

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Legend

Amtrak

|  |  |

0 mi

| Chicago

|
|
|
|

|  |

| 38 mi

61 km

Aurora
|  |

| 83 mi

134 km

Mendota
|  |

| 104 mi

167 km

Princeton
|  |

| 131 mi

211 km

Kewanee
|  |

| 163 mi

262 km

Galesburg
|  |

| 179 mi

288 km

Monmouth
|  |

|  |

| Illinois

Iowa

|  |

| 206 mi

332 km

Burlington
|  |

| 233 mi

375 km

Mount Pleasant
|  |

| 280 mi

451 km

Ottumwa
|  |

| 360 mi

579 km

Osceola
|  |

| 393 mi

632 km

Creston
|  |

|  |

| Iowa

Nebraska

|  |

| 496 mi

798 km

Omaha
|  |

| 551 mi

887 km

Lincoln
|  |

| 648 mi

1043 km

Hastings
|  |

| 702 mi

1130 km

Holdrege
|  |

| 779 mi

1254 km

McCook
|  |

|  |

| Nebraska

Colorado

|  |

| 922 mi

1484 km

Akron
|  |

| 956 mi

1539 km

Fort Morgan
|  |

| 1034 mi

1664 km

Denver Union Station

|  |

| 1086 mi

1748 km

Greeley
|  |

|  |

| Colorado

Wyoming

|  |

| 1140 mi

1835 km

Cheyenne
|  |

| 1197 mi

1926 km

Laramie
|  |

| 1314 mi

2115 km

Rawlins
|  |

| 1433 mi

2306 km

Rock Springs
|  |

| 1448 mi

2330 km

Green River
|  |

| 1548 mi

2491 km

Evanston
|  |

|  |

| Wyoming

Utah

|  |

| 1624 mi

2614 km

Ogden

|  |

|  |

| Utah

Nevada

|  |

| 1867 mi

3005 km

Elko
|  |

| 1889 mi

3040 km

Carlin
|  |

| 2177 mi

3504 km

Sparks
|  |

| 2180 mi

3508 km

Reno
|  |

|  |

| Nevada

California

|  |

| 2333 mi

3755 km

Sacramento
|  |

| 2420 mi

3895 km

Oakland
|  |

|  |

motorcoach shuttle

|  |

| 2426 mi

3904 km

San Francisco
|  |  |  |  |  |

This diagram:

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The City of San Francisco was a streamlined through passenger train which ran from 1936 to 1971 on the Overland Route between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California, with a ferry connection on to San Francisco. It was owned and operated jointly by the Chicago and North Western Railway (1936–55), Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (1955–71), the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. It provided premium extra fare service from Chicago to San Francisco when introduced in 1936 with a running time of 39 hours and 45 minutes each way.

## History

[edit]

Southern Pacific SDP45 leads City of San Francisco west at SN overpass 38°17′24″N 121°57′35″W﻿ / ﻿38.29°N 121.9597°W﻿ / 38.29; -121.9597, Cannon CA, in April 1971-- just before Amtrak

The City of San Francisco (TR 101-102) made its first run between Chicago and Oakland/San Francisco on June 14, 1936.

On July 26, 1941, a second set of equipment entered service allowing departures ten times per month each way. The added service replaced the short-lived steam powered Pullman-built mostly heavyweight (steel) streamline Forty-Niner that had operated an almost ten-hour slower 49-hour run five times a month between Chicago and San Francisco from July 8, 1937 to July 27, 1941.[1][2] Under an order of the War Production Board, no new head-end or passenger cars of any type (other than "military sleepers") were built and delivered to US railroads from mid 1942 until late 1945.[3]

On October 1, 1946, service was increased to thrice weekly departures from both Chicago and San Francisco made every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening.[4] On September 1, 1947, the City became daily with the creation of additional train sets to support seven-day-a-week operation in both directions of its 39-and-a-half-hour service. This change relegated the long-standing (since 1887) Overland to a secondary, no longer "limited" train in providing daily service between Chicago and Oakland/San Francisco on the Overland Route.[5][1]

Competing streamlined passenger trains were, starting in 1949, the California Zephyr on the Western Pacific (WP), Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW), and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q) Railroads, and starting in 1954, the San Francisco Chief on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF).

On October 30, 1955, the Milwaukee Road replaced the Chicago and North Western between Chicago and Omaha.[6] In 1960 the City of San Francisco was combined with the City of Los Angeles east of Ogden.

On July 16, 1962, the SP's San Francisco Overland (TR 27-28) ended its long run as a separate San Francisco/Oakland to Ogden year-round daily train when that service was consolidated with the City of San Francisco except for occasional summer and holiday seasonal extra section runs of the Overland which service ended on January 2, 1964.[7][8]

On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over all long-distance inter city passenger operations in the United States, discontinuing the MILW-UP-SP City of San Francisco. Amtrak retained the name for the thrice-weekly Denver–San Francisco/Oakland portion of the run until June 1972, when the entire Chicago-San Francisco/Oakland route became daily again as the San Francisco Zephyr.[9] Amtrak replaced its service between Chicago and San Francisco/Oakland on July 16, 1983 with its current daily train, the California Zephyr, when a portion of the route was moved from Union Pacific tracks in Wyoming to those of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in Colorado.[10]

### Incidents

[edit]

On August 12, 1939, the City of San Francisco derailed near Palisade, Nevada. Two dozen passengers and crew members were killed with many more injured. The incident was ruled an act of sabotage, but remains unsolved despite years of investigation.[11]

On January 13, 1952, the westbound City of San Francisco was trapped in a blizzard at Yuba Pass in the Sierra Nevada, 17 miles (27 km) west of Donner Pass (Track #1 at 39°19′34″N 120°35′35″W﻿ / ﻿39.3262°N 120.593°W﻿ / 39.3262; -120.593). Snow drifts from 100-mile-per-hour (160 km/h) winds blocked the train, burying it in 12 feet (3.7 meters) of snow and stranding it for six days. The event made international headlines. During the effort to reach the train, the railroad's snow-clearing equipment and snow-blowing rotary plows became frozen to the tracks near Emigrant Gap. Hundreds of workers and volunteers, including escaped German POW Georg Gärtner, rescued stranded passengers by clearing nearby Route 40 to reach the train. The 196 passengers and 30 crewmembers were evacuated within 72 hours of rescuers reaching the train. Upon evacuation, they traveled on foot to vehicles that carried them the few highway miles to Nyack Lodge. The train itself was extricated three days later on January 19.[12][13]

## Operations and equipment

[edit]

The M-10004 trainset at Reno, Nevada on a trial run City of San Francisco baggage label 1936 First run of the new (l) and last of the original (r) City train sets, January 2, 1938. Note the lower and tapered profile of the older cars. The new 17-car City consist crossing over the Great Salt Lake (Lucin Cutoff) c. 1939 SP mailer, Oct 1, 1946

A consist is the group of rail vehicles (cars plus locomotives) making up a train.[14]

The 1936 City of San Francisco had a Pullman-built 11-car articulated lightweight streamline consist: two 1,200 hp (890 kW) diesel-electric power unit cars (M-10004A/B), a baggage-mail car, a baggage-dormitory-kitchen car, a diner-lounge car, four named sleeper cars, a 48-seat chair car, and a 38-seat coach-buffet-blind end observation car.[15][16][17][1][18]

The City's original train set was replaced on January 2, 1938, with an all new 1⁄4-mile-long (400 m), semi-articulated 17-car lightweight streamline consist made up of one EMC-E2A and two EMC-E2B 1,800 hp (1,300 kW) diesel-electric power unit cars (SF 1-2-3) built by the Electro-Motive Corporation (now EMD), and 14 aluminum-alloy girder-type Pullman-built cars consisting of an auxiliary power-baggage-dormitory car, a 54-seat chair car, a 32-seat coffee shop-kitchen car, a 72-seat diner, a dormitory-buffet-lounge car, eight named sleeper cars, and an 84-foot 6-inch buffet-lounge-observation car (NOB HILL) said to be the "longest passenger car built in the United States" to that time.[19][20][21]

Former City of San Francisco Sleeper Civic Center

While costing over $2 million to build, operating costs (fuel, crew, etc) for the train were less than two cents per passenger-mile.[22] After both the original and new train sets made a joint run from Oakland to Chicago on that date, the older 11-car consist was shopped for a seven-month rebuild and then used over the next decade as the City of Los Angeles, City of Denver, or City of Portland before being withdrawn in spring 1948 and eventually scrapped.[1][23]

The City of San Francisco train sets were jointly owned by the C&NW, UP and SP with the exception of the sleepers which were Pullman-owned until 1945 when two of those cars were acquired by the C&NW and a dozen by the UP.[24][25][26] The new train was capable of speeds up to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) and accommodated 222 passengers.[27] Sleeping car space was double that of conventional trains with 168 berths compared to 84 while chair car space was increased to 54.[22] The new City consist had 60 compartments, drawing rooms, bedrooms, and "roomettes" instead of the regular nine for a larger variety of sleeping accommodations to choose from than on any train in America.[22] Among the premium services provided on the train were stewardess-nurses, a barber shop, a shower bath, and an internal telephone system. All regularly assigned cars were also air-conditioned.[28] Frequency remained at five trips per month each way.

From 1942 to 1946, the lounge-observation car Nob Hill and lounge-buffet car Marina were removed from the City of San Francisco's two train sets and placed in storage during WWII in compliance with a General Order of the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) banning the carriage of strictly luxury cars without passenger revenue capacity. Those cars were replaced with sleepers.[29][30][31]

A fifth consist made possible by the deliveries of new post war cars was added to the City of San Francisco in 1950.[32]

As with the City of Los Angeles, many of the train's cars bore the names of locales around its namesake city, including Mission Dolores, the nickname given to San Francisco's Mission San Francisco de Asís.

## Other railroad uses of the name City of San Francisco

[edit]

The City of San Francisco name has been applied to a 10/6 sleeping car built by Pullman Standard in the early 1950s. The car is now owned by the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad and operates on the line's dinner and first class trains. Union Pacific itself has a dome lounge car used on excursion and executive trains which carries the City of San Francisco name.

## See also

[edit]

* Passenger service on the Chicago and North Western Railway
* Passenger service on the Milwaukee Road
* Passenger service on the Southern Pacific Railroad
* Passenger service on the Union Pacific Railroad

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Heath, Erle (1945). Seventy-Five Years of Progress: Historical Sketch of the Southern Pacific. San Francisco: Southern Pacific Railroad. pp. 38–39.
2. ^ Wayner 1972, p. 150
3. ^ "Railroads: The U.P. Trail". Time. July 30, 1945.
4. ^ 1942 Annual Report, The Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, p. 7
5. ^ Beebe, Lucius Morris (1963). The Overland Limited. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books. p. 50.
6. ^ "Now ... Service to all the West". The Milwaukee Road Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 7. October 1955. pp. 4-6
7. ^ ICC Financial Docket No. 21946 (Filed February 5, 1962, decided July 6, 1962, served July 16, 1962)
8. ^ Southern Pacific Overland Route Time Tables (Form 4), July 16, 1962
9. ^ "San Francisco Zephyr route guide, 1975". Amtrak A History of America's Railroad. http://history.amtrak.com Archived January 25, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
10. ^ "Last passenger trains rolling across Wyoming". Spokesman-Review. July 13, 1983.[permanent dead link]
11. ^ Haine, Col. Edgar A. (1994). Train Wrecks. Cranbury, NJ: Cornwall Books. p. 107.
12. ^ Bull, Howard W. (January 1953). "'The Case of the Stranded Streamliner' The rescue of SP's snowbound 'City of San Francisco' at Yuba Pass, January 13-19, 1952". Trains & Travel. Vol 13, #3.
13. ^ Hartlaub, Peter (December 3, 2022). "1952 Sierra blizzard turned snowbound luxury train into frigid hell". San Francisco Chronicle.
14. ^ A railroad train "consist" is defined by 49 CFR §210.7 as "one or more locomotives coupled to a rail car or rail cars." Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Parts 200 to 299, Transportation. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office (2005), p. 59
15. ^ Wayner 1972, p. 142
16. ^ M-10004 CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO The Coach Yard.com
17. ^ Schafer, Mike; Welsh, Joe (1997). Classic American Streamliners. Osceola, Wisconsin: MotorBooks International. p. 17\. ISBN 978-0-7603-0377-1.
18. ^ Strack, Don (1999). Diesels of the Union Pacific, 1934-1982, The Classic Era, Volume 1. Halifax, PA: Withers Publishing Co.
19. ^ DeNevi 1977, pp. 9–13
20. ^ Wayner 1972, pp. 139, 150
21. ^ "Southern Pacific Passenger Trains: The City of San Francisco" Espee.Railfan.net
22. ^ a b c DeNevi 1977, p. 15
23. ^ Wayner 1972, pp. 142–44
24. ^ The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Vol. 70\. New York: National Railway Publication Company. 1938. p. 39.
25. ^ "Railway Age" Vol. 111 (1941). New York: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. p. 305
26. ^ Wayner 1972, p. 152–53
27. ^ "NEW STREAMLINER FOR S.F.-CHICAGO RUN". San Francisco: Southern Pacific News Bureau. January 17, 1938
28. ^ Dubin, Arthur D. (1964). Some Classic Trains. Milwaukee: Kalmbach Books. pp. 186–189.
29. ^ Wayner 1972, p. 157
30. ^ President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Executive Order 8989 Establishing the Office of Defense Transportation", December 18, 1941 Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara
31. ^ Eastman, Joseph B. "The Office of Defense Transportation" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 230, Transportation: War and Postwar (Nov. 1943), pp. 1-4
32. ^ Wayner 1972, p. 163

### Bibliography

[edit]

* DeNevi, Don (1977). Tragic Train: The City of San Francisco -- The Development and Historic Wreck of a Streamliner. Superior Publishing. ISBN 0875645259.
* Solomon, Brian (2000). Union Pacific Railroad. Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI. ISBN 0-7603-0756-3.
* Wayner, Robert J. (1972). Car Names, Numbers and Consists. New York: Wayner Publications.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to City of San Francisco.

External videos

Newsreel: Snowstorm strands dozens on Donner Pass - 1952

* "The Case of the Stranded Streamliner" by Central Pacific Railroad Museum
* 1969 Timetable, courtesy of streamlinerschedules.com
* The Real Stories Database (archived) gives real life parallels to many Railway Series stories

* v
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Passenger trains of the Union Pacific Railroad

Early articulated streamliners|

* M-10000
* M-10001
* M-10002
* M-10003 to M-10006

City fleet|

* City of Denver
* City of Kansas City
* City of Las Vegas
* City of Los Angeles
* City of Portland
* City of Salina
* City of San Francisco
* City of St. Louis

Commuter rails|

* Metra (West, Northwest, North)

Others|

* Butte Special
* Challenger
* Colorado Special
* Columbine
* Forty Niner
* Gold Coast
* Idahoan
* Los Angeles Limited
* Nightingale
* Overland
* Overland Flyer
* Overland Limited
* Pacific Limited
* Pony Express
* Portland Limited
* Portland Rose
* Saint Louis Express
* San Francisco Challenger
* San Francisco Overland
* San Francisco Overland Limited
* Spokane
* Treasure Island Special
* Utahn
* Yellowstone Special

Rolling stock|

* Astra Dome
* Pacific series
* Placid series

* v
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* e

Named trains of the Chicago and North Western Railway

400s|

* The 400/ Twin Cities 400
* Capitol 400
* City of Milwaukee 400
* Commuter 400
* Dakota 400
* Flambeau 400
* Kate Shelley 400
* Minnesota 400
* Peninsula 400
* Rochester 400
* Shoreland 400
* Valley 400

Overland Route|

* Challenger
* City of Denver
* City of Los Angeles
* City of Portland
* City of San Francisco
* Gold Coast
* Los Angeles Challenger
* Los Angeles Limited
* Overland Limited
* Pacific Limited
* Portland Rose
* San Francisco Challenger
* San Francisco Overland Limited
* The Columbine
* The Forty Niner
* The Nightingale

Other Named Trains|

* Arrowhead Limited
* Ashland Limited
* Ashland Mail
* Corn King Limited
* Duluth-Superior Limited
* Iron & Copper Country Express
* Minnesota & Black Hills Express
* North Western Limited
* Northwoods Fisherman
* Rochester-Minnesota Special
* The Commuter
* The Mondamin
* The North American
* The Shoreland
* The Valley
* The Victory
* The Viking
* The Winnebago

* v
* t
* e

Named trains of the Milwaukee Road

Hiawathas|

* Afternoon Hiawatha
* Chippewa-Hiawatha
* Hiawatha-North Woods Section
* Hiawatha-North Woods Service
* Midwest Hiawatha
* Morning Hiawatha
* North Woods Hiawatha
* Olympian Hiawatha
* Twin Cities Hiawatha

Overland Route|

* Challenger
* City of Denver
* City of Los Angeles
* City of Portland
* City of San Francisco
* Colorado Special
* Pacific Limited
* Portland Rose
* San Francisco Overland Limited

Others|

* Arrow
* Chippewa
* Columbian
* Copper Country Limited
* Fast Mail
* Marquette
* Minnesota Marquette
* Olympian
* "On Wisconsin"
* Pioneer Limited
* Sioux
* Southwest Limited
* St. Paul-Minneapolis Special
* Tomahawk
* Varsity

Suburban service|

* North Line
* West Line
* Watertown–Milwaukee

Rolling stock|

* Beaver Tail
* Bilevel gallery car
* Skytop Lounge
* Super Dome

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Passenger trains of the Southern Pacific

Named trains|

* Acadian
* Argonaut
* Arizona Limited
* Cascade
* Del Monte
* El Yaqui
* Golden Rocket
* Golden State
* Imperial
* Lark
* Owl Limited
* Peninsula Commute
* Rogue River
* Sunbeam
* Sunset Limited
* Suntan Special
* West Coast

Daylights|

* Coast Daylight
* Daylight Limited
* Morning Daylight
* Noon Daylight
* Sacramento Daylight
* San Joaquin Daylight
* Shasta Daylight

Overland Route|

* Challenger
* City of San Francisco
* San Francisco Challenger
* San Francisco Overland
* Pacific Limited
* Gold Coast
* Saint Louis Express

* v
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Former Amtrak routes

Long
distance|

| West|

* Chief
* City of San Francisco
* Denver Zephyr
* Desert Wind
* El Capitan
* Inter-American
* Lone Star
* North Coast Hiawatha
* Pioneer
* San Francisco Zephyr
* Super Chief
* Texas Chief

|

East|

* Broadway Limited
* Champion
* Floridian
* Hilltopper
* James Whitcomb Riley
* Mountaineer
* National Limited
* Lake Shore
* Panama Limited
* River Cities
* Silver Palm (1996–2002)
* South Wind
* Spirit of St. Louis
* Three Rivers
* Vacationer (seasonal)

Corridor|

| West|

* Coast Daylight
* Expo '74
* Las Vegas Limited
* Orange County Commuter
* Pacific International
* San Diegan
* Spirit of California
* Willamette Valley

|

Midwest|

* Abraham Lincoln
* Ann Rutledge
* Arrowhead
* Black Hawk
* Blue Ridge
* Calumet
* Campus
* Hoosier State
* Indiana Connection
* International
* Kansas City Mule
* Kentucky Cardinal
* Lake Cities
* Lake Country Limited
* Limited
* Loop
* Michigan Executive
* North Star
* Prairie Marksman
* Shawnee
* St. Louis Mule
* State House
* Turboliner
* Twilight Limited
* Twin Cities Hiawatha

East|

* George Washington
* Gulf Breeze
* Gulf Coast Limited
* Montrealer
* Shenandoah
* Silver Palm (1982–1985)
* West Virginian

| Northeast Corridor|

* Atlantic City Express
* Bankers
* Beacon Hill
* Cape Codder (seasonal)
* Chesapeake
* Clamdigger
* Clocker
* Colonial
* Connecticut Yankee
* Fast Mail
* Merchants Limited
* Metroliner
* Night Owl
* Twilight Shoreliner

|

Empire Corridor|

* Empire State Express
* Niagara Rainbow

Keystone Corridor|

* Atlantic City Express
* Fort Pitt

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