Nostalgia & History > The California Limited

I found the following terrific colorized photo of the California Limited on the following website,

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl/oneITEM.asp?pid=2001247&iid=1004626&srchtype=

Picture 1, “The California Limited on the Desert, no. 51245.” [I haven’t figured out yet how to get more information on the picture. Somewhere I found out the picture is a William Henry Jackson photo colorized.]

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Wikipedia has a webpage on the California Limited,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Limited

The following excerpts are from the above webpage.

“The California Limited was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and a true ‘workhorse’ of the railroad. It was assigned train Nos. 3 & 4, and its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. Operating seven sections of the Limited was common, and during peak travel periods as many as 23 westbound and 22 eastbound sections departed in a single day.

The line was conceived by company president Allen Manvel as a means to ‘signify completion of the basic Santa Fe system.’ Manvel felt he could attract business and enhance the prestige of the railroad by establishing daily, first-class service from Chicago to the West Coast. The California Limited, billed as the ‘Finest Train West of Chicago,’ made its first run on November 27, 1892, with five separate trainsets making continuous round trips on a 2½-day schedule each way.”

“The California Limited was permanently removed from service on June 15, 1954, giving it the distinction of having had the longest tenure of any train making the Chicago-Los Angeles run within the Santa Fe system.”

Picture 2 is from the above Wikipedia page.

Picture 2, “A view of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's California Limited in Los Angeles, California shows engine No. 53 at the La Grande Station, circa 1899.” William Henry Jackson photo.

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Wikipedia has a webpage for La Grande Station,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Station

Pictures 3 and 4 are from the above Wikipedia webpage.

Picture 3, “La Grande Station, about 1895.”

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Picture 4, “Station at night, about 1915.” “Description: A nighttime view of the La Grande Station from the southeast. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often abbreviated to ‘Santa Fe’) opened La Grande Station on July 29, 1893. It was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Ave, just south of the First Street viaduct built in 1929, and on the west bank of the LA River. The Moorish-style depot cost $50,000 and for 30 years boasted a first-class restaurant called "The Harvey House." La Grande Station was the Santa Fe Railway's main passenger terminal in Los Angeles, California, until the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. After the earthquake, the station's dome was removed, but the station continued to serve as Santa Fe Railway's LA passenger terminal until the opening of the new LA Union Station on May 7, 1939. When Union Station opened in 1939, Santa Fe moved all of its passenger services there and closed the La Grande station. Approximate date from postmark. Date: 1915. Source:

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt5g5032vw/?layout=metadata&brand=calisphere

Author: Unknown.”

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Wikipedia has a webpage for Golden State (train).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_State_(train)

“The Golden State Limited was a named passenger train operating between Chicago and Los Angeles from 1902–1968 by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (‘Rock Island’) and the Southern Pacific Company (SP) and predecessors. It was named for California, which was, in many cases, called the ‘Golden State.’ In the early years of the train, the drumhead, or lighted sign at the end of the observation car of the train, was done primarily in orange, with colored drawings of oranges on glass backlit by train lighting.”

Picture 5 is from the following webpage,

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=170241&imageID=70086&total=2&num=0&word=Railroad%20bridges%20--%20Arizona&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=12&pos=1

Picture 5, Image ID: 70086. California Limited crossing Johnson's Canyon, Arizona (1908-1909).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/12 06:11 by flynn.

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If you go to the following website there are pictured here two pictures of the “seven sections of the California Limited ready to depart from Los Angeles for Chicago in 1929.” Four of the sections are in one picture and three of the sections are in the second picture. If place your cursor on one of the pictures and click with your left button you will get a larger picture.

http://cruiselinehistory.com/goodbye-1929-the-death-of-the-roaring-twenties-hello-2011-the-beginning-of-the-second-great-recession-a-k-a-depression-history-does-repeat-itself

Picture 6 is from the following webpage,

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/california-railroad-1869-granger.html

If you go to the picture on the webpage and place your cursor on some of the people in the photo a green square will appear. If you click with your left click button an enlarged picture of the area in the photo will appear. You can see the individuals.

Picture 6, “California Railroad, 1869.”

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Nice job, liked the links. Not too far from Union Station if you Google Earthe La Grande.

flynn Wrote:

> Picture 1, “The California Limited on the
> Desert, no. 51245.” (I haven’t figured out
> yet how to get more information on the picture.
> Somewhere I found out the picture is a
> William Henry Jackson photo colorized.)

Probably from the DPL site:

http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll21/id/7768

Looks like the artist that colorized it also extended the smoke plume and attached another photo with some more Joshua Trees to the right side. When you know to look for it, the vertical seam between the images jumps out.

> If you go to the following website there are
> pictured here two pictures of the “seven
> sections of the California Limited ready to depart
> from Los Angeles for Chicago in 1929.”

The uncropped photo showing all seven sections can be found on p.97 of Santa Fe...Steel Rails Through California, and p.290 of Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail has what is probably the front-end view of the same publicity shot. All seven sections were powered by 3700-class 4-8-2's. We also had a recent thread on a California Limited wreck at Flagstaff, AZ:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2879128

This is from a postcard.