Nostalgia & History > City of San Francisco

This train was known for speed between Oakland Pier and Chicago, burning up the tracks of the Overland Route. Operated by SP, UP, and CNW, the engines had all three heralds on the nose. SP handled maintenance for the new diesels at their Red Train shops in Alameda. That meant the train would be towed between Oakland and Alameda on a regular basis, rolling right down the middle of Lincoln Ave. in the island city.

Special speed limits applied to the City of San Francisco. My SP timetable of the era shows the maximum speed at 95mph with the non-stop run between Berkeley and Sacramento at 1 hr. and 23 mins. The train did not operate every day; it "sailed" every 6 days. Inferior trains were required to clear Nos. 101 and 102 by at least 15 minutes. The City got respect.

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Wow, what an image! Compare, if you will, the state of the development of railroad
equipment versus the automobiles parked track-side in the background. While the
E unit looks modern and sleek, the cars still look like motorized buggies. Thanks
for sharing this gem......

My great grandfather ran the City between Sparks and Carlin many times before he retired as #1 in seniority on the Salt Lake Division in 1951.

There was one trip on the City where speed was something of an issue. If you recall, there were allegations that speed played a role in the derailment at Harney.

On this particular day, the engineer who turned the train over to him at Carlin was complaining because they were having trouble keeping up speed. For some reason, the units could only manage 90 instead of the usual 95.

The train departed Carlin a bit late. Approaching Beowawe, a section gang was clearing their motor car from the rails as the train came around a cut. From the story I heard from the fireman years later, my grandfather simply lifted his foot off the deadman pedal and the train made the emergency application. It hit the motorcar as the crew just cleared the rails.

They flattened every wheel on the train. From Beowawe to Battle Mountain they made 10 miles per hour. A carman met the train there and assessed the damage, allowing the train to proceed at no more than 20 mph -- a very long and noisy trip, before it was finally annulled in Sparks.

stash Wrote:
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> .......The train did not operate every day; it
> "sailed" every 6 days.

Actually tri-weekly. The locomotive is the SF-4,5,6 which is the second trainset - the first was SF-1,2,3.

JAChooChoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> stash Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > .......The train did not operate every day;
> it
> > "sailed" every 6 days.
>
> Actually tri-weekly. The locomotive is the
> SF-4,5,6 which is the second trainset - the first
> was SF-1,2,3.
>


Per Western Div. timetable 225, the City departed Oakland Pier on the 2nd, 8th, 14th, 20th and 26th of each month.

---stash