Southern Pacific Lines

Coast Line Division 

“The Route of the Octopus”

 
 

General Information

San Joaquin Daylight History

1941

  1. The 1941 order was for a great many cars for the Morning, Noon, and SJ Daylight. The 1941 order did not include any baggage-chair or straight parlor cars and, as a result, there was not a completely "new" 1941 Morning Daylight.

Post World War II

  1. SP brought back the Noon Daylight with the 1939 cars on June 2, 1946 and returned the 1937 cars to the San Joaquin Daylight. SP also changed the lettering scheme by adopting bigger letters and dropping the word "Lines" from the letterboards. The change occurred gradually as the cars were repainted. As 1946 came to a close, SP and the other railroads were all waiting for their new equipment.

  2. Bruce Bloch


  1. No SJD insignia would have lasted until 1955.

  2. Jeff Alan Cauthen


  1. The San Joaquin Daylight had a 30' postal apartment in its postal baggage car to begin with, and later switched to a car with a 60' apartment. Oakland-LA.

  2. Jeff Alan Cauthen



San Joaquin Daylight Train Consist

San Joaquin Steam Motive Power

  1. An SJ Daylight came with Mt-4 and the Coast Daylight with GS- 4....and all in "lines" format.

Modeling the San Joaquin Daylight Steam Motive Power

Athearn

  1. Athearn are doing locomotives, the MT-4 4-8-2 Southern Pacific. It’s is for the Valley. An SJ Daylight with Mt-4 and the Coast Daylight with GS- 4....and all in "lines" format. Athearn models of the Sacramento-built MT-4 4-8-2 will come with or without the signature SP "skyline" casing. Individually applied parts include piping, valves, generators and more. Two tender variations will be offered.


San Joaquin Diesel Motive Power


San Joaquin Passenger Equipment

Corrugated Daylight Passenger Cars

  1. SP ordered cars from both Budd and Pullman.

San Joaquin Daylight 1941

  1. The 1941 SJD had a combination of the 1937 Daylight equipment and new purpose built 1941 cars. All the cars had a San Joaquin insignia applies. The SJ Daylight had the same Daylight equipment as the Coast Daylight, except for the parlor observation car which also had the built-in drumhead.

  2. Gordon Searle


  1. The SJ Daylight did get the 1937 Coast Daylight food service cars (diner and tavern), the parlor-observation, and baggage chair car.The head-end equipment was rebuilt 70' HW baggage car and HW 70' postal-baggage car with 30' postal apartment. These HW cars had new semi-streamlined ends with full-width diaphragms. The front end of the postal-baggage did not have full-width diaphragms.


  1. Articulated equipment was found on the San Joaquin Daylights every day during their red/orange era,  It also got new 1941 single unit chair cars (Class 79-C-2) and articulated chair cars. Older articulated chair cars from 1937 were most likely operated also.


San Joaquin Daylight Consists

San Joaquin Daylight Consist 1945

  1. Train #52 on May 25, 1945 and

  2. Train #51 on May 28, 1945


  4. SP 3300, chair-baggage;  

  5. SP 2442-2441, artc-chair;  

  6. SP 2450-2449, artc-chair;  

  7. SP 2444-2443, artc-chair;  

  8. SP 2485, single chair;  

  9. SP 10255-10254-10253, artc coffee shop-kitche-coffee shop;  

  10. SP 2488, single chair;  

  11. SP 2472-2471, artc-chair;  

  12. SP 2474-2473, artc-chair;  

  13. SP 2424, single chair;  

  14. SP 2486, single chair;  

  15. SP 2953, parlor-observation.  

  16. No Tavern car because of WWII restrictions.

  17. Jeff Cauthen


San Joaquin Daylight 1945

  1. #51  6/1/1945


  3. SP 3301, chair-baggage;  

  4. SP 2452-2451, artc-chair;  

  5. SP 2464-2463, artc-chair;  

  6. SP 2446-2445, artc-chair;  

  7. SP 2489. single chair;  

  8. SP 10252-10251-10250, artc coffee shop-kitchen-coffee-shop;  

  9. SP 2487, single chair;  

  10. SP 2476-2475, artc-chair;  

  11. SP 2466-2465, artc-chair;  

  12. SP 2491, single chair;  

  13. SP 2952, parlor-observation.  

  14. No Tavern car and dining car is serving coffee shop meals only due to WW II.

  15. Jeff Cauthen


San Joaquin Daylight 1950’s

  1. In the early 1950's these were equipped with the corrugated / ribbed cars.


San Joaquin Daylight 1970

  1. SP #51 (11-24-70)

  2. Los Angeles, CA

  3. Arrived prior to #98.


  5. SP 10602 Automatic Buffet Car

  6. SP 2390 Chair

  7. SP 2464 Articulated Chair Car

  8. SP 2463 "

  9. SP 2296 Coach Observation


San Joaquin Daylight 1970

  1. SP #52 (11-29-70)

  2. Los Angeles, CA

  3. Departed 711am, Sunday 11-29-70

  4.  

  5. SP 3204 SDP45

  6. SP 6793 Baggage (gray)

  7. SP 2473 Articulated Chair Car

  8. SP 2474 “

  9. SP 2416 Articulated Chair Car

  10. SP 2417 “

  11. SP 10603 Automatic Buffet Car

  12. SP 2454 Articulated Chair Car

  13. SP 2453 “

  14. SP 2295 Coach Observation

  15.  

  16. The SJD was usually about 5 cars in the off-season.  The extra cars were for the holiday traffic. 2295 and the 2296 were the infamous observation conversions chock-full of coach seats, with little leg room, and facing away from the round-end windows. Except for the baggage car and ABC the cars were rebuilds from the fluted sides to the flat “Reynolds Wrap” stainless steel sides.


References

  1. Info on corrugated chairs on the Daylights, get the book Train 98 and 99, The Daylights by Richrd K. Wright.


RPO's

  1. The San Joaquin and Sunbeam trains carried a working RPO. The San Joaquin Daylight first carried a Bag-Mail car with a 30' mail apartment. That was later replaced with a car with a 60' mail apartment. Both cars were rebuilt heavyweights.

  2. Tony Thompson


Parlor-observation cars

Drumhead Tail Sign

  1. SP 2950 and 2951 had a San Joaquin neon tail sign from 1941 thru 1946 /1947. When parlor-observation cars SP 2950 and 2951 were assigned to the SJD the original flush rear tail signs were replaced by neon tail signs in a raised box similar to the ones used on the 1939 and 1941 parlor-observation cars. 

  2. Jeff Cauthen


  1. There was an emblem for the San Joaquin Daylight. It looked like the Coast daylights insignia with one difference, it had the words San Joaquin written instead of Daylight in the same streamlined cursive writing.

  2. Benjamin Tomimatsu


  4. The word Daylight was not included in the San Joaquin neon tail sign. 

  5. Jeff Cauthen

References

  1. See page 448 of Beebe's "The Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroads" for a photo of a San Joaquin neon tail sign.

  2. If you look at "Daylight Reflections Volume One" on page 85 and you will see an image of the drumhead.

  3. Photos will be in the upcoming SP Passenger Cars Volume 5: Lounge, Dome & Parlor Cars.

Modeling the San Joaquin Daylight Tail Sign

Tomar

  1. Tomar Industries makes San Joaquin lightweight neon-style drumheads in several scales. On their website click on #340 in the Southern Pacific section to see an illustration of this drumhead (which does NOT include the word Daylight).

  2.                                                                         https://tomarindustries.com/drumheads.htm#SP

  3. Tom Cockle


Details

Daylight Trucks

  1. The 4-TC-4, 4-TC- 5, 4-TC-6 trucks were used on the early Daylights. Drawings in Richard Wright's "SP Daylight Train 98-99 Vol 1" which does have photos and drawings of the 4-TC-4, 4-TC-5, 4- TC-6 trucks, but the drawings are not as clear.

  2. Tony Thompson 


Paint

  1. The San Joaquin Daylight was painted in painted in Daylight colors. Repainting was fairly prompt.

  2. Bruce Bloch


Lettering & Numbering

  1. As originally delivered with  4 1/2" "Southern Pacific Lines" (outlined in black) on the letterboards

  2. 3) as modified in 1948 adding car types to the letterboard ends.

pre 1946

  1. SP lettering, Aluminum Bronze

1946

  1. SP changed the lettering scheme by adopting bigger letters (5”) and dropping the word "Lines" from the letterboards. The change occurred gradually as the cars were repainted.

end of 1947

  1. Few passenger cars made it to the with "Lines" lettering, at least for premium trains like the Daylight. Secondary and support cars may have taken somewhat longer.

post 1946

  1. SP lettering Gray with black lining

1948

  1. As modified in 1948 adding car types to the letterboard ends.

post 1958

  1. SP lettering Gray without black lining

  2. use Thin Film #180 which is correct for these cars.


Modeling the San Joaquin Daylight Passenger Cars

Athearn 1937 Daylight Cars

  1. These are indeed just the old Athearn line of passenger car caricatures, which used to sell for a few bucks in "shake-the-box" kit form, now being sold pre-assembled for much bigger bucks. None have prototypes, all except the baggage and RPO cars are "shorty" versions of full length cars to begin with. The streamlined baggage and RPO are close to ATSF prototype, but unlike anything SP had. The heavyweight RPO is like nothing seen, with its huge doors, but the baggage is again close to Santa Fe. Whether SP had anything close enough in its clerestory-roof baggage cars  for this car to be a "SP stand-in".

Details

Modeling Diaphragms

Athearn

  1. With Athearn passenger cars, to add diaphragms to them use the American Limited diaphragms. They line up, work and look great and don't impede tracking of the car. The part number off hand is 9100. They come in 1 of 3 colors.

Modeling San Joaquin Daylight Passenger Car Trucks

Triple bolster trucks Passenger Car Trucks

D&G Models

  1. Note, passenger car trucks are not generic. The exact trucks that are correct for SP depend on the particular passenger car. Your best bet is a model of a triple bolster truck, made by D&G. They were used on many SP Daylight cars and the model trucks roll fantastically well.

  2. Tim O'Connor


  4. Web page is                                     www.dandgmodels.com

  5. e-mail                                              dandgmodels@yahoo.com.


  7. Not only do the D&G trucks roll better than any other truck on the market, they are also prototypically correct.

Walther’s

  1. The Walthers 43-R is a better looking truck than the old MRC truck. However, the D&G truck not only looks better but rolls MUCH better than the Walthers. It's true that Walthers has electrical pickup, and use of wipers on the D&G trucks will somewhat impair rollability. Another viable option, though, may be to use batteries, considering how little power diode lights take. Also avoids flicker. Years ago Dick Wright suggested using the reed switch as a means for turning lights on and off, either when starting and ending an operating session, or as a means of operating the Daylight's step lights entering and leaving a station.


  3. There are some brass components for the trucks still around, and they build up into a nice looking model, based on the ones I've seen Jeff build. I will not assemble the brass trucks, and recommend that it be attempted only by advanced modelers. Because of shrinkage of the brass when cast using the lost wax method, some resizing of the holes in the journals for the nylon bearing inserts is required[note some kind of electrical pickup is still required as the trucks are still insulated from the track, but this gives free rolling characteristics]. Some soldering is also required during assembly, without burning up the springs, melting the bearing inserts etc. Recommend using the NMRA 88 wheelsets to make sure the wheels cannot rub up against the frame and cause a short.

  4. Jim Gerstley


Lettering & Numbering

Decals

Thin Film

    post 1958 - SP lettering Gray without black lining

  1. Use Thin Film #180 which is correct for these cars.


References

  1. Info on the Daylights, see Train 98 and 99, The Daylights by Richrd K. Wright.



Specific San Joaquin Daylight Cars

79-C-2  Chair Baggage

  1.  It got new 1941 single unit chair cars (Class 79-C-2).






 
Southern Pacific Lines Modeling San Joaquin Daylight Train
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