The Sunset Limited, Southern Pacific's Fabled Train Connecting New Orleans

The Southern Pacific is lauded for the vast and illustrious passenger services it offered over the years and its Sunset Limited as another of its fabled trains. Along with the Sunset other well-known SP passenger trains include the legendary Daylights. The popularity of the Daylight was incredibly high, even through the early 1960s although by the latter half of that decade the SP began greatly reducing services and amenities on the fleet as patronage declined. Today, a version of this successful fleet of trains remains under Amtrak as the likewise very popular Coast Starlight (which follows much of the same routing of the Shasta Daylight). The Sunset Limited, when created, was the oldest named train in the country, which continues to this day as it has long outlived its creator and remains a popular operation under Amtrak.

Much like the Pennsylvania Railroad was to the State of Pennsylvania so was the Southern Pacific to the State of California, an institutional icon. Also just like the Pennsy the Southern Pacific (also referred to affectionately as the “Espee” by railfans and historians after its SP reporting marks) has such a history that entire libraries of books could be written on the differing aspects of the railroad. The SP was by far our country’s single largest classic railroad (i.e., before the modern-day merger movement began in the 1950s), spanning over 15,000 miles and reaching from the stretches of northwest Oregon to southeast Louisiana!

The Southern Pacific has a whole host of renowned achievements it is credited with, far too many to go into detail here. However, to name a few it had three important main lines which continue as important arteries under Union Pacific today, the Overland Route (San Francisco to the Midwest), the Golden State Route (the Southwest to Kansas City), and the Sunset Route (the Pacific Coast to the Gulf Coast).

By the 20th century the railroad continued to expand and was by this time well entrenched into the Southeastern markets of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast (it also leased the Central Pacific in the 1920s, eventually merging the railroad into its system with its main line becoming the Overland Route). By mid-century it owned a stunning 15,000 miles of track, stretching from the warm and sunny beaches of Southern California and Gulf of Mexico to the deserts of Arizona and mountains of the Sierra Range.

Aside from its very popular and famous passenger trains its traffic base, as you might expect, was very diverse and included things such as chemicals, lumber and timber products, produce, autos and auto parts, other agricultural products, and almost any other product that could be hauled in a freight car. Through the 1970s the Southern Pacific was by far one of the most respected railroads, if not the industry standard, in terms of size and scope.

The Southern Pacific’s Sunset Limited dates all of the way back to the 19th century when the railroad inaugurated the train in 1894 to serve a corridor across the vast reaches of its system, connecting Los Angeles with New Orleans. The Sunset remained a respectable, yet low-key operation on the SP for the first 50+ years of its life using heavyweight, non-streamlined equipment.

However, this all changed in 1950 when the train was upgraded with shiny stainless-steel equipment from the Budd Company, complete with EMD E-series diesel for power which were clad in the Espee’s very popular Daylight livery (later, F-series units took over the train sporting the SP’s red and gray livery). The on board accommodations were quite classy although never quite as luxurious as rival western trains like the Super Chief or City of San Francisco. Still, like its sister long distance train, the Shasta Daylight, the Sunset Limited featured themes of the regions in which it operated such as a lounge car highlighting the French Quarter in New Orleans.

While the inherent drawback of the Sunset was its rather bland scenery of flat deserts in the west and swampy buoys in the Deep South, the train still turned out to be quite successful, no doubt in part due to the fact that it reached New Orleans and covered a distance of over 2,000 miles!

By the late 1960s the SP was having the same problems with its Sunset Limited as were virtually all other railroads with their long-distance, first class trains, an increasing loss of ridership due to automobiles and airplanes. While the train was briefly cut down to humiliating coach-only status (with a semblance of dining service) it was reinstated to tri-weekly status with lounges and sleepers upon the urging of the ICC. The Sunset remained this way until Amtrak, when the carrier kept the train as part of its new system.

Today, the Sunset Limited remains a popular train under Amtrak although its regard has diminished somewhat after the carrier has chosen ot to reinstate the train’s original route [under Amtrak] to Tallahassee, Florida for unknown reasons after Hurricane Katrina had knocked out the line for some time.

For more reading and background on the SP’s passenger operations, you might want to consider the book Southern Pacific Passenger Trains from noted author Brian Solomon. The book gives a superb general overview of the railroad and its extensive passenger operations, and is filled with excellent photographs (many in color) of the Espee. If you are a fan or have any interest whatsoever in the Southern Pacific you will very much enjoy the book.

Also, for more reading on streamliners like the Sunset Limited you might want to also consider the book Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon from renowned author Mike Schafer who covers in detail most of the well-known and remembered “classic” passenger trains to operate in the country. If you have any interest in such you should very much enjoy Mr. Schafer’s book. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing these books please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".