The new Southern Pacific Daylight was a second-generation
streamliner, for it was made up of individual stand-alone cars
and twin-unit articulated chair car pairs, all with standard
couplers at their ends. Each car or pair could be cut in or out
of a consist as required, and could operate with all existing
passenger equipment. Most of the lightweight construction
parameters developed for the Daylight cars are still employed
up through the latest Amtrak passenger equipment.
The streamlined Daylight’s chair cars (coaches) had reclining
seats and wide panoramic windows. The interiors featured the
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5. Daylight-type cars in some of the colors they were painted
to match other streamliners: Top row shows the colors of over-
night trains, with a heavyweight dining car. Next down is the
scarlet and orange of the Coast Daylight until 1958. The yellow
cars served on the Overland Route with matching Union Pacific
and Chicago North Western cars, and the bottom row shows
the stainless steel with red passenger cars, with head-end cars
in gray on all SP intercity trains after 1958.
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6. Second section of the Daylight as it ran circa 1940. From left
to right: a pair of lightweight chair cars in dark olive, Daylight-
painted chair car and coffee shop car, and a two-tone gray
heavyweight dining car.
latest high-fashion styling, and the entire train was air condi-
tioned, a very new feature at the time.
While most streamliners used internal combustion engines,
the SP contracted Lima Locomotive Works to build GS-2
class steam engines with a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement. These
were mechanically similar to the SP’s earlier 4-8-4s, but the
new engines had functional sheet metal skyline casings that
deflected smoke away from the cab in tunnels. There was also
decorative side skirting and a nose cone. The engines were fin-
ished in brilliant scarlet and orange to match the new train.
