Richard Wright’s book, “The Daylight,” recounts that when this
radical-looking train was first assembled for inspection at Los
Angeles, railroad executives and workers seeing the streamliner
for the first time stared at it in shock. An analogy might be if
you found a red, orange and silver space shuttle parked in front
of your house today.
The streamlined Coast Daylight in service,
March 21, 1937
The Daylight’s schedule was the fastest ever operated on this
line, and the popular Los Angeles-San Francisco coast route
assured that this train would be well patronized.
The rugged landscape of the California coastline with views of
the Pacific Ocean was another attraction of the train. All seats
were reserved, assuring adequate seating, and the railroad pro-
moted the train with intense advertising. Soon, photos of movie
stars and other celebrities boarding the Daylight began to
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7. The Daylight was such a radical appearing train in 1937 that
seeing it would be like finding a red and orange Space Shuttle
in front of your house today.
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appear in newspapers, magazines and movie theater newsreels,
all glamorizing the new train.
Over a three-month period, the Daylight broke all ridership
records for single section long distance trains. Passengers were
encouraged to walk about the train to visit the dining car, coffee
shop or the tavern to help break up the all-day trip. First class
passengers could also visit the parlor observation lounge fit-
ted with rear-facing sofas to watch mile after mile of changing
scenery at the rear of the train.
Summer months were peak travel periods, along with
Christmas to New Years. To make full use of the new equipment,
8. Here’s an informative 30-minute Southern Pacific marketing
film from the late 1930s promoting the new Daylight passen-
ger train. Do excuse the diesel train sounds, however!
