With military bases all along the West Coast, troop trains and
armed forces specials kept the SP tracks well occupied through
the end of the war in 1945. Government regulations remained in
effect until April, 1946 to permit accommodation of homecom-
ing soldiers and a changeover to peacetime traffic.
The Daylight in postwar years
With the end of government regulation in 1946, the second
parlor car and tavern car were reinstated on the Coast Daylight.
Visible changes to the cars included a gradual change from the
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12. The westbound Daylight, #98, stops at San Luis Obispo in
the mid-1950s, near the end of steam operation. The parlor
observation car shows off the new lighting array on its roof.
Photo courtesy Bob’s Photos
PART 1 – SP PASSENGER TRAINS |
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steam ejector air conditioning system to new Waukesha sys-
tems, and elimination of the word “Lines” from the letterboard.
See the section on painting the trains later in this series.
The skirting on the cars was gradually removed to permit easier
access to the underbody appliances. The kitchen cars on the
triple units were revised in 1950. This is included in the HO and
N scale postwar consists.
After the war’s end, great numbers of surplus military trans-
port aircraft were sold to airlines that converted them into
passenger planes.
Previous to this time, San Francisco-Los Angeles airline tickets
had been expensive and difficult to obtain, but soon flights were
available at any hour. The plane trip only took about two hours
13. The Daylight 1946 consist, showing the parlor observation
car and stateroom parlor with baggage elevators following the
tavern car, all from the 1940-1 order of cars.
