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
PART 1 – SP PASSENGER TRAINS |
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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.
