Santa Fe’s California Special, c1954-c1965

 

Fred Klein, 2011

The California Special (not to be confused with the California Limited) ran from Houston Texas to Clovis New Mexico, where, after 1954, it connected with the San Francisco Chief. It thus can be regarded as the Houston connection of the San Francisco Chief. Before 1954, the connection was with the Grand Canyon at Clovis. The train is substantially sized for a connecting train, and thus speaks to significant business and ridership in Texas. A train by this name started in 1915 on the rails of a Santa Fe predecessor Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe running from New Orleans to Clovis. The California Special was eventually discontinued in 1968.

The website http://browncountyhistory.org/passenger_trains.html provides this information: “In 1954, the ‘San Francisco Chief’ that ran between Los Angeles and Chicago was inaugurated. So the schedule was changed so that the ‘California Special’ left Houston at 6:45 p.m. each night and arrived at Clovis, New Mexico at 10:30 a.m. the next morning (two hours before the arrival of the Train # 1, the ‘San Francisco Chief’, from Chicago to California).  The train, now # 75, left Brownwood at 2:00 am and arrived in Sweetwater at 4:25 am. The eastbound "California Special," #76 left Clovis at 4:45 p.m. (one hour after the arrival of Train #2 of the "San Francisco Chief," California to Chicago), arriving in Houston at 8:15 a.m. the following morning.  The train #76 made its 12:25-12:50 a.m. in Brownwood.”

 

The consist on which I base this December 24, 1960 train is from Wayner’s Passenger Train Consists 1923-1973 page 82, at Sweetwater, Texas. Because this is a connecting train and not a premier name train, I presume the consist contained both older hand-me-down and newer cars, and varied constantly according to demand and equipment availability. I take the starting date of circa 1954 because some of the cars were built in 1953, and the last year of this beefy consist is in the late 60s, probably because the California Special was a much reduced train as demand faded after c1965. The train's consist is a mixture of equipment from builders Budd and Pullman-Standard. The Christmas eve train is a full one with lots of mail, parcels and passengers.

 

It is possible to build a nearly-prototypical lightweight Santa Fe train (after allowing for some limited substitutions) because there have been so many prototypical cars and metal car sides issued in recent years. There will be some stand in cars (to be replaced with better cars in the future). I make car substitutions with other Santa Fe prototype cars to simulate what Santa Fe itself would have done with the cars available and equipment failures. The string of 6 baggage cars can be modeled with various prototypes because most trains assembled express, baggage and storage mail cars from and to various cities, and there would usually be a mix of what was in use on the system at the time. After all, the California Limited is not a “name” train. It was a connecting train, but a large and important one.

 

Power

 

The California Special did not rate the most modern Santa Fe power, here using Alco PA’s from 1946. The three PA units are modeled by nice Kato locomotives that give this train plenty of power.

 

Head end cars

 

By 1960, Santa Fe had a large collection of various types of baggage cars. There was lots of mail and express to haul because what is now commonplace air mail and Federal Express were still in the future. Wayner’s consists do not specify the baggage car types, but I modeled the car with one from the same series if possible. The baggage car models include a 72’ Pullman Standard car of the early 1950s made by Walthers, a 72’ 1953 baggage car made with M&R metal sides, an American Model Builders kit of a 64’ PS smoothside car from 1960, and a 65’ heavyweight baggage car made by joining the ends of two Rivarossi combine cars together.

 

More head end cars

 

The head end section continues with a 72’ 1956 PS baggage car made with M&R metal sides. Next is a Budd baggage car of 1942 made ready-to-run by Kato, followed by an ACF car of 1955 made from sides by Brass Car Sides. The RPO in the California Special is an old PS heavyweight of 1927 modeled recently by Micro-trains. After the RPO is a flat car with containers used for mail storage. This is an old Trix flat car with containers, which should (but do not) have side doors for trackside unloading.

 

Coach section

 

The California Special had a collection of coaches of various types. Because this is a connection train, it probably used coaches that were available rather than a fixed set of cars built for the purpose. I tried to approximate coach types based on the number series for each car type. The first is a 1937 Budd 60-seat coach, a Kato model. The second is a PS 64-seat coach of the early 1950s. This is a Walthers model, but the decaled car number is incorrect. The next is a 44-seat 1950 PS coach built from JNJ brass car sides. The last two coaches are dual-window coaches built by Budd in 1953. They are Concor models prototypical to the Santa Fe.

 

Diner, lounge and sleeper section

 

The next car is a lunch-counter diner positioned next to the coach section for informal meals. The lunch-counter diner model is made from brass car sides and is an approximation to a Santa Fe diner. The dormitory-lounge is next with a lounge for first class sleeper passengers. The prototypical model of a 1950 Pullman Standard dorm-lounge is by Kato, and is from their Super Chief set. The 6 section-6 roomette-4 double bedroom sleeper Eagle Nest Valley, with painted on corrugations on smooth sides to match the other cars, is a prototypical model from Centralia-Intermountain. The next car in the prototype consist is an 8 section-2 compartment-2 double bedroom car. I do not have a model of this car and substitute a 10 roomette-3 bedroom-2 compartment car from the blue series. The model is made with JNJ brass car sides. The last car is another prototypical 6-6-4 valley car made by Kato.

 

 

 

References

Frailey, Fred. A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists, RPC Publications, 1974.

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype publications, 1972.

Wayner, Robert, Passenger train consists 1923-1973, Wayner Publications.

 

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