page_title: City of San Francisco (train)
section_title: Timeline and equipment consists
hierarchical_section_title: City of San Francisco (train) / Timeline and equipment consists
caption_attribution_description: English: City of San Francisco SPRR advertising mailer, September 1, 1947 New! BEGINNING SEPT. 1 A daily CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO THE famous Streamliner City of San Francisco will operate daily between Chicago and San Francisco over the Overland Route effective September 1. It will follow the same swift 39 3/4-hour schedule as on its previous three times a week schedule. The daily schedule will provide the same fine service . . . with the swankiest of Pullman sleeping cars, de luxe dining car units and lounge cars ... also sleek, comfortable reclining chair cars with coffee shop, too, providing "the glamour of a famous train with economy"... $15 extra fare for Pullman travel on this train ... $5 for reclining chair cars. Reservations can be made a long time in advance, now. While the daily schedule will enable us to accommodate more people who want to ride this de luxe train, it's advisable to make reservations well in advance. and a faster SAN FRANCISCO OVERLAND FASTER than ever September 1 and after • shoots west in 48 hours, 50 minutes, Chicago to San Francisco, east in 48 exactly • it's daily • and if you can't get space on the City of San Francisco, the Overland's your quick answer • Going both ways its schedule gives you an unforgettable scenic daylight ride through California's High Sierra • no extra fare • fine Pullmans and diner and lounge car • or for economy, smartly designed reclining chair cars with a coffee shop car • Also through Pullmans between New York-San Francisco, St. Louis-San Francisco, and Salt Lake City-San Francisco. S-P The friendly Southern Pacific HERE ARE THE SCHEDULES City of San Francisco (Same as present schedule) WESTBOUND .....................................................EASTBOUND (Read Down) ............................................................(Read Up) 7:30 p.m. Lv CHICAGO___________C.&amp;.N.W. Ar 10:45 a.m. 3:25 a.m. Lv Omaha__,______________ U.P. Ar 2:50 a.m. 9:58 a.m. Lv Cheyenne____________._. U.P. Ar 6:25 p.m. 6:45 p.m. Lv Ogden_________________ S.P. Ar 9:40 a.m. 2:27 a.m. Ar Reno___________________S.P. Lv 11:52 p.m. 6:55 a.m. Ar Sacramento____________ S.P. Lv 7:18 p.m. 8:28 a.m. Ar Berkeley _______________ S.P. Lv 5:45 p.m. 8:38 a.m, Ar Oakland (16th St.)_________S.P. Lv 5:37 p.m. 9:15 a.m. Ar SAN FRANCISCO&#160;:._______ S.P. Lv 5:00 p.m. San Francisco Overland (Effective September 1) WESTBOUND.................................................... EASTBOUND (Read Down) ............................................................(Read Up) 8:00 p.m. Lv CHICAGO.___________C&amp;.N.W. Ar 1:00 p.m. 5:45 a.m. Lv Omaha__________________U.P. Ar 3:05 a.m. 2:35 p.m. Lv Cheyenne _______________U.P. Ar 5:10 p.m. 1:18 a.m. Lv Ogden _________________S.P. Ar 6:25 a.m. 11:11 a.m. Ar Reno __________________S.P. Lv 6:40 p.m. 4:10 p.m. Ar Sacramento _____________S.P. Lv 1:40 p.m. 6:01 p.m. Ar Berkeley ________________S.P. Lv 11:47 a.m. 6:12 p.m. Ar Oakland (16th St.) _________S.P. Lv 11:38 a.m. 6:50 p.m. Ar SAN FRANCISCO _________S.P. Lv 11:00 a.m.
context_page_description: The City of San Francisco was a streamlined through passenger train which ran from 1936 to 1971 on the Overland Route between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California, with a ferry connection on to San Francisco. It was owned and operated jointly by the Chicago and North Western Railway, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. It provided premium extra fare service from Chicago to San Francisco when introduced in 1936 of 39 hr 45 min each way.
context_section_description: June 14, 1936: The City of San Francisco (TR 101-102) made its inaugural run between Chicago and Oakland/San Francisco as streamline through service. It operated with a dedicated Pullman-built 11-car articulated lightweight streamline consist made up of a set of two 1,200 h.p. diesel-electric power unit cars (M-10004A/B), a baggage-mail car, a baggage-dormitory-kitchen car, a diner-lounge car, four named sleeper cars, a 48-seat chair car, and a 38-seat coach-buffet-blind end observation car.
  January 2, 1938: The City's original train set was replaced with an all new quarter-mile (1,292-foot) long, semi-articulated 17-car lightweight streamline consist made up of one EMC-E2A and two EMC-E2B 1,800 h.p. diesel-electric power unit cars (SF 1-2-3) built by the Electro-Motive Corporation (now EMD), and 14 aluminum-alloy girder-type Pullman-built cars consisting of an auxiliary power-baggage-dormitory car, a 54-seat chair car, a 32-seat coffee shop-kitchen car, a 72-seat diner, a dormitory-buffet-lounge car, eight named sleeper cars, and an 84-foot 6-inch buffet-lounge-observation car (NOB HILL) said to be the "longest passenger car built in the United States" to that time.
  While costing over $2,000,000 to build, operating costs (fuel, crew, etc) for the train were less than two cents per passenger-mile. The extra fare on the City over the full run was $15 for open section Pullman accommodations, $5 in the chair car, and $22.50 for a roomette. After both the original and new train sets made a joint run from Oakland to Chicago on that date, the older 11-car consist was shopped for a seven-month rebuild and then used variously over the next decade as the City of Los Angeles, City of Denver, and City of Portland before being withdrawn from service in the spring of 1948 and eventually scrapped.
  The new and subsequent City of San Francisco train sets were jointly owned by the C&NW, UP and SP with the exception of the sleepers which were Pullman-owned until 1945 when two of those cars were acquired by the C&NW and a dozen by the UP.  The new train was capable of speeds up to 110 miles an hour and accommodated 222 passengers.  Sleeping car space was double that of conventional trains with 168 berths compared to 84 while chair car space was increased to 54. The new City consist had 60 compartments, drawing rooms, bedrooms, and "roomettes" instead of the regular nine for a larger variety of sleeping accommodations to choose from than on any train in America. Among the premium services provided on the train were stewardess-nurses, a barber shop, a shower bath, and an internal telephone system. All regularly assigned cars were also air-conditioned. Frequency remained at five trips per month each way.
  August 12, 1939: 1939 City of San Francisco Derailment occurred near Palasade. Two dozen passengers and crew members were killed with many more injured.
  July 26, 1941: A second set of equipment entered service allowing departures ten times per month each way. The added service replaced the short-lived steam powered Pullman-built mostly heavyweight (steel) streamline Forty-Niner that had operated an almost ten-hour slower 49-hour run five times a month between Chicago and San Francisco from July 8, 1937 to July 27, 1941. Under an order of the War Production Board, no new head-end or passenger cars of any type (other than "military sleepers") were built and delivered to US railroads from mid 1942 until late 1945.
  1942-46: The lounge-observation car Nob Hill and lounge-buffet car Marina were removed from the consists of the City of San Francisco's two train sets and placed in storage during WWII in compliance with a General Order of the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) banning the carriage of strictly luxury cars without passenger revenue capacity. Those cars were replaced with sleepers.
  October 1, 1946: Service was increased to thrice weekly departures from both Chicago and San Francisco made every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening.
  September 1, 1947: The City became daily with the creation of additional train sets to support seven-d
caption: SP mailer, Sept. 1, 1947
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