City of San Francisco

The City of San Francisco was a streamlined passenger train service operated in collaboration by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), and the Chicago & North Western Transportation Company (C&NW) from June 14, 1936 until the train was discontinued on May 1, 1971 when Amtrak took over all long-distance inter city passenger services in the United States. The Chicago, IL to Omaha, NE portion of the route was operated by the C&NW, the Omaha, NE to Ogden, UT portion of the route was operated by the UP, and the last portion of the route from Ogden, UT to San Francisco, CA was operated by the SP. Operations of the train started on June 14, 1936 and was also one of the first passenger trains to be operated by the then-new EMD E2 type diesel locomotives.
==Incidents==
On August 12, 1939, the train, which was being led by E2A No. SF-1, nicknamed the Queen Mary, and E2B Nos. SF-2 and SF-3, was making its way to Oakland, CA. The train was running a half an hour late. The engineer sped the train up to 90 MPH to make up for lost time, but the speed limit over the route was 60 MPH. The train had just passed Carlin, NV at 9:30 pm and was about to cross the Humboldt River east of Harney, NV on the No. 4 bridge when, all of the sudden, the train derails and the passenger cars plunge into the riverbed below. The B units partially derailed, but SF-1 remained on the tracks. The engineer was unharmed and ran back to Harney, NV to contact emergency services. Volunteers from the nearby towns of Beowawe and Carlin, NV rushed to the scene with medical supplies, but survivors would not be taken to a nearby hospital until a rescue train was assembled and took them to Elko, NV the following morning. The SP tracks were out of service for several months due to the derailment, but the nearby tracks of the Western Pacific Railroad (WP) were intact and used for both the rescue trains and regular service until the SP tracks were repaired. A total of 24 people died in the accident and 121 people were also injured. It was one of the first derailments of a streamlined passenger train, as well as one of the first ones to involve a diesel locomotive. By the following morning, an investigation was launched into the cause of the derailment. It quickly became clear that it was an act of sabotage. As of today, even 85 years later, the sabotage and wreck of the City of San Francisco remains unsolved.
==Aftermath==
After the accident, five passenger cars, those being SF-601, a 32-seater coffee and kitchen car, SF-602, a 72-seater dining car, SF-701, a dormitory, buffet, and lounge car, and two sleeper cars named Twin Peaks and Chinatown, were all destroyed and eventually scrapped, with the latter two cars being owned by Pullman at the time of the horrific derailment. B units SF-2 and SF-3 were both sold to the UP where they were used until 1953 when they were rebuilt into E8B Nos. 922 and 923. SF-1 was sold to the SP and retained its E2 body until it was eventually rebuilt into E7M No. 6017 at the SP's Los Angeles shops in 1953. Unfortunately, all three units never made it into preservation and were ultimately scrapped after retirement. All that's left of the E2 type diesels today are the pair of two Winton model 201A V12 diesel engines that were used in SF-1. They were rescued from scrap and eventually became part of the collection of artifacts at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA. One of the prime movers has since been transferred to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL as of September 2009.
As for the City of San Francisco train itself, it continued in service for several years. The C&NW backed out of the train in 1955 and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (MILW), better known as the Milwaukee Road, took over the route shortly after. Unfortunately, the train was later discontinued on May 1, 1971 when Amtrak took over all long-distance inter city passenger services in the United States and ultimately replaced by their San Francisco Zephyr. As of today, the route is now part of Amtrak's California Zephyr, as the San Francisco Zephyr was later discontinued in 1983.
==Gallery==
File:850024i7u2672402968272.jpg
File:5b4a64ac913168bbba902916b2898f6d.jpg
File:RawImage.jpg
Category:EMD locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:Locomotives Involved in Rail Disasters
Category:American locomotives
Category:Passenger locomotives
Category:Streamlined locomotives
Category:Diesel locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Six-axled diesel locomotives