The Southern Pacific's Daylight

Like all good-named trains, this one was a "Limited". The Southern Pacific

Railroad introduced the "Coast Line" between San Francisco and Los Angeles California on April 28, 1922. As illustrated by the novel, The Great Gatsby, the economy of the United States was recovering wonderfully after the ravages of "The Great War." It was time to provide a train service that connected these two cities to each other through a route that stayed as close to the Pacific Ocean as it

could. The "Daylight Limited" took only 12 hours to go from one city to the other; that is a "speedy" average of 33 miles per hour. When it began service the train only ran during the good Spring and Summer weather span and then, only once a day on Friday and Saturday. On March 21, 1937 the Railroad introduced the new

streamlined locomotives similar to those that you see in these post cards. The trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles (or vise versa) was reduced by 2 hours and 15 minutes. What was the fastest non-stop train route in the world became even faster. These new GS-2 locomotives were manufactured by Lima Locomotive Works. They were known, using the Whyte Identification system, as 4-8-4s or Northerns. I wrote about the Northerns at the end of July. These, for the Southern Pacific had 73.5 inch driver wheels and were capable of developing 4,500 horsepower at 55 miles per hour; they were also capable of a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour. These locomotives were quickly replaced by GS-3s, also from the Lima Locomotive Works. The new trains could go over 100 miles per hour. They were so popular that the Southern Pacific Railroad introduced other "Daylight Limited" trains like the Sacramento, San Juaquin and Shasta Limiteds.
As you can see by the front of the post cards, they reflect different eras of post card printing. The top one demonstrates the White Border Era, the middle post card is a classic Linen Card and the bottom one is from the
Photo-chrome era. These are the backs of the post cards: