City of San Francisco
Encyclopedia
The City of San Francisco was a streamlined passenger train operated jointly by the Chicago and North Western Railway
, the Southern Pacific Railroad
, and the Union Pacific Railroad
. The train ran between Chicago
, Illinois
and Oakland
, California, with a ferry connection to San Francisco.
Competing streamlined passenger trains were, starting in 1949, the California Zephyr
operated by the Western Pacific
, Denver and Rio Grande Western
, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroads, and starting in 1954, the San Francisco Chief
, operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
. As with the City of Los Angeles
, many of the train's cars bore the names of locales in and around its namesake city, including Mission Dolores, the nickname given to San Francisco's Mission San Francisco de Asís
.
On August 12, 1939 the train derailed while crossing a bridge near Carlin
, Nevada, killing 24 and injuring 121. The wreck appeared to have been caused by sabotage
, but remains unsolved.
The City of San Francisco is perhaps best remembered for the January 1952 event when a blizzard
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains entrapped the train for six days at Donner Pass
, California
. The incident occurred when snowdrifts from the blizzard's 160 km/h (100 mph) winds blocked the train, burying it in 3.6 meters (12 feet) of snow and stranding it from January 13 to January 19. The event made international news headlines. In the effort to reach the train, the railroad's snow-clearing equipment and snow-blowing rotary plows became frozen to the tracks. Subsequently, hundreds of workers and volunteers, including Georg Gärtner
, using manual snowplows, tractors and manpower came to the rescue by clearing the adjacent Lincoln Highway
to reach the train. The 196 passengers and 20 crewmembers were evacuated within 72 hours, on foot to vehicles that carried them the few highway miles to Nyack Lodge. The train itself was extricated several days later.
In 1955 the Milwaukee Road
assumed the service, replacing the Chicago and North Western between Chicago and Omaha. In a cost-cutting move, the City of San Francisco was combined with the City of Los Angeles in 1960.
built by Pullman Standard in the early 1950s. The car is currently owned by the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad
and operated as part of the line's dinner and first class trains. Union Pacific itself has a dome lounge car used on excursion and executive trains which carries the "City of San Francisco" name.
Chicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...
, the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
, and the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
. The train ran between Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California, with a ferry connection to San Francisco.
Competing streamlined passenger trains were, starting in 1949, the California Zephyr
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...
operated by the Western Pacific
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
, Denver and Rio Grande Western
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
Railroads, and starting in 1954, the San Francisco Chief
San Francisco Chief
The San Francisco Chief was a named passenger train operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as Nos. 1 & 2 from June 6, 1954 to May 1, 1971. It covered the Santa Fe line from near San Francisco, California to Barstow, California, then east to Chicago, Illinois via the Belen cutoff....
, operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
. As with the City of Los Angeles
City of Los Angeles
The City of Los Angeles was a streamlined passenger train that ran between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California, via Omaha, Nebraska, and Ogden, Utah. Between Omaha and Los Angeles it ran on the Union Pacific Railroad; east of Omaha it ran on the Chicago and North Western Railway until...
, many of the train's cars bore the names of locales in and around its namesake city, including Mission Dolores, the nickname given to San Francisco's Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
.
On August 12, 1939 the train derailed while crossing a bridge near Carlin
Carlin, Nevada
Carlin is a city located near the western border of Elko County in northeast Nevada, west of the city of Elko. It is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area. Carlin sits along Interstate 80 at an elevation of approximately . As of the 2000 census, its population was 2,161...
, Nevada, killing 24 and injuring 121. The wreck appeared to have been caused by sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
, but remains unsolved.
The City of San Francisco is perhaps best remembered for the January 1952 event when a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains entrapped the train for six days at Donner Pass
Donner Pass
Donner Pass is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, located above Donner Lake about nine miles west of Truckee, California. It has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The incident occurred when snowdrifts from the blizzard's 160 km/h (100 mph) winds blocked the train, burying it in 3.6 meters (12 feet) of snow and stranding it from January 13 to January 19. The event made international news headlines. In the effort to reach the train, the railroad's snow-clearing equipment and snow-blowing rotary plows became frozen to the tracks. Subsequently, hundreds of workers and volunteers, including Georg Gärtner
Georg Gärtner
Georg Gärtner was a World War II German soldier from Schweidnitz, Lower Silesia.-Biography:While serving with the Afrika Korps, Gärtner was captured by Allied troops in Tunis in 1943 and was brought to America as a prisoner of war. He escaped from his prison camp in Deming, New Mexico, at the...
, using manual snowplows, tractors and manpower came to the rescue by clearing the adjacent Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
to reach the train. The 196 passengers and 20 crewmembers were evacuated within 72 hours, on foot to vehicles that carried them the few highway miles to Nyack Lodge. The train itself was extricated several days later.
In 1955 the Milwaukee Road
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...
assumed the service, replacing the Chicago and North Western between Chicago and Omaha. In a cost-cutting move, the City of San Francisco was combined with the City of Los Angeles in 1960.
Timeline
- 1936: The City of San Francisco makes its first run between Chicago, Illinois and OaklandOakland, CaliforniaOakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California. With only one set of equipment, it left each terminal five times a month. - 1938: the M-10004 articulated trainset is replaced by a full-size 14-car streamliner, powered by a 5400-hp set of three E2 diesels; frequency remains five trips per month each way.
- August 12, 1939: An act of sabotage sends the City of San Francisco flying off of a bridge in the Nevada desert; two dozen passengers and crew members are killed and many more injured, and five cars are destroyed.
- July 1941: an additional set of equipment enters service, allowing departures ten times per month.
- September 1947: daily service.
- January 13, 1952: The City of San Francisco is caught in a severe blizzard and remains stuck for days.Incident becomes one inspiration for Railway series book, The Twin Engines.
- May 1, 1971: UP ends the City of San Francisco train as AmtrakAmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
takes over long-distance passenger operations in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; Amtrak retains the name until 1972.
Other railroad uses of the name City of San Francisco
The City of San Francisco name has also been applied to a 10/6 sleeping carSleeping car
The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...
built by Pullman Standard in the early 1950s. The car is currently owned by the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad
Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad
The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad is a heritage railroad in Boone County, Iowa.-History:The railroad was started in 1983 by a group of volunteers primarily to preserve a scenic section of the former Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railroad. The original track was built in the 1890s and...
and operated as part of the line's dinner and first class trains. Union Pacific itself has a dome lounge car used on excursion and executive trains which carries the "City of San Francisco" name.
See also
- Passenger train service on the Chicago and North Western Railway
- Passenger train service on the Milwaukee Road
- Passenger train service on the Southern Pacific Railroad
- Passenger train service on the Union Pacific Railroad
External links
- "The Case of the Stranded Streamliner" offers detailed information and photographs of the 1952 disaster.
- "Recalling a Train Wreck" offers information and photographs of the 1939 derailment.