Golden Gate (train)

In 1912 The Santa Fe tried to compete with Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) with overnight trains that included cars to and from San Diego, the Saint train to San Francisco and the Angel train to Los Angeles.[2][3] The Santa Fe route via San Bernardino and Barstow was longer than the SP route via Glendale and Lancaster and the San Francisco to Los Angeles schedule was 16 hrs 45 minutes, compared to 14:45 for SP's Owl and 13:45 for the Lark. The Saint and Angel were withdrawn in 1918.[4] Although rumors soon flew of their return,[5] Santa Fe later cited competition by bus services as preventing restoration of the Saint and Angel schedules.[6]

In 1936 the completion of improvements on the Ridge Route highway south of Bakersfield and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge gave the Santa Fe an opportunity to compete with the SP with faster service. The lightweight Golden Gate streamliners were assigned Nos. 60–63 and ran daily between Oakland (station was actually in Emeryville) and Bakersfield. Santa Fe buses connected San Francisco across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge to Oakland and between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, most with stops at North Hollywood and Hollywood and some with stops at Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena. The Oakland transfer point moved to Richmond in 1958 with buses making stops at Oakland and Berkeley.[7]

A competitor to the Southern Pacific Railroad's San Joaquin Daylight, the Golden Gate's scheduled 9-hour and 25-minute time bested that of the Daylight. After a series of hearings and legal challenges, as well as public displays of the new rolling stock,[8] the new six-car consists entered service on July 1, 1938. Coach fares were $6.00 one-way, $10.80 round-trip, rates that were matched by the SP. San Francisco to Los Angeles was 312.8 rail miles (503.4 km) plus 112 bus miles (180 km).

In early 1939, the Golden Gate was involved in what was believed to be the first collision between a modern streamlined train and an automobile when it was struck by a car in Richmond.[9] In 1939 another train, the Valley Flyer, was added to the Bakersfield-Oakland route[10] to carry passengers to the Golden Gate International Exposition. In 1940 the Exposition ended and this train moved to the San Diego to Los Angeles route.

Citing losses of up to $421,000 in 1963 (equivalent to $4,024,211 in 2022), the Santa Fe applied to discontinue the Golden Gate.[11] The California Public Utilities Commission held hearings on the discontinuance of the service in 1964[12] and authorized discontinuance of the service in March 1965 stating that "the public reaction [to discontinuing the service] was apathetic to say the least."[13][14] Yet just seven years earlier in 1957, passenger feedback was cited as the reason to adjust the Golden Gate timetable about one hour earlier in the day.[15] The Golden Gate was all but eliminated on April 11, 1965,[16] though No. 62 was reassigned as No. 8 and took over the duties of the southbound Fast Mail Express. That service ended April 28, 1968. Since 1974 Amtrak California's San Joaquin runs the same route from Port Chicago to Bakersfield.

Initial Golden Gate consists (two lightweight trainsets), July 1938:

• EMC E1A Locomotive #8L–#9L
• Baggage-"Chair" car / Coach with newsstand (36 seats) #3490–#3491
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3115–#3116
• Club-Lounge-"Chair" car / Coach (26 seats) #3117–#3118
• Fred Harvey Company Lunch Counter Diner-Lounge #1501–#1502
• Round-end Parlor-Lounge-Observation (34 seats) #3243–3244

The Golden Gate consists (two trainsets) as of March 1948:

• EMC E1A Locomotive #3LA, #4LA, #5L, #7L–#9L (shared power with the San Diegan)
• Baggage-"Chair" car / Coach with newsstand (36 seats) #3490–#3491
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3116, #3119, #3137–#3166
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3116, #3119, #3137–#3166
• "Chair" car / Lounge #3117–#3118
• Fred Harvey Company Lunch Counter Diner #1500–#1507
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3116, #3119, #3137–#3166
• Leg Rest "Chair" car / Coach (44 seats)* #2861–#2911
• Sleeper Valley-type (6 sections, 6 roomettes, 4 bedrooms)
• Round-end "Chair" car / Coach-Observation (58 seats) #3243–3244

*Extra car added between Chicago and Oakland during the summer months.

Golden Gate consists in 1958:

• ALCO PA/PB #51LAC or
• EMD F-unit 300-series LAB sets

 Nos. 60–63

• any lightweight Baggage
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• Bar-Lounge #1388–#1399, #1346–#1349
• Fred Harvey Company Lunch Counter (Diner) #1500, #1503–#1507
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158

 No. 62 only

• Railway Post Office-Baggage #3402–#3408, #3600–#3606
• any lightweight Baggage
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• Bar-Lounge #1388–#1399, #1346–#1349
• Fred Harvey Company Lunch Counter (Diner) #1500, #1503–#1507
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158
• "Chair" car / Coach (52 seats) #3070–#3101, #3108, #3111, #3115, #3119, #3144–#3158

In May 1960 two-unit ALCO PA sets replaced the F-units. Car #1346 was converted to a "Vend-O-Lounge" vending machine car in May 1964 (operated by the Harvey Company), though it failed to gain acceptance and was replaced with a 1500-series Lunch Counter Diner the following September.

• Passenger train service on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
• San Joaquin (train): Amtrak route that partly runs along the route of the Golden Gate.

• Duke, Donald; Kistler, Stan (1963). Santa Fe... Steel Rails through California. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books. ISBN 0-87095-009-6.
• Duke, Donald (1997). Santa Fe: The Railroad Gateway to the American West, Volume One. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books. ISBN 0-87095-110-6.
• Frailey, Fred W. (1974). A Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists. Godfrey, IL: RPC Publications.
• Pelouze, Richard W. (1997). Trademarks of the Santa Fe Railway and Peripheral Subjects. Highlands Ranch, CO: The Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society, Inc. ISBN 978-1-933587-06-6.
• Signor, John R. (2005). "The Golden Gate Trains". The Warbonnet. 11 (1): 6–25.
• Wayner, Robert J., ed. (1972). Car Names, Numbers and Consists. New York: Wayner Publications. OCLC 8848690.
• Zimmermann, Karl R. (1987). Santa Fe Streamliners: The Chiefs and their Tribesmen. New York: Quadrant Press. ISBN 0915276410. OCLC 19005401.