ly five months.


But 1984 introduced the most heavi- ly-promoted and least-noticeable SoCal commuter of all: The San Diegan Metroliner. It kicked off in April, adver- tised as an extra-fare, limited-stop service between San Diego and L.A. The additional five bucks per ticket earned you a complimentary newspa- per and beverages, as well as a 2½-hour run that was in fact a paltry 15 minutes shorter than a regular San Diegan. If you ignored the timetable, the only way you could tell it was a Metroliner flying by you was the shorter consist bearing small “Metroliner” emblems. Amtrak had hoped for 80 to 100 riders per trip, but the average proved more like 50 to 60. Southern California’s Metroliner experiment survived a full year, drop- ping from the timetable in April 1985. Those extra-fare perks, however, were carried forward on the San Diegans as a new service level called “Custom Class.”


Here Comes the Daylight


Southern California was not exactly a hotbed of main line steam action dur- ing the early 1980s. In fact, my only ex- perience with steam up close and per- sonal at that point had been a quick glimpse of the American Freedom Train when it was on display at Ana- heim in 1976. I think it was nighttime, and all I could remember years later was something about giant, spoked wheels. So imagine my curiosity during early


1984 when any visit to a hobby shop or trackside encounter with other railfans resulted in my hearing the same two words: “The Daylight.” Not until


I


started reading the reports in rail mag- azines did I fully appreciate the magni- tude of it all. This was some kind of once-in-a-lifetime event. With steam! The same engine, in fact, that I saw eight years prior at Anaheim. And it was headed my way. What took place in SoCal and else- where across the West over the months of May and June 1984, and in the pages of every railfan magazine during the months that followed, could only be de- scribed as unbridled hysteria. After the smoke and steam had cleared, and a million frames of film had been processed, and who knows how many speeding tickets were paid, it was Passenger Train Journal editor Mike Schafer who most eloquently distilled the meaning of it all into a comparison of baseball and trains. In the August- September 1984 PTJ, Schafer asked a supposed sports fan, “If you could go back in time and witness any baseball


34 FEBRUARY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


The iconic tower of Los Angeles City Hall watched over SP 4449 on the night of May 14, 1984, while the 4-8-4 rested at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal on the eve of her departure east for Yuma en route to the World’s Fair in New Orleans.


star in action… Who would you


choose?” “Babe… No question about it. Babe Ruth,” was the answer. To which Schafer replied, in explaining why he and many others were California- bound with the SP 4-8-4 4449 in mind — “Well, we’re going out West to watch Babe play.” For me and everyone else driving alongside the SP from Tehachapi south toward L.A. on May 12, 1984, the time machine had taken us back to 1940- something, with the 4449 pulling no less than 13 cars, all painted in matched SP Daylight colors. The auxil- iary tender had been dropped in north- ern California due to a hotbox, and the pair of helper diesels used in crossing the Tehachapi’s got left at Mojave. So it


was as authentic as any steam experi- ence could be when the train crawled toward the 3196-foot summit at Vin- cent, gateway to Soledad Canyon and the L.A. Basin, doing only ten m.p.h. and sending a dense, black cloud sky- ward. That short stretch of 2.4 percent became famous as 4449’s steepest unassisted climb ever. Los Angeles was roughly the halfway point in the Daylight’s epic journey from Portland, Ore., to the World’s Fair in New Orleans. At nearly 7200 miles round trip, it was said to be the longest steam excursion in U.S. history. Thou- sands of fans rode or chased the 4449 across much of that distance, but I was content to simply catch it coming and going through my home turf. Besides,


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66