Los Angeles Limited

The Los Angeles Limited was a named passenger train in the United States. It was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad from 1905 to 1954.

History

Since its inauguration in 1905, the Los Angeles Limited was the flagship train of the Union Pacific and one of the finest long distance trains in the Chicago to Los Angeles market. From Chicago to Omaha the train was handled by the Chicago & North Western Railway. Then the Union Pacific, which owned the train, took over to Los Angeles via Council Bluffs, Cheyenne, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and San Bernardino.

Equipment

From the beginning on the train was equipped with cars that all rode on 6-wheel trucks, and throughout its entire lifetime, the Los Angeles Limited remained a heavyweight train, never being upgraded to a lightweight streamliner train. Also during most of its operation it was an exclusive All-Pullman train, featuring only sleeping cars for first class travel. The cars were painted as follows: black roof, dark Pullman-green body with yellow lettering and black trucks. This paint scheme remained from 1905 to 1948. In 1948 the Union Pacific painted all of its heavyweight fleet into the yellow and light grey scheme to match with their streamliner trains, so the heavyweight cars of the Los Angeles Limited became yellow in the last years of operation between 1948 and 1954. Only some headend equipment could be sometimes found being painted into the two-tone grey "Overland" scheme.

In the beginning, the heavyweight cars of the train were made out of wood, but after 1912 steel heavyweight cars started to replace the old wooden cars. From 1905 till 1936 the Los Angeles Limited was the top train of the Union Pacific and stayed in strong rivalry to other trains in the Chicago to Los Angeles market, such as Santa Fe´s California Limited, De Luxe, Chief and the Southern Pacific´s - Rock Island Golden State Limited.In 1930, the train lost it´s All-Pullman status for the first time because of the Great Depression. After the more economical secondary train Challenger was introduced in 1935 the train regained back it´s All-Pullman status and once again became a very fine train, being the first Union Pacific heavyweight train to receive air conditioning in 1936. But in 1936 the train lost its prestigious premier status to the new City of Los Angeles streamliner train, which now became the new Union Pacific flagship train. The Los Angeles Limited was now downgraded to the secondary Chicago to Los Angeles train, but was still the only train on the Union Pacific with All-Pullman status on that route (the City of Los Angeles streamliner train always carried some coaches). After the City of Los Angeles became a daily service in 1947 the train again lost its All-Pullman status in 1948 and started handling some coaches, this time forever. In 1948 also the first lightweight streamliner cars with 4-wheel trucks began appearing on the Los Angeles Limited, but the number of streamliner cars on the heavyweight Los Angeles Limited mostly never exceeded the number of five cars.

Ridership decline

In the early 1950s, the ridership on the Los Angeles Limited declined rapidly because of two reasons. 1st class sleeping car passengers wandered off to the City of Los Angeles since they could enjoy more modern streamlined sleeping cars on a faster schedule. For the more economic coach patronage the train also became less interesting since there was already a cheap coach streamliner (the Challenger) train between Chicago and Los Angeles, running also on a faster schedule than the still mostly heavyweight Los Angeles Limited. While the streamliner trains City of Los Angeles and Challenger needed 39 3/4 hours for the run, the Los Angeles Limited needed 45 hours on the same routing. In January of 1954 the once proud flagship was discontinued by the Union Pacific.

Pulling power

Throughout its entire existence the Los Angeles Limited was powered by steam locomotives. In the first years the job was done by 4-6-2 Pacific types, and in the 1920s and 1930s the 4-8-2 Mountain type was the most used engine for that train. In the last years mostly 4-8-4 Northern types pulled the train. Occasionally even some of the 4-10-2 Overland type steam locomotives could be found pulling the train, especially between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino. On the Chicago & North Western 4-6-2 Pacific, 4-6-4 Hudson and 4-8-4 Northern types pulled the train.

A 1929 consist

*A 4-8-2 Mountain steam locomotive
# Baggage Dormitory 2765
# 12-1 Sleeper "Dahlonega"
# 12-1 Sleeper "Nolando"
# 10-1-2 Sleeper "Lake Champlain"
# 10-1-2 Sleeper "Lake Crystal"
# 10-1-1 Sleeper "Columbia Gorge"
# Diner 307
# 10-1-1 Sleeper "Crown Point"
# 8-1-2 Sleeper "Centspur"
# 8-1-2 Sleeper "Centgarde"
# 6-3 Sleeper "Glen Campsie"
# 6-3 Sleeper "Glen Dee"
# Buffet Lounge Observation 1554

A consist between 1948 and 1954

*A 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive
# Baggage
# Coach
# Coach
# Café Lounge
# 6-6-4 Sleeper (streamliner car)
# 6-6-4 Sleeper (streamliner car) (Minneapolis - Los Angeles via Chicago & North Western train #203 to Omaha)
# 6-6-4 Sleeper (streamliner car) (New York - Los Angeles via Pennsylvania Railroad Broadway Limited to Chicago)
# 6-6-4 Sleeper (streamliner car) (New York - Los Angeles via Pennsylvania Railroad Broadway Limited to Chicago)
# Diner
# 4-4-4 Sleeper (streamliner car)
# 12-1 Sleeper
# 12-1 Sleeper
# 10-2 Sleeper (Chicago - Omaha - Cedar City, summer season only)
# 10-2 Sleeper (Chicago - Omaha - West Yellowstone, summer season only)
# Buffet Lounge Observation

References