California limited, SP and Santa Fe steam in 1920s Southern California

[@prsearls]

What a great film of classic steam. I noticed how the SP passenger engines had white tires, big Sunbeam headlights and before the smokebox fronts were painted white. SP4353 was an Mt-4 class Mountain built in SP's Sacramento shops in October 1927. This helps date that particular film segment. The Mountain class was SP's heavy passenger locomotives pulling their top passenger trains of that era until bumped by the GS class 4-8-4's. Notice that none of the heavyweight passenger cars appear to be air-conditioned (no air conditioning ducts on the roofs). The railroads were also running open-platform observation cars. This was probably the "golden age" of SP passenger trains; no competition from automobiles or airlines. It would be wonderful to "turn back the clock" and ride one of them with their great service and luxury.

[@davidforsyth446]

MT's with non standard boiler jacket paint were Incredibly rare in number and seldom photographed or filmed, perhaps even rarer is footage of the Daylight in the short lived pearl grey livery.

[@kurtarmbruster]

Fabulous footage! Gerald Best did a lot for railroad history. Thanks for posting!

[@johndonovan5752]

Bless you, Gerald Best!

[@nathandeal9703]

What an incredible look back at railroads between the World Wars and when steam was king! I just wish that I could reach back in time and rescue at least three of those amazing Mountain type locomotives from SP, ATSF, and UP (Not to mention those white Daylight cars looked pretty nice, might as well add them to the list!).

[@RonaldSortino]

Awesome stuff

[@Greatdome99]

And all that open land? Now wall-to-wall houses and strip malls.