Transcontinental train trip in 1923; also 1905
From: "Charter Mail" jcarrin358@charter.net
In 1923 what train would an Ellis Island passenger use to get from the Island, New York to Sacramento, California? What would it cost? How long would the train trip be from New York to Sacramento in days? Would they use open train cars? How can I find out more about this train and trip?
—Joan
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 9:29 AM
4 Comments:
See The Official Guide of the Railways, 1921.
From: "Kevin Bunker" mikadobear45@yahoo.com
By 1923 transcontinental passenger service was at its near-peak in terms of the number of trains and the qualities of service available to the public.
Much of your answers are compicated and depend on the would be emigre's financial means and ethnic or national origins. While we assume most emigrants arriving in New York would be typically lower middle class, in the 1920s there were fewer very poor emigrants. Still, they may well have used a substantial portion of their means to pay the trans-Atlantic steamship fare.
I would expect an average European emigrant to be somewhat frugal, and seek out the cheapest possible railroad fare(s). By 1923 two railroads with direct connections to the eastern seaboard served Sacramento - the Southern Pacific Company (successor to the Central Pacific of the 19th century) and the newer Western Pacific Railroad.
The WP was a very modest and much smaller railroad - connecting San Francisco-Oakland with Salt Lake City, Utah - at which point it met the Denver & Rio Grande Western (Salt Lake City to Denver, CO). The D&RGW then forwarded its passengers at Denver to and from the east to either the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (to Chicago) or the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (also to Chicago) or the Union Pacific (to Omaha, with connections to Chicago). The natural and usual passenger route was the CB&Q-D&RGW-WP.
Nevertheless, Southern Pacific's direct tie with the Union Pacific mainline at Ogden, UT allowed someone travelling from New York and Chicago (Chicago was the most MidWest common change-of-trains point) to reach California most efficiently. The passenger could also reach the west coast through St.Louis (avoiding Chicago) from New York, but that was slower and more indirect. There were regular, daily St. Louis-Denver passenger trains.
Your hypothetical passenger could travel "second class" – meaning, by day-coach – all the way, with no sleeping accomodations and thus travel most cheaply. Or, if they had more funds for some extra comforts, would pay the standard coach fares (set by each railroad involved) and add on a First Class fare paid to the Pullman Company for sleeping car service. Some modest income passengers might travel from New York to Chicago by coach, then upgrade to Pullman accomodations at Chicago for the long two day journey to California. A total trip time from New York to Sacramento, depending on what trains and railroads were used, could take anywhere from 4 to 5 days allowing for some layovers where changing trains was required (typically Chicago or St.Louis). Changing trains wasn't always required – especially for the wealthy traveling by Pullman sleeping car – but was very, very common for both coach and sleeping car passengers.
Fares varied and were seasonal then, as now. There's no easy answer to that qurestion. One of the best ways for the general public to get a basic idea of fares is to consult historic newspapers on microfilm at a major library, paying close attention to railroad advertisments. Some railroads and the Pullman Company offered seasonal "Tourist" fares well aimed at bargain-concious travelers. Pullman's tourist sleepers were simpler – with berths much like the higher priced Pullman sleepers, but the seat upholstery was usually rattan rather than mohair plush; Tourist sleeper passengers might also have been required to bring their own linens and pillows, and provide their own food (or grab meals at longer station stops at depot lunch counters). A first class Pullman passenger would have these things provided and have access the railroad-operated dining cars.
You would do very well to contact the very well equipped California State Railroad Museum Library in Sacramento. CSRML – a public reference library (non-lending) maintains a treasure trove of historic railroad "public timetables" and the very helpful Official Guide of the Railways & Steamship Lines. Official Guides – inches thick and published quarterly – were kept in just about every railroad depot, small and large in the US so that any station agent could sell any prospective passenger long or short distance train tickets and, if needed, Pullman tickets. The Official Guides had basic route maps and passenger timetables for the major railroads, and timetables for a host of smaller railroads that provided connecting services to towns and villages off of main lines. You'll have to do your own research, but the CSRML staff can easily walk you through the basics, and in some cases provides photocopies of some of its collections for a small fee.
Open cars were extreme rarities by the 1920s. Day coaches would still have had windows that opened, but in the 1920s, railroads and the Pullman Company were investing in a better class of cars (coaches, lounge cars, dining cars and sleepers) that featured ice-chilled air conditioning for summer travel; steam heat was the norm for all kinds of transcontinental day coaches and sleeping cars in cooler months or for night time warmth. About the only "open-air" cars one ever saw in the 1920s were the very few summers only scenic viewing cars operated in summer only by the Canadian Pacific across its route through the Canadian Rockies and similar cars used by Northern Pacific Railway on its branch line into Yellowstone National Park. Southern Pacific Company also operated a few open air cars in summer but only on its line across the Cascade mountains in Oregon, and again only on select trains. You should pretty well rule out open cars.
One more thing, Southern Pacific's Sacramento depot was at 4th & I Streets and was brand new (the one still used by Amtrak) and had – then – a small park and lawn out front where a freeway onramp and parking lot now are. Western Pacific's much smaller passenger depot – still standing, but now in use as a restaurant and bar – was between 19th and 20th and J & K streets. The Southern Pacific operated across Donner Pass (today's Amtrak route to and from Chicago) where the WP crossed the Sierra Nevada at much lower altitude via the Feather River Canyon. Both the SP and WP lines operated in close proximity across north-central Nevada to Utah.
—Kevin Bunker, Portland OR
From: "BarbRob" brfilo@comcast.net
We wish to know about Rail travel from New York City to San Francisco in the fall of 1905:
Name of Train(s)?
How long was the trip?
Was a Luxury sleeping car available?
See The Official Guide of the Railways, 1910.
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