Seeing the Daylight

Seeing the Daylight

Off topic?
Maybe.
It’s got big and littles, style, loads of horsepower and for a long time it was the fastest thing running the coast.
You tell me if it’s off topic.

The Daylight used to roll down the tracks next to the old neighborhood at 70-80 or so and you could feel it coming before you heard it.
The houses started vibrating and before long they were shaking like nobody’s business. Seems like mom was forever sliding her knicknacks back on the shelf where they were supposed to be. If she forgot to do it for a couple of days, the knickknacks would walk right off the shelf and you’d find more than a few broken pieces of porcelain or whatever lying on the floor.
Used to tick her off on a regular basis, but she realized there wasn’t much she could do about it so she learned to live with it.

For us wannabee hot rod guys, I never knew anyone who was working under their car who didn’t crawl out from under when the Daylight came through. Not to look, simply because you couldn’t make yourself stay under the car when it went by.

For most of my life, from a pain in the ass two year old to a still pain in the ass 15 year old we lived about a half block from the tracks. A very short half block.
The tracks were quite the draw for us, they went interesting places, were interesting their own selves and along with the rope swings from the big trees a little ways back from the tracks there was a large sewer tunnel that ran for about a 1/4 mile from the tracks to the marshy area just inland from the beach. We - we being our little gang - knew the area along the tracks from the east end of Ventura to the depot at the west end. The caves, ravines, creeks, the sometimes strange houses along the bluff overlooking the ocean, both of the hobo jungles, the fairgrounds, the whole ball of wax.
There were few places we hadn’t been and if we heard about a new one, we’d go there first chance we got.

Aside from the tracks being a dangerous place, it was a place of adventure as well.
More than a few times we’d be hanging onto the outside of the wooden rails that were part of the railroads sewer and creek crossing mini-bridges. When the trains went by and you looked at the engine cab, you’d see the Daylight engineers waving their fist at us and if we’d been able to lip-read I’m sure we would have learned some new and interesting words.
There was nothing quite like hanging onto the bridge, passing one of the boyhood tests for bravery - or stupidity depending on your viewpoint - and having the Daylight whistle by about 3-4 feet away running maybe 60 or 70. The wind and the sound darned near took you off your feet.
The experience created darned near enough adrenaline to carry you through the rest of the week.

The big Mallet cab-forwards hauling freight would rock and roll through town touching on 60 in the daytime hours if there weren’t too many freight cars strung out behind , but most times it would be clicking off 50 or so on it’s way to 60+. The Daylight shook the ground, but it was the Mallets running hard and fast that shook the earth.

Like you’d expect, a guy or a gal could get used to it and sleep right through the noise.
In 1955 the folks bought a new house even closer to the tracks.
Right behind the back fence as a matter of fact.
Just a stones throw away as little brother found out when he and his buddy were dumb enough to toss rocks at the Daylight when it went by.
Not only the engine, but the passenger cars as well.
The railroad detective was at the house in a couple of hours, had the two of them ID’d and between them and Dad, the fear of God was instilled within them.
He’s lucky he’s not still grounded.

Sometimes the Mallets would come through at 3-4 in the morning, clicking off some ungodly speed, hauling who knows how many freight cars and having accelerated up to speed from just south of Santa Barbara and hitting Ventura wide open. And if not wide open pretty darned close to it. The house shook so bad that you’d wake up from the vibration before it got there and when the engine roared by, you had to make yourself stay in bed cuz it sounded like that old Mallet was coming right through the house.
I guess a guy can get used to anything though, but it took a few weeks before I got used to the hard running Mallets shaking the heck out of everything in the middle of the night.

Like AV8 alluded to though, the Daylights and the Sunset were class acts.
They were passenger trains that ran the coast at high speed carrying passengers in style and comfort and were like nothing known before and there’s never been anything like them since.

The pic below is an HO model of the Daylight.
Not the best pic in the world, but you can see the vivid and bright colors that were one of the best color schemes ever put on a passenger train.
The cars, all of them, baggage, post office car, sleepers and diners were all painted to match.

As much as we hung out at the tracks and as many trains, cars and engines we saw we never really got a close up view of the Daylight until the day we were running the coast, headed back from a Santa Barbara beach and saw the Daylight broke down just west of the Rincon railroad bridge which is a couple miles west of Ventura.
We were hot rod guys, but we were train buffs as well. On a small scale for sure, but, kinda hard not to be interested in them having lived next to the tracks for most of our lives.
There was nothing else to do, but bring the car down from it’s hard running 65 per - which was about 10 per over the speed limit - pull over and park.
Right across from the engine as luck would have it.

It was a short walk across the highway and up the dirt berm to the tracks so we could look the Daylight over up close and kind of personal.
We’d hoped the engineer would invite us into the cab, but it was not to be.
We were lucky that the conductor and engineer didn’t run us off and truth to tell if they’d tried we wouldn’t have gone far.

Seeing the Daylight sitting there, still and quiet, framed against the green hills of early summer late in the afternoon brings to mind a picture I can still see in my mind.
The Daylight had it all, speed, power, grace and beauty.
Even when it was standing still.

 

Part 2

We never did find out how they got the Daylight out of there, we went back the next day and it was gone.
More than likely they dispatched an engine out of L.A. and the whole shootin match was towed in.

The history of the Daylight is an interesting one and there’s some good stuff on the Internet about it.
The only other thing I’m going to point out are the engines added to the Southern Pacific roster for the war effort.
WW2 being perhaps the heyday of the railroads in America. They moved raw materials, food, war materials, weapons of all types and sizes and most important of all, they moved troops.
Lots and lots of troops.
When we were little guys, hanging out near the bluff overlooking the Pacific, every couple of hours we’d see troop trains go by just loaded down with soldiers on their way to who knows where.
We could only imagine.

There were a lot of engines and engine types added to the rosters of Americas railroads, but the most interesting one was what Southern Pacific called the War Babies.
The pic below is of an HO War Baby.
You’ll note that it is the exact same engine as the Daylight, but it’s done up in flat black paint.
Not the first time flat black covered up some serious horsepower.
The thinking behind it was; in the early stages of the war there was a genuine fear the Japanese had the capability to bomb the Southern California oil fields.
In fact, one little known, but well researched and verified story tells of a Japanese submarine surfacing and lobbing shells at the oil tanks along the Goleta coast just north of Santa Barbara.

With the fear of Japanese bombers running rampant along the coast, the thinking was the Daylights were too easy to see from the air and the war resources board - or whatever their exact name was - mandated the new passenger engines coming online for the war effort be painted flat black as a means of disguise.
I’m not sure if the brightly painted Daylights were painted flat black for the duration.
It made sense that they should have been, but it seems to me the brightly colored Daylights were still out and about.
They probably were and were now assigned to night service.

The flat black paint was some interesting thinking for sure. The coastal RR tracks were right next to the beach for a long ways. Both north of Santa Barbara, south to Ventura and south of Ventura for quite a ways..

It wouldn’t have taken much for an observant Japanese pilot to spot anything moving along the coast during the daylight hours so perhaps the flat black paint wasn’t that much of a help anyway.
And perhaps it’s an overly romanticized story.
With all the material shortages going on during the war, colored paints were probably in short supply and flat black was the easiest and cheapest way out.

When Diesels came on line, the days of steam were numbered.
We thought the early Diesel streamliners that pulled the passenger trains were pretty neat and we still had our old Mallets to watch and admire.
Sadly their days were numbered as well.

Once the diesels were in freight service and steam was gone, we lost all interest in the railroads.
It may have been growing up and maturing - if you could say we ever did that - was a natural thing and it made sense we’d drift away from a lifelong interest.
I don’t think so though.
There was something in the song the steam engines sang that struck you to the very core of your being.
The song, never again to be heard along the coast.

There was nothing quite like sailing down the coast in a 50 Ford sedan that sang its own song through the sweet sounding pipes, listening to the soft beach winds flowing through the car, a beautiful young woman beside you and best of all, racing the Daylight down the coast highway mile after mile.
No one said a word. It was enough to listen to the sounds from the powerful steam engine that was at times, less than a hundred feet away.
The car and the Daylight were a mix of sounds that were natural to the day and nothing that could ever be put together by the conductor of the best orchestra there ever was could make such music.

I’m sorry you weren’t there with us.
Memories from the past I suppose, but very good memories.

Every generation and every time has their own special things and remembrances and until AV8 mentioned the mighty Daylight I hadn’t thought much about them for a long, long time.

Like they say, you had to be there.
Even so, I hope this little trip down memory lane has you leaning back in the chair, eyes closed and hearing the sounds of a sweet running flathead spinning out its own song against the mighty resonance that came forth from the Daylight.

 

You're not the only railroad fan. Here's a crappy shot of UP 3985 sitting in Idaho Falls. Standing next to this thing is really impressive. This was the last steam train I rode and I'm happy to say this one is STILL running today for special tours and events. To give you an idea of size, I was STANDING when I took this shot.

 

Having come into this earth at about the same time the steamers were leaving, I feal deprived or like I really missed something.When my dad moved to Cleveland in 1939 he worked second shift at a machine shop.When he got off at midnight, he used to try to race The 20th Centry as it blew by on its way to Chicago as he was going home.The way he talked about that train I don't think he won to many times.

 

"I hope this little trip down memory lane has you leaning back in the chair, eyes closed and hearing the sounds of a sweet running flathead spinning out its own song against the mighty resonance that came forth from the Daylight."

As a matter of fact, it did just that, thanks.

 

The Daylight is little brother's favorite train. Dad modeled the Southern Pacific for many years in HO. I'm partial to the NYC's 20th Century Limited, myself. Dad always jokes that I like all the "fallen flags" but in reality I just think of the East Coast when I think of steam-era passenger service. Very cool, C9.

 

This pic will give you an idea how big these engines are.
I'm 6' tall.

The loco shown is a Northern, retired by Santa Fe Railroad.
The engine is a 4-8-4 which is similar in size to the Daylight and War Baby

The Northern sits in Railroad Park alongside of Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona.

 

very cool, thanks for the insight

 

While this supposed to be car stuff, I'll admit I've been a rail fan all my life. Grew up less than a block from the Pennsylvania tracks. Could see trains right out our front windows. Walked the tracks to the store, smashed vast quanities of pennies, collected discarded railroad spikes left by trackmen. Crazy about trains. I have a basement full of American Flyer and Marx toy trains now, and a 22'x11' American Flyer layout. Its my winter hobby. Yes I'm a Train Geek. Oh, and so this does tie in with traditional customizing, I did see a train hit a mild custom 50 Chevy at a grade crossing ages ago. The driver was stupid but lucky.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and so this does tie in with traditional customizing, I did see a train hit a mild custom 50 Chevy at a grade crossing ages ago. The driver was stupid but lucky.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also, Dick Scritchfield is nearly as famous in HO scale railroading circles as he is as a hot rodder.

 

Thanks C9, your narrative puts us right there with you beside the tracks feeling the power and excitement as that massive beast rolls by. There were railroad tracks in Norwich, NY where I lived when young. The tracks ran right behind our house. I can still feel the power of those engines when they went by. They were not at any high speed in the section of track where we lived, but still gave you a sense of awsome power like no other machine.

Frank

 

Jay me and the lady love trains too! We have this steam train up here that is really neat. Get a ticket for like 10 bucks and they take you on a trip through the Raineer State forest on retired old rails. It is neat when you come to a crossing and they start blowin' that ol' wistle! Me and mindy are looking into doing rides on the train and bringing our guitars so we can sing rail road songs like "The Golden Rocket" and "Orange Blossom Special". Something bout them old trains!

 

Thanks for the rememories, Mr. C9. Steam engines are the ultimate hot rods....in a way...nothing quite like them for both the visual and audible experience.

Brian

 

C9, thanks for bringing this up. I was fortunate enough growing up to have a friend who's dad was in the National Railway Historical Society, and who owned his own passenger cars. So, he was always asked to "borrow" his cars. We got to go on some cool trips, 2 of which were behind steam power. One was 611, a "J" class Norfolk & Western, the other was a Frisco 484 in Wisconsin. There just isn't a way to describe a steam engine in motion. You just have to feel it.

We're also fortunate that in the Detroit area, we have two places to go to get a steam fix. Greenfield Village, and Crossroads Village in Flint. I'll be there in 2 weeks, they put on a really nice Christmas Light show.

Thanks again, I can picture the plume of smoke, the smell of coal burning and the sense of raw power...

Jay

 

Jay......your post brought back a lot of memories.
In my Dad's boat,floating under the Nickle Plate bridge that crosses over the Huron River,as a fully loaded Nickle Plate Road would ramble across overhead. The coal trains,from southern Ohio and Kentucky, were heading out to be unloaded onto coal barges. Mostly just Mikado's and Birkshire's around here till they were replaced by the EMD's. Thanks for the memories.

 

Hey Cheese...is that your 56?????