TRAINS

Benjamin Gaines, 93, worked as a Pullman porter from 1945 to 1954. “The porters, believe it or not, we had a celebrity status,” he said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. (Cover Photo: CW: Janet Leigh, star of Hitchcock’s PSYCHO boarding the Super Chief in fashion layout; Porter during ... Read More »

Bullitt is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film. San Francisco was featured in the film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D’Antoni. The film stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. Bullitt opened in fall 1968, with a San Francisco premier and had a long run ... Read More »

The Santa Fe launched the San Francisco Chief in June 1954. The new California Express streamliner ran daily between San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Chicago.  Pullman and Chair Car accommodations were featured, plus Dining Cars, Dome and Pullman Lounge cars traveling via Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Kansas City, ... Read More »

LOS ANGELES — Getting to Las Vegas from Los Angeles has always been problematic. Flying is fast but expensive. Driving is cheap but slow. In just a few years, however, there will be another option: a train that will whisk visitors across California and into Nevada in half as long ... Read More »

The City of Las Vegas was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Union Pacific Railroad between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles, California from 1956 until 1968. It operated from 1956 to 1968. It was one of several trains to operate with the experimental General Motors Aerotrain, although this experiment was ... Read More »

The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train in the 1940s, 50s, and early 1960s. It hugged the Pacific Ocean with great views. Linking Los Angeles and San Francisco on a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred ... Read More »

“Elvis who?” On the threshold of fame, Elvis took the train. Photographer Alfred Wertheimer recalls uttering that very question in early 1956. A publicist from RCA Victor Records had contacted him, asking if he was available to photograph a young singer named Elvis Presley. “I’d never heard of the man,” ... Read More »

Southern Pacific’s deluxe all-Pullman streamliner Lark was the premiere overnight passenger between San Francisco and Los Angeles. A favorite of businessmen and movie stars. The Oakland Lark connected with the Lark at San Jose then via San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara to Southern California along the coast route. The Lark ... Read More »

Pullman porters were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars.[1] Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry passengers’ baggage, shine shoes, set up and maintain the sleeping berths, ... Read More »

David Bowie, who starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, had a long-standing fear of flying. Bowie sailed aboard Cunard’s QE 2, the Italian Line’s Leonardo da Vinci, P&O-Orient Line’s Oronsay and Canberra along with many other ships.   So while other superstars would take the Concorde or ... Read More »