South Pacific Coast
Parlor Cars

Compiled by Randy Hees

The South Pacific Coast owned two parlor cars. These were used both as officer's cars and as deluxe cars on scheduled passenger trains. The stories surround these cars are legendary.... Hog Davis, the President of the SPC kept the cars stocked with McKenna's and cigars for his inspection trips while the line was being built. Later they were attached to the regular passenger runs, and were open to anyone willing to pay the extra charge. SPC even had a "frequent rider" program which gave free parlor car upgrades to regular riders.

Both cars arrived in 1879. Under Jim Fair's ownership they were both in use constantly. At least one was used in the consist of the daily Santa Cruz express. The cars were regularly used for special trains including the Stanford - Huntington special of 1886 on which the sale of the SPC to the SP was negotiated. Other famous passengers included the Vanderbilts, John Rockefeller, and the cars even hosted at least three Presidents of the United States, Benjamin Harrison in 1891, William McKinley in 1901 and Teddy Rosevelt in 1903. By the turn of the century it appears that they were only used for special trains, one may have even been in storage at Newark, awaiting disposal.

The best photo of the cars shows them on the San Lorenzo bridge in about 1885. The photo can be found in Bruce MacGregor's A Centenial, South Pacific Coast on page 279.

The Cars

"Santa Cruz," car 1, car 81 (1903), Built by Jackson & Sharp in 1879 at a cost of $6,460 (that's twice what the Carter Brothers were charging for a duckbill coach). Santa Cruz was 42' long, had 7 sets of paired windows, Board and Batten siding and were the first passenger cars on the railroad to have the more modern monitor roof. Originally the car only carried a name, but in April 1899 it became parlor car 1 (* see note below). Again in 1903 it was renumbered, this time in the coach series of numbers as 81. The car was retained by the SPC until the end of narrow gauge operations, being transferred to the Nevada & California as car 17 on August 9, 1909. The N&C probably never ran the car and it may never have been on the railroad. The N&C leased the car to the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Company where it was numbered 17. When the LTRy&TCo was standard gauged in 1927 the car was parked in a dead line at Holbart. The Official Record states the car was scrapped at Mina Nevada in 1927, but photographs suggest it was probably burned at Hobart in the late 30's.

"San Francisco" car 2, Built by Jackson & Sharp in 1879, it was identical to "Santa Cruz." It was became parlor 2 in 1899. Car 2 was last used on a north bound passenger train on November 19, 1902 ending it's run at the Alameda Mole. Early on the morning of 20th the Mole caught fire and burned destroying 42 railroad cars including car "San Francisco." Surprisingly the official car record says the car was "broken up 2-23-02"


* The South Pacific Coast had at least 6 pieces of equipment numbered 1... A Locomotive, a Coach, a Baggage car, a Caboose, a Parlor car, and a Flat car. Renumbering the Parlor car from parlor 1 to coach 81 may indicate a change of status, or it could simply be a case of simplifying the roster.

Back to The Roster's or return to "The Birth of California's Narrow Gauge" page

Copyright Randy Hees, 1996

Page created by: hees@ix.netcom.com
Changes last made on: Fri Jul 26 17:47:35 1996