Introduction to WP Passenger Operations
Regular scheduled through passenger service on the Western
Pacific was inaugurated on August 22, 1910 by trains designated
simply as
Numbers 3 and 4. Publicizing this beginning of passenger
service was the Press Representative Special which pulled out of the
WP’s Oakland Mole at 9 p.m. on the evening of August 17, 1910
traveling eastbound arriving at Salt Lake City, Utah shortly after 1
p.m. in the afternoon on August 19. The special left Salt Lake City
at 7:00 a.m. Saturday, August 20 running as Extra 104 West and
arriving at the Oakland, California Third Street station as Extra 92
West at 4:15 p.m. August 22.
From that momentous and long-awaited date in 1910 to the sad day of
March 22, 1970 when the California Zephyr made its last run, the
Western Pacific provided continuous through passenger service
between Oakland and Salt Lake City.
Early passenger equipment while lettered Western Pacific was
actually leased from the Denver and Rio Grande with observation and
sleeping cars coming from the Pullman Company pool. Western Pacific
would not own any passenger equipment until 1915 when five Baggage,
Mail and Express cars were purchased from American Car and Foundry.
Progress played an important role in the history of passenger
service on Western Pacific. With dimly lighted cars, hard to open or
close windows, uncomfortable seating, and air conditioning that was
either a little or a lot those early trains seemed ancient compared
to the modern BUDD built cars of the California Zephyr. The first
transcontinental trains on Western Pacific were not true through
trains but through cars that were added to trains of the connecting
roads beyond Salt Lake City. Progress had made train travel both
comfortable and convenient.
Western Pacific’s route to Chicago was originally via the Denver &
Rio Grande’s Royal Gorge route which was 400 miles longer than the
Overland Route used by the Central Pacific and Union Pacific. 175
miles would be saved with the opening of the Dotsero Cutoff which
connected the Moffat Tunnel route of the Denver and Salt Lake
Railway with the lines of the Denver & Rio Grande east of Grand
Junction, Colorado. True transcontinental passenger service came to
WP in 1939 with the advent of the Exposition Flyer.
Name trains on Western Pacific over the years included the
Panama-Pacific Express (named for the Panama Pacific Exposition),
Scenic Limited, Exposition Flyer (named for the San Francisco
International Exposition), Feather River Express, Royal Gorge,
Zephyrette, and of course the California Zephyr.